Stealers Wheel - Leaving It All Behind (1978)

Having a massive hit single can be both a blessing and also a curse, especially if circumstances conspire to make it pretty much the only thing you're ever known for. Stealers Wheel were a fairly successful band in the 70's, with a few hits under their belt, until Quentin Tarrantino decided to use their' Stuck In The Middle With You' in his 1992 film 'Reservoir Dogs', and from that point on it's as if they'd never recorded anything else. In actual fact that's not even my favourite songs of theirs, with a number of other tracks on their first two albums outshining it. But that's by the by, as this album looks at the other end of their career, in the mid to late 70's.
Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty met as teenagers in Paisley, and in 1972 they became the core of Stealers Wheel, being originally joined by Roger Brown, Rab Noakes and Ian Campbell. By the time the band signed to A&M Records later that year, Brown, Noakes and Campbell had been replaced by Paul Pilnick, Tony Williams and Rod Coombes. 'Stealers Wheel' was released in 1972, and a production by famed US songwriters and producers Leiber & Stoller helped it become a critical and commercial success, although by the time the album was released Rafferty had left the band, and Luther Grosvenor was employed to fill in for him on the subsequent tour. He was persuaded to return after the success of the debut album, but the rest of the band left soon afterwards, leaving Egan and Rafferty as the core duo of Stealers Wheel. Their second album 'Ferguslie Park' (named after an area of Paisley) was released in 1973, and although it was deemed a commercial failure, it's my favourite of their records. With increasing tensions between Egan and Rafferty, and with Leiber & Stoller also having business problems, Stealers Wheel were on the rocks, and by the time their third album 'Right Or Wrong' came out in 1975 they'd already disbanded.
Due to complicated legal issues following the break-up, neither Rafferty nor Egan were allowed to release any material until the problems were resolved in 1978, although I'm sure they were both stockpiling songs and just waiting until they could record and release them. But here's the What If.......what if, during their enforced hiatus from the music scene, they rekindled their friendship, to the point where they agreed to reform Stealers Wheel and make a new album. They could both have brought their best songs to the table, and the resulting album might very well have sounded like this, featuring the most SW-sounding songs from each artist's first solo album after the break. It's sequenced so that each artist has a fair share of the writing duties, and to my ears I think this sounds even better than their official third album.   

Track listing

01 The Ark
02 Why Let It Bother You
03 Stealin' Time
04 Freeze
05 Whatever's Written In Your Heart
06 No Time For Sorrow
07 Leaving It All Behind
08 Waiting For The Day
09 Out Of Nowhere