AMG Review of Can I Have My Money Back? The Best of Gerry Rafferty

Thom Jurek
All Music Guide

How can you have a Gerry Rafferty best-of without "Baker Street"? Apparently, Rafferty and Castle Records in the U.K. think it can be done very easily. This single-disc contains 25 cuts that range from the acoustic British blues to blissed-out folk-pop to easy, smooth rockers, all done in that beautiful unwavering tenor voice and with killer acoustic guitar work. There's the working class "New Street Blues," the yearning "Where I Belong," the lonesome "Steamboat Row," and the deeply moving "Blood and Glory." There is a quality in Rafferty's voice that is almost otherworldly in that while his lyrics are deeply rooted to the earth and the lives of everyday people, there is also a winsome feel to the way he delivers them. When one hears 25 cuts by an artist and wants more, they know they've been delivered the "best-of" indeed.