Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street

This song is one of the best pop singles of the 1970s. It was on the album City To City. This was Rafferty’s first release after the breakup of his former band Stealer’s Wheel. Rafferty had been unable to release any material due to disputes about the band’s remaining contractual recording obligations, and his friend’s Baker Street flat was a convenient place to stay as he tried to remove himself from his Stealers Wheel contracts. It was his second solo album, the first being Can I Have My Money Back? released in 1971.

Rafferty’s daughter Martha later said that the book The Outsider by Colin Wilson also heavily inspired the song. Rafferty was reading the book, which explores ideas of alienation and creativity while traveling between the two cities.

The first thing you notice about the song is the sax solo. Raphael Ravenscroft played the solo. Rafferty wrote the song with an instrumental break but didn’t have a specific instrument in mind. The producer, Hugh Murphy, suggested a saxophone, so they brought in Ravenscroft to play it. He was only paid £27 for his sax contribution. One urban legend about this is that the check bounced. Ravenscroft has confirmed that it didn’t bounce.

The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #3 in the UK, and #4 in New Zealand in 1978. It won the 1979 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. The album City to City peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #6 in New Zealand, and #6 in the UK.

In 2011, Ravenscroft said that he thought the solo was out of tune. He admitted he was “gutted” when he heard it played back. Apparently, he had not been able to re-record the take, as he was not involved when the song was mixed.

Raphael Ravenscroft: I’m irritated because it’s out of tune; yeah it’s flat; by enough of a degree that it irritates me at best.

Gerry Rafferty: Everybody was suing each other, so I spent a lot of time on the overnight train from Glasgow to London for meetings with lawyers. I knew a guy who lived in a little flat off Baker Street. We’d sit and chat or play guitar there through the night.

Studio Guitarist Jake Burns: I went to the studio after I played the gig and I think one of the first songs we played was Baker Street, and I said, ‘This is fantastic. This is a great song, quite frankly, I loved his songs. I regard it as a great good fortune that I was able to meet and contribute something to Gerry’s music.

Baker Street

Winding your way down on Baker Street
Light in your head and dead on your feet
Well, another crazy day
You’ll drink the night away
And forget about everything

This city desert makes you feel so cold
It’s got so many people, but it’s got no soul
And it’s taken you so long
To find out you were wrong
When you thought it held everything

You used to think that it was so easy
You used to say that it was so easy
But you’re trying, you’re trying now

Another year and then you’d be happy
Just one more year and then you’d be happy
But you’re crying, you’re crying now

Way down the street there’s a light in his place
He opens the door, he’s got that look on his face
And he asks you where you’ve been
You tell him who you’ve seen
And you talk about anything

He’s got this dream about buying some land
He’s gonna give up the booze and the one-night stands
And then he’ll settle down
In some quiet little town
And forget about everything

But you know he’ll always keep moving
You know he’s never gonna stop moving
‘Cause he’s rolling, he’s the rolling stone
And when you wake up, it’s a new morning
The sun is shining, it’s a new morning
And you’re going, you’re going home

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

39 thoughts on “Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street”

  6. How good is this song? Well, for starters, the follow-up, ‘Right Down the Line’ is one of the finest pop love songs of the decade but pales next to ‘Baker Street.’ Possibly my favorite song of the 1970s. It also must’ve been a godsend for sax players- after this, seems like half the singles on the charts had sax on them.

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  7. A winner of the Novello, and with good reason, especially lyrically The Big City ain’t paved with gold, dreams slowly get chipped and slip away. (This mornings uplifting message selected by Obbverse direct from the Readers Digest Book Of Banalities.)

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  8. God I love that sax solo! This is a song is one I remember from my youngest days, playing on the radio while I sat in the back seat of my dad’s Chevy Nova.

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  10. Man, what a magnificent song! I would go as far as calling “Baker Street” one of the defining songs of the ’70s. Only the saxophone part already is worth the price of admission. The beautiful melody and Rafferty’s vocals are icing on the cake.

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      4. The one time I heard “Muzak” was the song that Lennon wrote about Paul “How Do You Sleep” when they were arguing….”The music you make is Muzak to my ears” lol.

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      6. Yes some of his stuff really is…but that song kicked Paul out of his self pity…a little while later he made the Band on the Run album…the album of his career.

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      8. He did…even when they weren’t getting along for that year …John said it pissed him off because he knew Paul was capable of better albums…with BOTR…he got it.

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      10. Oh that is fine….to be truthful with you…I like the other hit better but I already did it…”Right Down The Line” and I really like Stealers Wheel…Stuck in the Middle With You

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  12. Greatest. Record. Of. All. Time. My all-time fave, it’s followed me around the world, wherever and whenever I go, switch on the radio it’ll crop up. Greatest sax solo, greatest guitar solo, lyrics that speak to me, goosebumps every time for 45 years now since I bought it.

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  14. The 70s were SO good for music (and movies, too, really, but that’s another essay…). Rafferty was some kind of genius, he put so much of himself in his songs that there’s this ‘truth’, you know? Its real. I play his albums City to City and Night Owl very often, they are such great albums.

    I could never describe his music, or especially this song, as ‘Muzak’ my goodness that’s so wide of the mark.

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    1. Oh the movies…I totally agree.
      That sax solo is probably the most well known sax solo ever. I really like Right Down The Line also.

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    1. Thank you…this was one of the lowest viewed posts I’ve done…I just didn’t get it Jeff. It’s one of the best singles of the singles 70s.

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