The. Best. Sax. Solo. In. Rock. History. I could stop this post right here and it would be more or less complete! This song was on the radio in Delhi between 1979-85, literally all the time (possibly after that too but I had moved out of Delhi in ’85). One of my favourite songs of all time, and, it’s been on my playlist for decades and decades. Perfect for the road trip playlist.

Gerry Rafferty was a Scottish folk-rock singer/songwriter who, set up ‘Stealers Wheel’ with his school mate, Joe Egan in 1972. They had a smash hit with “Stuck In The Middle With You” – which of course became famous again in ’92 when Tarantino used it for a scene in ‘Reservoir Dogs’. Unfortunately, there were tons of legal issues with the band and Rafferty couldn’t issue any new music for three years after leaving the band.

Over three years, he had to travel regularly from Glasgow to London to meet with lawyers. He was miserable and down and out. It was during this period that he wrote ‘Baker Street’, an autobiographical song. He had a friend who lived in a small flat off Baker Street, and Rafferty used to stay with him during his frequent trips. He would arrive there after a long day with lawyers, having had a few and they would chat, play the guitar, drink and talk about their dreams and contemplate the dastardly ways of the world.

“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”

“You used to think that it was so easy

You used to say that it was so easy”

The lyrics are brilliant, but it’s that sax solo that everyone remembers. Originally written by Rafferty as a guitar riff, after the demo he realised that this was best played on a Sax. A session musician called Raphael Ravenscroft (who later played with Pink Floyd among other bands) was drafted in to play the alto-sax. And he just blew it away! (pardon the pun?). Rafferty’s clever song structure, replacing the chorus with a sax solo and using it to introduce the song was just genius and actually started the whole rock-sax genre (remember Careless Whisper?). Unfortunately, Ravenscroft later tried to claim authorship for the sax solo, only to be disproven by a tape of Rafferty’s demo – bloody music business!