MATTIE'S RAG

MATTIE'S RAG by Gerry Rafferty.

Here's how this blogging lark goes: sometimes we look at the music and think we'll never pick anything worth posting, and sometimes there's a flipping embarrassment of riches. This week we're feeling blessed. I've got some amazing Peruvian pop music lined up; Amy is planning a J-pop week that will be awesome if we can secure the right mp3s; some killer Stones covers, some drinking songs, some Ottoman military marches, and on and on.

So we flipped a coin and decided to continue with the jukebox theme a little bit this week. As a man of many useless talents, I'm pretty good at picking radio hits from the 70s languishing on the jukeboxes of the dive bars of New York. Like Little River Band at the Village Idiot (RIP), .38 Special at Milady's, Jeannie C. Riley at Doc Holliday's, Cliff Richard at Muldoon's, and on and on. Oh, and Gerry Rafferty at Molly's.

Most people know a little Gerry Rafferty. Inevitably there's Stuck In The Middle With You, but also Baker Street, with the greatest sax in the universe. Most people don't know, though, that Baker Street is on a great, great album called "City To City." I spent about 4 years looking for it on somebody's recommendation, and finally found it in a dumpy CD reseller in Toronto.

This is all a long-winded way of saying that this song Mattie's Rag is on "City To City," and more people should here it, because it's catchy, Irishy, & worth a quarter in the bar if you ever find it.

LISTEN.

Photo: I love the classics.