Maybe he’ll get it right next time.<\/p>\n
You had to buy "City to City".\u00c2\u00a0 For "Baker Street".<\/p>\n
Famous for Raphael Ravenscroft’s solo, that was not the song’s only magic.\u00c2\u00a0 Starting like a sunrise, evidencing the hope that only music can exude, "Baker Street" is as good as any movie ever made, yet it’s a record.<\/p>\n
That’s the power of music.<\/p>\n
And as happy as the music sounds, that’s not how the lyrics start out…<\/p>\n
You used to think that it was so easy<\/span> Isn’t that what growing up is about.\u00c2\u00a0 At twenty you know everything, as the decades pass, you realize you know nothing.\u00c2\u00a0 You were confident once, now you’re not so sure…\u00c2\u00a0 But you keep on tryin’, until you start cryin’.<\/p>\n If you haven’t been at loose ends by time you’re fifty, you’re doing it wrong.\u00c2\u00a0 You just haven’t taken enough chances, you just haven’t risked.\u00c2\u00a0 And how these twentysomething artists could get it so right, be so worldly in their younger years, I don’t know. Then again, after flashes of genius, so many burned out.\u00c2\u00a0 Or knowing so much, burning so bright, they flamed out, into alcoholism.\u00c2\u00a0 Like Gerry Rafferty.<\/p>\n Then again, that was his father’s legacy.\u00c2\u00a0 Alcohol.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s hard to escape where you come from, especially when you’re unwanted and the only hope and inspiration comes from yourself.<\/p>\n But "Baker Street" ends on an optimistic note.<\/p>\n First there’s the conversation:<\/p>\n Way down the street there’s a light in his place<\/span> We call this friendship.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re looking for the one true buddy who knows us, who accepts us, but isn’t afraid to call us on our bullshit.<\/p>\n He’s got this dream about buyin’ some land<\/span> Is this Gerry’s story?<\/p>\n Unlike today, Gerry Rafferty’s career didn’t begin with "Baker Street".\u00c2\u00a0 The gigantic hit came years down the line.\u00c2\u00a0 After paying his dues, endless nights on the road…when you’ve worked this hard, you’re shocked to finally break through.\u00c2\u00a0 And then what?\u00c2\u00a0 How do you cope with everything you’ve dreamed of once you’ve given up on it occurring?<\/p>\n If you think Gerry Rafferty was a one hit wonder, you’ve never heard "Stuck In The Middle With You".\u00c2\u00a0 Which seems even more popular than his ubiquitous solo hit today.<\/p>\n But that solo hit was so good, Rafferty’s sound so rich, that I continued to buy album after album, because when Gerry got it right, there was a richness to the sound and the lyrics that embodied humanity…Rafferty’s aural dope was of such quality, it could never be denied, we were always searching for one more hit.<\/p>\n But no more.<\/p>\n Have you listened to "As Wise As A Serpent"?<\/p>\n Now you once asked me why we can’t communicate<\/span> Trust is gone.<\/p>\n That’s a horrible place to be.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m working my way back from it.\u00c2\u00a0 My ex-wife obliterated my faith in people.\u00c2\u00a0 You say to never leave, then you leave me?<\/p>\n So we sit in empty rooms and dream our lives away<\/span><\/p>\n That’s what’s gone from today’s hit music.\u00c2\u00a0 The despair.<\/p>\n You can sleepwalk through life.\u00c2\u00a0 You can take no chances, play by the rules.\u00c2\u00a0 But the only fun, the only thrill comes from coloring outside the lines.\u00c2\u00a0 But with this risk not only comes reward, but disappointment, ennui, desperation and depression.<\/p>\n You hear all of this in Gerry Rafferty’s tunes.\u00c2\u00a0 No words can convey these feelings as well as these songs.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the power of music.<\/p>\n It took me years to find all of "Sleepwalking" online.\u00c2\u00a0 I had the vinyl, I needed MP3s, that I could take with me.\u00c2\u00a0 Because our music, it’s our most valuable possession, nothing else we own can be a companion and touch our hearts just so.<\/p>\n I was waiting, I was waiting…for the day I heard from Gerry Rafferty.\u00c2\u00a0 I wrote again and again, about how much his music touched me, how it reflected my life, how I felt the solidarity.<\/p>\n It never happened.<\/p>\n And now it never will.<\/p>\n
You used to think that it was so easy<\/span>
But you’re tryin’<\/span>
You’re tryin’ now<\/span><\/p>\n
He opens the door, he’s got that look on his face<\/span>
And he asks you where you’ve been<\/span>
You tell him who you’ve seen<\/span>
And you talk about anything<\/span><\/p>\n
He’s gonna give up the booze and the one night stands<\/span>
And then he’ll settle down in some quiet little town<\/span>
And forget about everything<\/span><\/p>\n
But it doesn’t always pay to tell the truth<\/span>
If I told you right now, you’d only run away<\/span>
Run away, run away home<\/span><\/p>\n\n