♫ Baker Street ♫

Posted on by under music

I might have skipped the song tonight and just gone to bed, for I haven’t felt well today and was tired.  But a recent conversation with our friend David left me with an earworm that just wouldn’t go away!  It is an old favourite, but one I hadn’t heard or thought about in years.  So, when it got stuck in my head tonight, I was excited at the thought of sharing it with you, my friends, and I hope you enjoy it too!

Baker Street is a song written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty. Released as a single in 1978, it reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it held that position for six weeks, behind Andy Gibb’s smash Shadow Dancing. Additionally, it hit #1 in Canada, #3 in the United Kingdom, #1 in Australia, #1 in South Africa, and the top 10 in the Netherlands. Rafferty received the 1978 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically. But perhaps the best part of the song, in my tone-deaf opinion, is the saxophone riff by Raphael Ravenscroft.

According to one story, Ravenscroft received only £27, and that check bounced, while Rafferty earned £80,000 per annum until his death in 2011. However, the bouncing check story was later denied by Ravenscroft.  

Baker Street
Gerry Rafferty

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

Songwriters: Gerald Rafferty
Baker Street lyrics © BMG Rights Management

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31 thoughts on “♫ Baker Street ♫”

  4. A beutiful song Jill, one I did not even know I knew. As I was reading the words (of course the video would not play) I realized I knew some of the lines, and the tune for those lines. So off I went to YouTube, and began to play it. Immediately I knew the sax part you menioned, the sax being one of my all-time favourite instruments. Thank you for bringing this great song back to life. It has been gone for too long.

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  5. Jill, Rafferty wrote three favorites – this one and “Right down the line” as a solist and his classic “Stuck in the middle with you,” with Stealers Wheel. He has unique voice that soothes. I was in college in Atlanta when this one came out and passed its Baker Street to enter the expressway often. I wondered if this was the song’s street, but I am sure every city has a Baker Street. Keith

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  9. Cool song. That goes on my playlist tomorrow. Not sure I listened to it ’78 (not rubbing my age in, I’d like to come back and read more 😁). In fact, I can’t remember when I heard it first. Probably in Berlin in my oldie radio station listening days about 20 years ago. Thanks for sharing

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  10. Another excellent choice. I owned a cafe in the late seventies. This song was on the jukebox. I’d listen to it as I clean up and shut down after the end of another long day, light in my head and dead on my feet. Thinking of those lyrics, though, I always thought it was about a personal struggle about who he wanted to be and who he was, and how others perceived him. Lot of reflections went into words and the musical arrangement.

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    • Isn’t it amazing how a song, one that perhaps we haven’t heard in years, can bring back so many memories? I didn’t research this one as thoroughly as I sometimes do, so I’m not sure about the story behind the lyrics, but I think your analysis is likely right, for he struggled with alcoholism all his life.

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