Joe Egan, the creative partner of Gerry Rafferty in Stealers Wheel, died at 77 on July 6.
Egan co-wrote the band’s most popular song, “Stuck in the Middle With You,” which became a Top 10 hit in both the U.S. and the U.K. in 1973 – reaching No. 6 in the Billboard Hot 100 – before a resurgence as a result of its use in 1992 movie Reservoir Dogs.
“Very sad news that the other half of Stealers Wheel, Joe Egan, passed away peacefully yesterday afternoon with his nearest and dearest around him,” read a post on Rafferty’s official Facebook page, run by his daughter, Martha. “I will always remember him as a sweet and gentle soul. May he rest in peace.”
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Egan and Rafferty formed folk-rock band Stealers Wheel in their hometown of Paisley, Scotland, in 1972. By the time their self-titled debut album had been released the same year, Rafferty had already left.
The success of “Stuck in the Middle” was a factor in his return; but while critically acclaimed, they failed to achieve commercial success. The band split after two more albums, 1973’s Ferguslie Park and 1975’s Right or Wrong. A brief reunion took place in 2008, but neither Egan nor Rafferty – who died in 2011 – took part.
Egan went on to release two solo albums, Out of Nowhere in 1979 and Map two years later. He left the music industry sometime in the ‘90s and was reported to be running a publishing business from his home near Paisley.
Speaking just after Rafferty’s death, Egan told the Paisley Daily Express: “We lived in each other’s pockets for so long and, latterly, would speak regularly on the phone. Gerry was around six months older than me and was also a year above at school. I was always interested in music, like Gerry, but I was also into football in a big way and at one stage I’d hoped to make it as a player.
Stealers Wheel’s Joe Egan Hoped to Be Soccer Player
“But when it became clear that I thought I was better than I actually was, I threw myself headfirst into my music. That’s when Gerry and I first got together. … We [later] formed Stealers Wheel along with Rab Noakes and an American guy called Roger Brown, but the lineup changed over time and at the end it was just Gerry and I who recorded the last two albums.”
Referring to the fact that the pair had remained in contact but never reunited, Egan said: “Like everyone else, I suppose we had our fallouts because we spent so much time living in each others’ pockets.”
Watch Stealers Wheel perform ‘Stuck in the Middle With You’
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Gallery Credit: Allison Rapp
