Baker Street. “Winding your way down Baker Street…”
The song they played to death, to death, when I was growing up.
The song I always hated/loved, except I couldn’t stand that %&*#$@!! saxophone.
I said as much, in a comment on YouTube. And some kind soul pointed me to the Foo Fighters version, which is so awesome…
That Baker Street. That street in the song is the same Baker Street that Sherlock Holmes lived on.
This wouldn’t happen with “Pico and Sepulveda.” –but that was before my time.
Uh, yeah, gonna disagree. The sax hook is what makes Baker Street such a great song. It’s not Baker Street without Raphael Ravenscroft’s mastery of the instrument.
Well, I can respect that view. Certainly the melodic line of the sax riff is what makes the song a hit, it’s a great big giant hook.
I just don’t much like saxophones.
But, the 70’s monster hit/ Victorian monster (literary) hit connection is what blows my mind.
Lame and forgettable without the sax.
I’m biased because I played the saxophone in high school, so it’s my favorite instrument. I like rock saxists like Richie Cannata, Mark Rivera, Johnny Colla, and Walt Parazaider.
The first eight notes of that song are the same as the I Love Lucy theme but at a slower tempo. It always annoyed the hell out of me.
I’ve always hated the saxophone. I’m not sure why, but in my mind, it’s got an indelible association with “smug douchebag.” Like, I imagine that wherever Martin Shkreli goes, he’s accompanied by a saxophone solo.
How do you feel about violins? 
Saxophone and light synth organs, with some synthesized drums whenever he’s being especially douchebag dramatic, like finding a way to finding a way to make extra profit while burnishing his brand, by which I mean getting on TV, by which I mean indirectly killing people.
However, I also agree that the saxophone solo is the reason “Baker Street” exists. It’s like “Layla” and the extended piano/guitar interlude at the very end, so I expect Eric Clapton agrees with brujaja and considers both to be too cocaine-fueled to continue to exist in this modern world.
It’s Prog Yacht Rock, and I happen to like it.
Or Mumford and banjo?
Whoosh.
Sax and violins go together like sex and violence.
Smooth jazz saxophone sucks, sure. That’s true about smooth jazz anything 
so no need to hold a grudge against one specific instrument ;).
If I played a wind instrument, it’d be sax. Good sax, mmmm.
Anyway, I listened to the Foo’s version. Speaking as a guitarist, that part should be played by sax :D. It’s fine, but doesn’t compare to the wonderful thick tone of the original sax so why sub in a cliche guitar? And the dynamic drop for the verse bugs me, too. I love the Foos, but this isn’t working for me. This song isn’t from the 90’s and doesn’t need that drama.
And no, I had no idea it was Sherlock’s Baker Street. How irregular.
So it’s taken you so long to find out you were wrong when you thought it held everything?
mmm
That’s how I feel about Metallica’s cover of Bob Seger’s Turn the Page. It’s nothing without the sax. And yes, I like that song. Please don’t hurt me.
It’s funny: I was thinking of the haunting guitar bit on Seger’s Main Street, and how the wrong sax tone for that could make it sound smooth-jazzy. Ew.
Sometimes a certain hook needs a certain tone, I guess.
I always heard it as being an odd Holmes riff, and thought it was just my interpretation.
Love the sax, too. Almost as much as Junior Parker’s dirty riffs in “Urgent”…
No discussion of sax solos is complete without reference to this track
(Tim Capello-I still believe)Baker Street is one of the rare songs with two different instruments doing killer solos. Why would anybody want to eliminate one?
Being a Sherlockian (that’s Holmsian to you Brits) I automatically made the connection. I kept studying the lyrics to try to figure out what I was missing, since there obviously had to be a Holmes reference hidden in it. But no.
Baker Street is just a basic, short residential street in Marylebone, but central and a quick hansom ride from anywhere important. Today it’s ritzy and swank and gentrified up the wazoo and nothing that a poor widow taking in boarders could come within a mile of. Back in 1978, though, it wasn’t as thoroughly altered. Even so, Rafferty didn’t live there. A friend of his that he stayed with did.
Growing up I heard a story that the song Baker Street was dedicated to a street not 5 minutes away from where I grew up in Scotland. Gerry Rafferty was walking by the area one morning and noticed the high number of bakers on this small street. The tale didn’t sound very impressive(or likely) to me back then either.
Sure you’re not thinking of that amazing pick-up halfway through “Night Moves”? I always pause and hold my breath waiting for that masterfully-timed moment.