Baker Street (1978) – Gerry Rafferty

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.

– Gerry Rafferty – Baker Street at Max PowerPop

Baker Street was another song jogged to my memory by Max’s recent article at PowerPop. I had not heard this song in decades, but it sure did bring back some good memories and reminded me why the 70’s were so good for music. The arrangement is known for its unforgettable saxophone riff. It contains one of the most iconic intros to any song and still get the adrenaline flowing 46 years later. I really like his song Right Down the Line as well which will feature here when we reach the ‘R’s in the music library project.  

Baker Street is a song written Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. It won the 1979 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically and reached the top three in the UK, US and elsewhere. As Max alluded to above:

“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.”

[Verse 1]
Windin’ 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 taking 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 tryin’, you’re tryin’ now
Another year and then you’d be happy
Just one more year and then you’d be happy
But you’re cryin’, you’re cryin’ now

[Verse 2]
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 buyin’ 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 movin’
You know he’s never gonna stop movin’
‘Cause he’s rollin’, he’s the rollin’ stone
And when you wake up, it’s a new mornin’
The sun is shinin’, it’s a new mornin’
And you’re goin’, you’re goin’ home

The resolution of Rafferty’s legal and financial frustrations may have accounted for the exhilaration of the song’s final verse:

When you wake up it’s a new morning
The sun is shining, it’s a new morning
You’re going, you’re going home.

Rafferty’s daughter Martha suggested in 2012 that he could also have taken inspiration from a book he was reading while he was travelling between the two cities, Colin Wilson’s The Outsider (1956), which explored ideas of alienation and creativity and a longing to be connected.

References:
1. Baker Street (song) – Wikipedia

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“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand