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Also known simply as "Stuck In The Middle", this Stealers Wheel classic was co-written by the group's guitarist Gerry Rafferty and keyboard player Joe Egan.
In his obituary of Rafferty for the January 5, 2011 issue of the Daily Telegraph, Martin Chilton said of this song that it was
"Written as a parody of Bob Dylan’s paranoia, it ridiculed a music industry cocktail party, with the lyrics:
'Clowns to the left of me,
jokers to the right,
here I am, stuck in the middle with you.'
To Rafferty's utter disbelief his parody, composed as little more than a joke but with a catchy pop arrangement, struck gold, selling more than a million copies. The song reached a new generation of listeners when Quentin Tarantino used it in the notorious ear-slicing scene in his 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs."
Commenting to the BBC shortly after Rafferty's death, music industry pundit Paul Gambaccini echoed Chilton's sentiments about the song. (thanks, Alexander Baron - London, England)
This was the group's first album. After 2 more albums, Rafferty went on to a solo career and had a hit with "
Baker Street." He was replaced by Luther Grosvenor from the band Spooky Tooth.x
This played a big part in Quentin Tarantino's 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs, where a sadistic character played by Michael Madsen tunes in a radio station that begins playing this song, then proceeds to mutilate a police officer he is holding hostage. Tarantino recalled to Rolling Stone his use of this song: "That was one of those things where I thought [the song] would work really well, and [during] auditions, I told the actors that I wanted them to do the torture scene, and I'm gonna use 'Stuck in the Middle With You,' but they could pick anything they wanted, they didn't have to use that song. And a couple people picked another one, but almost everyone came in with 'Stuck in the Middle With You,' and they were saying that they tried to come up with something else, but that's the one. The first time somebody actually did the torture scene to that song, the guy didn't even have a great audition, but it was like watching the movie. I was thinking, 'Oh my God, this is gonna be awesome!'"
This was produced by the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. They wrote many hit songs, including "
Hound Dog" and "On Broadway."
In 2001 former Eternal singer Louise had a #4 hit in the UK with her cover version.
Comments (52):
Steve Forbert - "Romeo's Tune"
"Let me smell the moon in your perfume..." It took a rough mix and an extra verse, but Steve found his "calling card" song, which is
always the encore.
Don Felder
Don breaks down "Hotel California" and other songs he wrote as a member of the Eagles. Now we know where the "warm smell of colitas" came from.
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http://youtu.be/wZnNS1iNuDM
kirk, fredericksburg, virginia
That scene is so disturbing, with horrific violence being committed while this upbeat song with the handclap percussion section and Gerry's nice little bluesy guitar thrown in, and the perpetrator dancing along while doing it.
Sad to say, Gerry Rafferty is gone now, but his two major hits will be here for decades to come.
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/gerry-raffertys-baker-street-blues-rolling-stones-1978-feature-20110104
"Well you started off with nothing
And you're proud that you're a self-made man
And your friends they all come crawling
Slap you on the back and say
Please, please".
Good pub trivia question.
There is also a dutch famous country/rock singer Ilse DeLange who did the song in the dutch stadium Ahoy in Rotterdam. This version is to be found on YouTube. Though I am a big fan of Ilse, I prefer Sue's version.
It was 1966!
If you have a reference, please list it... I would love to hear that version.
Secondly the last time I heard the song of Cheryl Crow "All I wanna do" I realised that the background music is very simulant but "Stuck in the middle with you" is much better.