William's Song a Day Blog - est. September 2007

From: Right or Wrong ; Year: 1975; Genre: Rock I noticed that I've only picked one other song from the Joe Egan/Gerry Rafferty group Stealers Wheel before today, and that was quite a long while ago . Anyway, this is another single, but from the band's latter period. It's quite an interesting song to listen to with a lot of differing sections and unique musical ideas throughout. Hear Right or Wrong on YouTube. My song pick a year ago today: Rush - Before and After My song pick two years ago today: Stratovarius - Atlantis My song pick three years ago today: Alestorm - Pirate Song My song pick four years ago today: Steve Vai - The Attitude Song My song pick five year ago today: Richard O'Brien & Richard Hartley (from The Rocky Horror Picture Show) - Science Fiction/Double Feature My song pick six years ago today: Puhdys - Bas Buch My song pick seven years ago today: The Pretenders - Back on the Chain Gang

998 Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street At almost 1000 song in it seems as if I am regularly looking at what songs I have already picked every time I think of a song to choose; I truly cannot believe that I have not chosen this track yet. My dad has a penchant for buying "super hit" records with various artists on them. Oddly enough, one of his favourites contained the two hits off of Gerry Rafferty's City to City album: Right Down The Line and Baker Street ; he played them both a lot. After I left home I ended up buying the City to City album at a thrift store for about .50¢. The song is probably best known for Raphael Ravenscroft's saxophone solos. It was supposedly written about what Gerry Rafferty experienced around the famous Baker Street area in London; the street is the same one made famous in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes Mysteries . Also a few years prior Jethro Tull released the song Baker St. Muse , in which Ian Anderson wrote about what...

This is my favourite song by Gerry Rafferty and/or Stealers Wheel. The song is kind of melancholy and powerful at the same time; it talks about a star who is at the top of his career and asks the question: what will you do when the fame is gone? In the first line it says, "They made you a star," which I think means that it is corporate music he is talking about. In support of this view it says, "They read in the press all about your success and they believe every word they've been told, after all you've been through tell me what will you do when you find yourself out in the cold?" Almost every singer and/or movie star that does not die prematurely will experience this at one time or another, especially the artificial ones made by the corporate music industry. I think that Gerry Rafferty wanted to capture the essence of "fleeting fame" and not being the "in" thing anymore. Here is the studio version on YouTube. +