"Clowns to the left of me
Jokers to the right, here I am
Stuck in the middle with you"
Stealers Wheel was one of those rare bands with success on AM that caused you to buy the disappointing album, substandard not because it was too light, but because the songs were not quite as good as the ones Gerry Rafferty would write as a solo act thereafter. Unfortunately, by that time A&M had lost Gerry Rafferty and his gigantic hit "Baker Street" was released on United Artists.
"Baker Street" is one of those smash hits that you only hear once but have to hear again, the kind you never quite burn out on, that fires on all cylinders, that works melodically, lyrically and instrumentally. As for the last point, Raphael Ravenscroft's sax was so indelible on the airwaves that he was rewarded with his own solo album, that stiffed.
"You used to think that it was so easy
You used to say that it was so easy
But you're trying, you're trying now"
Gerry Rafferty would not have won on a TV show, because those competitions are looking for generic, whereas what succeeds in music is the unique. You know it's Rafferty, the understated softness, yet with emotion, his voice is rich and you do not need to be beaten over the head to get its soul.
So, "Baker Street" is one of those cuts that never leaves the airwaves, you hear it on oldie stations, but it's almost fifty years old, and now they have oldie stations that focus on classic hip-hop.
But "Stuck in the Middle with You" got a renaissance, just like "Don't Stop Believin'." Journey was a band of its era, the eighties, and it was fading in the rearview mirror until David Chase employed the aforementioned track in the finale of "The Sopranos" and now it's a national staple.
Same deal with "Stuck in the Middle with You," albeit with not quite as much fame. However, Quentin Tarantino is considered to be the foremost filmmaker of the last three decades, and unlike his predecessors, he pushes the envelope. Spielberg is a technician, Scorsese is about feel, but it's Tarantino that jumbles it all up, who is unworried about linearity, and somehow leaves you with an encapsulation of an era or a feeling or... You see we remember the phenomena.
And "Pulp Fiction" was a phenomenon, but if you were hip to QT before that, you saw "Reservoir Dogs," and if you became hip to him thereafter, you went back to "Reservoir Dogs," which had the rare marriage of violence and humor, embodied foremost in the scene wherein Mr. Blonde, aka Michael Madsen, proceeds to slash a prisoner to "Stuck in the Middle with You." Mr. Blonde turns on the radio, whips out a straight edge razor, starts dancing around, joyously, in the groove, and then attacks. Is Mr. Blonde a sociopath? Or is it about the lyric? Or does it illustrate the thin line between normalcy and violence? I'll leave it to you. But one thing is for sure, once you've seen it you'll never forget it.
Which is why "Stuck in the Middle with You" is now a cultural staple.
(If for some reason you're out of the loop, you can see it here:
bit.ly/2yiAyBd)
So, what started out as a period piece, about a party, became the national condition, trotted out whenever you feel part of a group, but that group feels lost, and powerless.
Like now.
I'm stuck in the middle with you.
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