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

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Baker Street Lyrics as written by Gerald Rafferty

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I've always thought "Baker Street" was about two things:

Gerry Rafferty, a British singer-songwriter caught up in the misery of the American pop-rock music industry, looking sadly out across his life and career and realizing his earlier illusions of it, and what a rock star's life should be, are just that - fleeting, sad, misery-causing illusions - and his thoughts about America in general. I always felt the "desert city" he spoke of was Los Angeles - at the time he wrote the song, the absolute center of the American recording industry.

In a larger sense I feel the song is about midlife crisis, the moment your youth confronts the fact there is no immortality, that dreams do not all come true, one is not invincible, the world is sad, life is sadder, and age and death are coming.

I think that deeper meaning is what has made "Baker Street" one of the most haunting AOR songs ever recorded and broadcast on radio, and made it perhaps the most-cited anthem of at least, so far, two generations.

Yuppies cherished the song as their own dark anthem during its release era: the brief instant before the Eighties when the yachts and cocaine and disco clubs began catching up to Baby Boomers, and age and mortality began staring them in the face. Generation X grew up overhearing it on the radio, and in a bleak economic era coinciding with our own growing perception our youth is over and our dreams unattainable, Rafferty's elegiac anthem of inevitable mortality has weirdly achieved a second immortality.

As long as it retains its sense of failure and impending loss of youthful optimism, Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" will likely continue to be celebrated as the ultimate anthem of despair for every generation ever after.

PS, for those interested, that iconic saxophone solo was performed by English session sax musician Raphael Ravenscroft. He's still around and still recording. The original solo was meant to be performed on guitar, but when the scheduled session guitarist didn't show, the decision was quickly made to make it saxophone. Ravenscroft hit it in one take and the rest is history. You can read about Ravenscroft here:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Ravenscroft

Further trivia: "Baker Street" is one of the only rock songs ever recorded that does not have a chorus.

I've always thought "Baker Street" was about two things: Gerry Rafferty, a British singer-songwriter caught up in the misery of the American pop-rock music industry, looking sadly out across his life and career and realizing his earlier illusions of it, and what a rock star's life should be, are just that - fleeting, sad, misery-causing illusions - and his thoughts about America in general. I always felt the "desert city" he spoke of was Los Angeles - at the time he wrote the song, the absolute center of the American recording industry. In a larger sense I feel the song is about midlife crisis, the moment your youth confronts the fact there is no immortality, that dreams do not all come true, one is not invincible, the world is sad, life is sadder, and age and death are coming. I think that deeper meaning is what has made "Baker Street" one of the most haunting AOR songs ever recorded and broadcast on radio, and made it perhaps the most-cited anthem of at least, so far, two generations. Yuppies cherished the song as their own dark anthem during its release era: the brief instant before the Eighties when the yachts and cocaine and disco clubs began catching up to Baby Boomers, and age and mortality began staring them in the face. Generation X grew up overhearing it on the radio, and in a bleak economic era coinciding with our own growing perception our youth is over and our dreams unattainable, Rafferty's elegiac anthem of inevitable mortality has weirdly achieved a second immortality. As long as it retains its sense of failure and impending loss of youthful optimism, Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" will likely continue to be celebrated as the ultimate anthem of despair for every generation ever after. PS, for those interested, that iconic saxophone solo was performed by English session sax musician Raphael Ravenscroft. He's still around and still recording. The original solo was meant to be performed on guitar, but when the scheduled session guitarist didn't show, the decision was quickly made to make it saxophone. Ravenscroft hit it in one take and the rest is history. You can read about Ravenscroft here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Ravenscroft Further trivia: "Baker Street" is one of the only rock songs ever recorded that does not have a chorus.

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heatherferon December 25, 2012 Link
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@heatherfer

@heatherfer As art, all songs have the facility to create an individual, personal meaning in the mind of the listener. I love the depth of your response (albeit with a slightly US-centric feel), particularly the reflection of it's generational impact. As a slave to auteur theory, I do have to rely on the explanation provided by Rafferty himself, who has stated on numerous occasions that it is quite simply a record of his thoughts and feelings at a time when he was commuting from Glasgow to London (the city desert), staying with a friend in Baker Street (the friend described clearly in the second verse) and trying to sort out the legal issues arising from the breakup of his previous band. There is a genuine feeling of release, relief and rebirth in the last few lines, which he ascribes to the resolution of his legal troubles and the ability to begin recording his own music again, a situation which led directly to the recording of the City To City album, including Baker Street.<br /> <br /> It is not in any way connected to America or the American music industry: it is an English song about a London street and how he felt when he stayed there.<br /> <br /> I still like your interpretation though, and I think it will echo with me the next time I hear or play this song, which I think I might go and do right now!

edhesk1on August 02, 2015