Old Enough to Forget

Sleepwalking is one of my favourite albums ever. Released in 1982, Sleepwalking was a marked departure from his previous album, Snakes and Ladders , and the ones before that. So many people think of Gerry as a one-hit wonder because of "Baker Street" from 1978's City to City , and I suppose, depending on where you were, this was sort of true. But I remember a number of songs from his first few records getting radio play when I was a much younger man. I was on a train in 1982, travelling back from a youth conference or something, when my friend Gerry - who had (and may still have) great taste in music - had a cassette copy of Sleepwalking and insisted I listen to it because it was awesome. Being a fan already, I listened to the first few songs, and gone were the folk elements; instead, the songs were laden with synthesisers. But it wasn't like he was trying to be Trio or Gary Numan - this was still unmistakably Gerry Rafferty. It was indeed awesome. I think I said so...