Customer Reviews

Stuck in the Middle

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It may have taken a decade for Gerry Rafferty to come to terms with his past (his classic "Baker Street" was about meeting Joe Egan several years post-Wheel breakdown), but "The Best Of Stealers Wheel" will rekindle the flame for anyone who puzzled over originally hearing "Stuck In The Middle With You." Thanks to some more obsessive fans (Quentin Tarrentino has used both "Stuck" and "Star" in his movies), Stealers Wheel has held on to their cult audience. This "Best Of" is the definitive collection, being the first to include "Stuck In The Middle With You," "Star" and "Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine," Stealers Wheel's three charting American Singles.

The US got tricked by the Wheel back in 1973. A single with a lyric that sounded torn from Bob Dylan's back pages and harmonies that mirrored CSN&Y climbed into the Top Ten. "Stuck In The Middle With You" was an immediate classic, and the brains behind Stealers Wheel suddenly found themselves turned into overnight success stories. Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan had been kicking about England for several years (Rafferty had cut a solo album and recorded with folk rockers the Humblebums before forming Stealers Wheel), and the group had already been signed, broken up and reformed before the first album came out.

That debut, a delicious mix of English folk harmony and Beatlesque pop, contained several great songs. These included "You Put Something Better Inside Of Me" and "I Get By." Produced by the legendary Lieber/Stoller team (writers and producers for the likes of Elvis Presley, Ben E King and The Coasters), the album had a clean and uncanny sense of craft. Unfortunately, Rafferty and Egan were a volatile pair. They had broken up again before starting the second album, then reformed and promptly fired the then current Wheel line-up to proceed as a Steely Dan like studio entity, recording "Ferguslie Park" with session hands.

Another pair of minor hits came off that album, the deceptively disillusioned "Star" and the more optimistic "Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine," and the FM radio staple "Good Businessman." But the tension between the two escalated. It led to a terrific and unheralded third album, "Right Or Wrong," before the duo splintered for good. That swan song yielded a couple great tunes here, in particular the title track and "Benediction," as well as the music hall sound of "Found My Way To You."

Also worth noting, both the debut and "Ferguslie Park" are back in print, on CD for the first time.

Folks, these are not the original recordings- they are remakes. I was burned because the :30 preview for "Star" is so close to the sound of the original that it fooled me. If you want the original singles, go with one of the UMG compilation offerings. YOU WILL BE DISAPPOINTED with the tracks on this album.

Compiled from their three albums of the early 70's, this actually turned out to be quite a fine piece of pop music. I purchased this CD based on my appreciation for "Stuck in the Middle with You" but soon found that it turned out to be one of the weaker numbers on the compilation. Complete with slide guitar, harmonica, violins, jangly piano, this is certainly a band that has the rock-country-folk sound down to a science. Virtually every song is a winner. Some of the standouts, in my opinion, include "This Morning", "Star", "Steamboat Row" and "Go As You Please". It's mellow, but also includes a couple tunes that can get you up and dancing. Gerry Rafferty has never really broken through as a big talent and it's a bit curious as to why he hasn't. Certain alt-country bands of the 90's sound quite a bit derivative. It's easy now to see where some of their influences have come from. If you're a fan of Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, or Slobberbone, you might want to give this disc a spin.

"Stealers wheel" may not be a name recognised by the general public..but if given a listen-there are some clear cut gems here! 'stuck in the middle' is the hit of this cd-but its just the beginning of a great polished sound! other highlites include-'star', right or wrong', walltz,stealin', steamboat row, ect..this band also featured the talents of GERRY RAFFERTY(who later on recorded "baker street' and right down the line. AMAZING harmonies, musicianship and craft(joe eagan) and other quality musicians.

"Stealers Wheel: The Hits Collection" is a generously filled CD of the best of Stealers Wheel. Calling it a "hits" collection seems a bit odd as most people are only familiar with 1972's "Stuck in the Middle With You": indeed, their only hit that made it to the top 10. But don't let that scare you off as this CD stands as proof that this group recorded some of the most accessible, guitar driven pop of the early '70s. Often referred to as the UK's answer to Crosby Stills and Nash because of their tight harmonies I've always thought the group sounded more like the Beatles or Badfinger.

During its short life Stealers Wheel released 3 LPs between 1973 and 1975 and due to constant in-fighting and uncertainty about the bands future, only the first LP, 1973's Stealers Wheel, was properly marketed and managed. It made it to the top 50 in the US and Polygram's Spectrum Music has included 7 of the 10 tracks from the debut here including "Stuck..." and other essentials like "Late Again" and "You Put Something Better Inside Me".

1974 found the group reduced to Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan (after Egan persuaded Rafferty to return to the fold) and the release of the excellent Ferguslie Park. The album didn't even crack the top 100 but the material represents the group at its artistic peak and contains standout tracks such as "Star", "Blind Faith", "Good Businessman", and "Everything Will Turn Out Fine", all featuring the groups signature harmonies and hooks. (6 of the 12 tracks from "Ferguslie Park" are included here.)

By the time Right or Wrong was released in 1975 the personal and artistic differences between Rafferty and Egan caused another split and ended the group for good. Not surprisingly the album failed to do well which is a shame as again there is great material here: "Benediction", "Found My Way to You", the title track and two others are included here.

So while Stealers Wheel only recorded 32 tracks for their 3 LPs more than half are included on this bargain CD. There is another compilation available The Very Best of Stealers Wheel which duplicates 14 of the 18 tracks included here and subsitutes four: gone are "Good Businessman", "Waltz (You Know It Makes Sense)", "Wishbone", "Nothin's Gonna Change My Mind". In their place you'll find the three remaining tracks from the debut including the excellent "Outside Looking In" and haunting "Who Cares" from "Ferguslie Park". I prefer this compilation as it includes more tracks from the 2nd and 3rd LPs and it's much less. Of course if you have the $ to spend all 3 LPs are currently available as reissued imports. Nice, but pricey.

While you're exploring you might wish to look further into Rafferty's solo career as well. The import compilation Baker Street includes some of his finest post-Wheel material including "Baker Street", "Right Down the Line", "The Royal Mile (Sweet Darlin')", "Days Gone Down (Still Got the Light in Your Eyes)", and "Get It Right Next Time". I prefer it over the US Right Down the Line: The Best of Gerry Rafferty: which includes a remixed version of "Baker Street" and completely omits "Royal Mile" and "Days Gone Down". (Both collections omit the hit "Home and Dry" - what's behind that?)

Amazon in its infinite wisdom (like they do for most stuff) has combined reviews for a couple of different collections of Stealers Wheels releases. Avoid the 8 track K-Tel version as it has some re-recordings that DON'T feature Gerry Rafferty. If you want to get a solid collection of Stealers Wheel's three albums the Spectrum release "Stuck in the Middle with You: The Hits Collection" with 18 tracks is the way to go as it generously samples all three Stealers Wheel albums (if you can get collect the original albums on good sounding vinyl or CDs that would be the way to go though).

This was recently reissued due to Gerry Rafferty's death at the beginning of 2011.

Opening with the band's biggest hit "Stuck in the Middle with You" (written about dealing with executives of the music business although it was vague enough to be interpreted a variety of ways) and followed by their other hit written by the other member of Stealers Wheel Joe Egan "Star" (a should have been hit separates them "Everything'll Turn Out Fine")the only flaw of the album is the sequencing--while it works for the most part a chronological sequencing would have worked better (and you can resequence it yourself if you feel that way).

It would have been nice if the set had extensive sleeve notes on the band but we do get a complete credits for each song which is a step up compared to other compilations. The sound quality on this compilation is pretty good.

Stealers Wheel was a woefully unappreciated band and it's a pity the pressurs of generating another hit single caused the band to implode because Rafferty and Egan had huge potential together. If you're interested in picking up the band's full discography they are/were available on the Lemon label.

Recommended.

WARNING: THESE ARE RE-RECORDINGS ... and not very good ones either ... why in the world can folks market something like this without explicitly saying they are RE-RECORDINGS instead of remastered ... if you are looking for the originals, you will be (or should be) very disappointed ... this is pretty sad IMO ...

The CD "Stuck in the Middle with You" by K-Tel records contains RE-RECORDINGS of several Stealers Wheel songs, one Joe Egan solo song, and two 'new' songs ("Let it Ride" sounds like it could have been an unused song from back when). However, the original vocalists/songwriters Gerry Rafferty [rest in peace] and Joe Egan are not present. BUYER BEWARE!

"After being contacted by iTunes and K-tel records in California, Tony Williams re-formed Stealers Wheel in Blackpool in 2008 with two other original band members, Rod Coombes and Paul Pilnick, together with locally based musician and songwriter Tony Mitchell. On 10 November 2008 they started filming a music video for a re-release of "Stuck in the Middle" on the Fylde coast. They also began writing songs for an album due to have been released in 2009, although they have no plans to go on tour."

I REALLY LIKE JUST ONE OF THE SONGS ON THIS ONE HIT WONDER. WHEN ONE OF THE GUYS FROM THE BAND DIED, I FELT I OWED IT TO THEM TO ADD THIS ALBUM WITH IT'S ONE GREAT SONG TO MY COLLECTION OF CD'S. WHEN SELLERS HAVE NEW CD'S AT SUCH A LOW PRICE, IT IS EASY AND AFFORDABLE TO PICK UP A CD THAT IS BRAND NEW BUT VERY REASONABLE IN PRICE.

Hey if you haven't bought a copy of Stealer's Wheel's Greatest Hits yet, well "Stuck In The Middle" is your album. It has all the major hits on it, "Stuck In The Middle", their big US hit is there, so is "Benediction" as well as "Everything Will Turn Out Fine", as well as my favorite, "Late Again" There's not much new here that you won't find on the domestic copies of their Greatest Hits. It's a good album but not great. The thing that I do like about this album is that I record all my music In a little higher quality and this is where this album sounds good. You notice this on "Blind Faith", the piano sounds great and you can actually hear the backup vocals. So if you like good quality and a nice mix on your music, check out "Stuck In The Middle" a nice little Stealers Wheel disc, and the nice part I saved for last is that at Amazon you can usually find it at a good price.