Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street – IOTW Report

Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street

Saturday, 19 December 2015, 15:41 BFH Uncategorized 42

Is this important? No.

Is it interesting? To about 6 people reading this.

Do I like crap like this? You betcha.

The origin of the iconic, if not annoying, sax line in the opening of Gerry Rafferty’s song Baker Street has always been debated. (Don’t get me wrong, I love the song, but the sax part is actually too strong, to the point of it upstaging the entire thing.)

The sax player, Raphael Ravenscroft, claims he came up with it. But this is either foggy memory or an outright lie.

A demo surfaced and Rafferty clearly wrote the sax part into the song.

But hold on.

Did Rafferty write that line, or did he steal it?

Listen to this, recorded in 1968.

I hate to give a link to The Atlantic, but the author tracked down the composer of the song that sounds like it’s been ripped off. There’s a new wrinkle.

42 Comments on Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street

  3. No, you’re right on this one. The sax is too strong next to Rafferty’s vocals and the pace of the sax passages are too strident and fight with both the tempo of the vocals and even the song’s sentiment.

  6. Yes, the song is melancholy and wistful, and the sax is a sharp knife, too present, not at all romantic or nostalgic.
    It comes in like it’s from another song… maybe that Bob Seger song with the equally annoying sax.
    What song is that?

  12. “This song makes me think of the Summer of 1978. Just graduated high school and was getting ready to head off to college. Nice memories.” (Thanks, Jack.)
    – – –

    That was me, in ’78, in my 68 Dodge dart convertible.

  14. The contretemps of the pianissimo diocletian is the delugian versace which accentuates, rather than detractorates, from the subtle miasmic pro-forma gettyburg … in a heuristic sense, of course.

  21. Debbie Boone, The Bee Gees, Andy Gibb……’My Sharonna’, ‘The Way We Were’, ….Linda McCartney & Wings, Tony Orlando & Dawn…. (& that’s just some of the Billboard top 20 hits of the 70’s)

    rebuttal from Dennis Leary…. “…I can sue Dan Fogelberg for making me into a pussy in the mid-70’s? Is that possible, huh? Huh? “Your Honor, between him and James Taylor, I didn’t get a blow job ’till I was twenty-seven years old.” …..& …. “And you know what Hell is, folks. It’s Andy Gibb, singing “Shadow Dancing,” for eons and eons. And you have to wear orange plaid bell bottoms and sit next to the Bay City Rollers. “How you guys doing? This is gonna suck!”

    (just messin’ with ya, Fur…. 😉 )

  24. I don’t know or care where the sax part came from. I’m just happy to see Steve Marcus mentioned. Excellent musician and a nice guy to boot.

    I saw Steve with Larry Coryell’s band in the early 70s. Steve played soprano sax for the entire concert, he didn’t take out his tenor. I also saw Steve perform with Buddy Rich’s big band and Buddy’s sextet – the latter at Buddy’s nightclub in NYC. I got to speak with Steve during the gig at Buddy’s Place. He was a great saxophonist and a true gentleman.

  32. Mongo Santamaria (Watermelon Man) told me that Santana stole from him and his group. There is much of the same sounds in both artists’ works so I have little doubt.

    We saw Mongo at the London House just before it closed it’s doors and our table was right at the base of the small stage so we spoke some during breaks.

  33. I will have to say it sounds like a rip off to me …but I can’t jump on the bandwagon on this one. that particular sax riff is haunting as well as sexy. but that’s just me i guess.

  40. I’m more of a Jr. Walker – Shotgun kind of sax fan. But the two examples do appear to be very close to the same. I think, in the end, whoever has the best lawyer wins.

    Surfing USA was a note-for-note copy of Sweet Little Sixteen. That didn’t happen by accident.

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