Search - Gerry Rafferty :: Baker Street

EXCELLENT OVERVIEW MINUS STEALERSWHEEL

R. Barnes | Ft. Lauderdale, Florida | 04/30/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Lets start off that its a shame that to get this Scot's best work we must go to the import bin! To truly get the complete work of Gerry Rafferty, this album plus purchasing the Import "Best of Stealer Wheel" will do it. The "anthology" albums miss primary cuts and major singles which I can't understand.This album is a great sampler of the Rafferty music style. Of course the major hit "Baker Street" is here, (which you rarely hear on radio anymore). One of my personal favorites "Days gone Down" is here also."Right Down the line" "Take the Money and Run" " Get it Right the Next Time" are also included. All cuts reflect is unique songwriting style and the ethnicity of his work. His never copied vocals make this a one of kind alum well wirth the price.While primarily a 4-5 piece band with some brass, orchestration is brought in when needed, ( as seen "Baker Street" versus "Right Down The Line".This is a 70's artifact, but "Baker Street" is a timeless song well worth having. A good album which many may not be aware of."

Best-sellers, but not all his best songs

John Davies | 11/08/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A good CD with Rafferty's biggest-selling songs. The addition of a couple of tracks would have made this a 5-star disc--Whatever's Written In Your Heart and The Garden Of England, both great songs (although not big sellers). For fans of Gerry Rafferty this compilation may seem incomplete, but listeners new to Rafferty would likely rather have the radio hits presented here. All in all a decent showing, and paired with the Stealer's Wheel greatest hits CD it gives a fairly broad representation of Rafferty's output. Fans of 70's/80's pop rock will be pleased with this disc."

Baker Street is excellent

Lawrence Brown | HOUSTON, TX United States | 05/10/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My comments regard only the song Baker Street:



Of course I love Baker Street. There is a lot going on in that track, sophisticated and excellent. Comparing it with the (obscenely bad) Foo Fighters cover shows both the weaknesses of the Fighters' arrangement as well as the talent, polish, intelligence, and diligence of Rafferty's producer.



I personally don't like solo sax much and so it doesn't touch me as much as it seems to touch others, but even so I can see that the sax intro and other sax parts are electrifying. I respect this production choice because for so many people the sax is the only part of the song they identify and according to some reviews the sax bought most of that copious radio air-time in 1978. On the other hand, it's a shame to see this overstated sound overshadow the rest of the beautiful song in peoples' minds.



The swooping guitars are awesome and yet subtle and fill a crucial spot in the intro melody. The guitar solo is masterful. Much of the time in the solo is taken up with only a few sustained and repeated notes and the bulk of the solo is made up of bends, trills, swoops, dives, and inventive tremelos. Each note of the minimal note count speaks out to us in important ways. It reminds me of lyrics that say volumes with only a few words. It's one of my all time favorite guitar solos.



The two featured analog synthesizer sounds are way cool. The synth during the verse sounds like falling leaves or water. The bass synth sound that counterpoints the vocal during the chorous, again, is inventive: an interesting, unusual sound, delightful instrumental melodic counterpoint to the vocal, a melodic sound in this region of the bass territory is also unusual in pop. You usually have the bass drum and the bass guitar in the bass region and that's about it. This synth sound and melody is something like a `cello line, lending an orchestral feel while still using pop instruments.



The lyrics to Baker Street are good, but I wouldn't say great. They give an overall impression of loneliness, futility and yearning for something better in the future. What's there is good but it's not great because the song does not tell a complete story. The "City to City" album from which this song is taken is a concept album and every lyric addresses these issues of loneliness and itinerant living on the road. Considering the entire album's lyrics as a whole pushes them up a notch as ambitious, intelligent, very good, and maybe you could consider the whole as a complete story. They fall short of something blisteringly great like "Eleanor Rigby" (The Beatles) or "She Always a Woman" or "AllenTown" (Billy Joel).



Regarding the Foo Fighters' cover version: The Foo Fighters skip the swooping guitars during the intro melody and you can hear it as dead space, causing a drop in intensity there resulting in an undesirable volume pumping effect. The Fighters copy the guitar solo note for note, what's the point? We've heard that already, and much better, so why bother? Granted I'm not that familiar with post 1989 Pearl Jam clone musical styles so I might be missing something, but to me the Fighters' guitar version of the sax intro melody is just plain wrong. The rhythm is wrong and corny, the accents are in the wrong place, and the guitar sound is so anemic when compared to the sax. Why would a band of the Fighters' stature cover a song anyway? The whole thing is just wrong.

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