Gerry Rafferty - Early Years

Early Years

Rafferty was born on 16 April 1947 into a working-class family in the Underwood Lane in Paisley, a son and grandson of coal miners. He was a son of Mary Skeffington and Joseph Rafferty (died 1963 when Gerry was 16 years old); and had two brothers, Jim and Joe (died 1995). Rafferty grew up in a council house on the town’s Foxbar estate and was educated at St Mirin's Academy. His Irish-born father, a violent alcoholic, was a miner and lorry driver who died when Rafferty was 16. His mother was Irish/Scottish and taught him both Irish and Scottish folk songs as a boy: "My father was Irish so growing up in Paisley I was hearing all these songs when I was two or three. Songs like 'She Moves Through the Fair', which my mother sings beautifully. And a whole suite of Irish traditional songs and Scots traditional songs." Heavily influenced by folk music and the music of The Beatles and Bob Dylan, the young Rafferty started to write his own material.