Jerry Leiber was not only a superb songwriter and producer but also an extremely funny, droll wit of the highest order. I had the honor to know him a little and his humor and his generosity of spirit were exemplary and uplifting.
Reading about the death of Gerry Rafferty -- whom you know if you turned on a radio once in the late '70s -- was like poring over the news of someone Dickens might have conjured up.