Editing Gerry Rafferty (section)

==Early years==
[[Image:Foxbar Paisley Renfrewshire.jpg|thumb|left|[[Foxbar]] in Paisley, Renfrewshire, where Rafferty grew up]]
Rafferty was born in 1947 into a working-class family of [[Irish Catholic]] origin in Underwood Lane in [[Paisley, Renfrewshire|Paisley]],<ref name="Scotsman1"/> a son and grandson of coal miners.<ref name="rollingstone78">{{cite magazine|title=Gerry Rafferty's 'Baker Street' Blues: Rolling Stone's 1978 Feature|magazine=Rolling Stone|date=24 August 1978|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/gerry-raffertys-baker-street-blues-rolling-stones-1978-feature-20110104|access-date=28 August 2017|archive-date=10 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710125737/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/gerry-raffertys-baker-street-blues-rolling-stones-1978-feature-20110104|url-status=live}}</ref> A son of Joseph Rafferty and Mary Skeffington,<ref name="G obit">{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jan/04/gerry-rafferty-obituary|title=Gerry Rafferty obituary|last=Gray|first=Michael|date=4 January 2011|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|access-date=5 January 2011|location=London|archive-date=11 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411103205/https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jan/04/gerry-rafferty-obituary|url-status=live}}</ref> he had two brothers.<ref name="T obit"/>

Rafferty grew up in a [[council house]] in the town's [[Ferguslie Park]], in Underwood Lane, and was educated at [[St Mirin's Academy]].<ref name="T obit"/> His Irish-born father, an alcoholic, was a miner and lorry driver who died when Rafferty was 16.<ref name="G obit"/> Rafferty learned both [[Music of Ireland#Traditional music|Irish]] and [[Music of Scotland#Folk music|Scottish folk songs]] as a boy. He recalled: "My father was Irish, so growing up in Paisley I was hearing all these songs when I was two or three. Songs like [[She Moved Through the Fair|'She Moves Through the Fair']], which my mother sings beautifully. And a whole suite of Irish traditional songs and Scots traditional songs".<ref name="irwin" /><ref name="kilbride" /> Heavily influenced by folk music and the music of [[the Beatles]] and [[Bob Dylan]], Rafferty started to write his own material.<ref name="T obit">{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/8239825/Gerry-Rafferty.html |title=Music Obituaries: Gerry Rafferty |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=4 January 2011 |access-date=4 January 2011 |location=London |archive-date=7 January 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110107102052/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/8239825/Gerry-Rafferty.html |url-status=live }}</ref>