Whose House Is It Anyway?

Album: Can I Have My Money Back? (1971)
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Songfacts®:

  • This Gerry Rafferty/Julian Littman composition runs to 4 minutes 31 seconds, and includes a voice-over in Italian. In a 2003 interview with Janis Forsyth of BBC Radio Scotland, Rafferty explained how it came about. It was, he said, a tongue-in-cheek commentary on celebrity culture that was inspired by a party at a very large house in Rome where one night, he found himself rubbing shoulders with a lot of people from the fashion world, film industry and music business.
  • The song includes the line: "Did you see Bob Dylan? He was singing for the Pope."

    Rafferty said that back at his hotel he turned on the TV to find Dylan giving a concert in Vatican Square; he was dressed like a cowboy. On another channel was an elderly Pope who looked like he was asleep in his chair. Rafferty found the juxtaposition hilarious. Dylan actually performed for the Pope at Bologna in 1997. >>
    Suggestion credit:
    Alexander Baron - London, England, for above 2

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