"Baker Street" as written by and 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
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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First of all, it doesn't lift me up. But I know what you mean. The music is powerful and impressive, it "rocks". The reason behind it is that the person this song is about, is depressed, he feels his life is like plastic. Emptiness. Yet he tries helplessly to find what he's missing, and he does that by going out, having fun. Hence the uplifting part. What he doesn't see, is that having fun only makes him more depressed. It enlarges the contrast. It's like having fun when you're not happy. Instant happiness, but it's fake.
He's lonely. He tries to drink his problems away, or to find some distraction in any way by going out and partying. He - and the other person in the song -
try to escape from their problems. They try to just walk away from it, even by moving to a quiet little town. Forget about everything. What they don't see is that the problem won't be solved by that. The problem is in themselves. You know he'll always keep movin', you know he's never gonna stop movin'.
Everything in this song, all lines are sad. This song is depressing (to me that's a very positive thing, I need these songs sometimes..they help). I think lots and lots of people live this way, and they aren't even aware of it..
A talanted wealthy SCOT living in LONDON and hating it.BUT ..'The sun is shining, it's a new morning......going home' And boy does that sax and guirar solo make 'going home' feel GOOD
He did what a lot of struggling performers do, he signed the first contract shoved in his face without understanding what it said.
He spent years getting out of that contract.
The new morning was the day he officially was free of his old contract. So, finally, he was able to get more of the money generated by the music he had written and could sign to a new label and record this song which made him uncomfortably famous.
All most performers really want is a reasonable amount of success and a long career. To give it a grade it would be like a C+ to a B.
But the music industry isn't like that. It's either Ds, D -s or Fs or A to A+++++
I know a guy who went through it and finally getting out of his RCA Wooden Nickle contract (yes, it was actually called Wooden Nickle) it gave the right to his own songs back to him to re-record if he wanted and reopened his options with other labels and publishers.
It was like Christmas, New Years, and Mardi Gras rolled up into one.
Falcon makes some great comments about the song below. All I would add is that in the song he sees a parallel between his life and that of his friend with the 'dreams about buying some land'. In a fatalistic way, he sees the 'die as cast'; that the very things that bind us are the things that define us. Like his friend, he is stuck in his own rut and despite his best intentions of things changing they never will. We are left with the feeling that he will be forever stuck in that endless cycle of work/ stress, getting drunk to numb the pain and living in hope. The only release is when he finally escapes and heads back to Scotland. Musically he transports us there with him via the fantastic outro part.
This song is perfect for describing that feeling of dissatisfaction. Drinking, one-night stands, another year, giving up these things we know don't bring us happiness, all these distractions and bargains we make with ourselves. But in this very moment, happiness is always hard to come by.
Gerry Rafferty also wrote "Stuck In The Middle With You" by Stealer's Wheel. Another song about limbo, emotional purgatory, indecision. I have heard these songs for decades, yet only recently understood the words and thought about their meanings. Nice.