TS: "Right Down The Line" vs "Baker Street"

i seriously don't think I've ever heard "right down the line" so "baker st" wins (though I didn't know that was the name of that song for years either)

Your vote is disqualified.

I'd never heard "Right Down the Line" (at least, not until a few minutes ago). I have, however, heard the Rafferty-produced version of R&L Thompson's "Shoot Out the Lights."

Anyway, I don't think there's much contest here. "Baker Street" is iconic. "Right Down the Line" is nice but somewhat ephemeral. Had Buckingham indeed produced it it would have been 10x better. To paraphrase Xgau in his review, Fleetwood Mac this ain't.

"Baker Street" obv, but I'll also take "Home And Dry" over "Right Down The Line". (Nearly 30 years after it hit, I finally identify that song back in February! Wouldn't have taken so long if Allmusic had the proper info. Of course, if I owned City to City I wouldn't've had that problem, so it's my own fault too.)

"Right Down The Line" is the archetypal sleeper, Josh. Give it a chance.

Right Down The Line for me. It's on nearly every mix cd I make!
"It's been you, woo-mon, riiight down the line" :)

i don't know if it's disconcerting or reassuring when i open a thread intending to write something and discover i already wrote it over a year ago.

but i think i can answer this lingering question:
how did City to City become a #1 American smash?

there's the obvious answer -- huge hit single -- but beyond that i think there's the specter of rumors and baby boomers embracing their 30s. the albums that i remember my dad and all his friends having and playing in 1976, '77 and '78, respectively, are blood on the tracks, rumors and city to city. (i know blood on the tracks was '75, but it was dylan, it got played for at least two straight years.) i think what all those have in common is a sort of wistful, pained awareness of aging and a fair amount of self-centered melancholy. but they also allowed an aging audience to buy records that were big hits and dominated the pop charts and not feel displaced just yet.

not that city to city had anything like the resonance of those other two albums. but i think it rode their coattails and trafficked in the same generational flattery.

awesome cover art didn't hurt.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9a/Citytocity.jpg

According to Wikipedia:

"Rafferty had checked himself into St Thomas' Hospital hospital for liver problems. However, he disappeared on August 1, 2008, leaving his belongings behind. The hospital filed a missing persons report.[1]"

o_0

Gerry Rafferty wasn't even on tour – his last public performance was a good half decade ago. Instead the 61-year-old singer-songwriter quietly booked himself into a five-star London hotel and four days later allegedly left a violated room soaked in blood and urine. By all accounts a quiet guest, who kept himself to himself, his stay was halted when cleaners finally gained access to his suite - although the hotel manager claimed that instances of Rafferty relieving himself in unlikely corners of the hotel were also causing distress for the other residents. The 'Baker Street' composer was later admitted to St Thomas's hospital to be treated for liver problems, but he disappeared, leaving behind his clothes and luggage. On Friday, it was reported that hospital staff had filed a missing persons report with police.

what the fuck?

:(

i have a vivid memory of standing in our kitchen listening to baker st. on the radio when i was twelve and knowing that there would be no buying of some land, no settling down in some quiet little town, no forgetting about everything, and it was a truly terrible ask not for whom the bell tolls moment.

Dude, I don't even KNOW "Right Down The Line". What kind of competition is this? "Baker Street" is fucking classic, man. Get the fuck out of the door, as Lou Reed would say.

Oh no! "Right Down The Line" is by Dire Straits?!?! What? *holds up sign of the cross with fingers to ward evil spirits off*

Hi, Turangalila! ;)

Alright, look, you are all meanies. There has been no You Tube link posted here. But okay, I'd rather eat bugs than to listen to Dire Straits. I'll do this, but it is the LAST TIME and only because I love ILXOrs. Okay? THE LAST TIME I WILL EVER WILLINGLY LISTEN TO DIRE STRAITS. GOT IT?

No, it's written by Gerry Rafferty. It's also wonderful & heartbreaking.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS0FwVBME0c

I posted it on another thread, but Lord Alfred scolded me.

Okay, it's by Gerry Rafferty isn't it? I got it now. Alfred, why did you have to confuse me on the first post?

Yeah I know this song "Right Down The Line", of course I do, but it's still nowhere near fucking "Baker Street", and I'll go to court to testify about that. Fuck right off. I'm talking about saxophones here, what the fuck are you guys talking about?

xpost! Turangalila! You're awake! Winking at you! ;)

And did Lord Alfred scold you???

Alfred, how do you plead?

But you're not online!

Also, Baker Street may have had more sociocultural impact, but I have so much more emotional resonance toward RDtL.

BAKER STREET
BAKER STREET
BAKER STREET
BAKER STREET
BAKER STREET
BAKER STREET
BAKER STREET

Oh my god the only song I can think of from my childhood to pair with that one is Al Stewart's "Time Passages".

Oh sweetie, Turangalila, I know why I'm not online and it's not my fault, honey. I'll be online in just a sec.

I didn't exist at the time. Sorry.

Heheh. Oh that's okay! Did you send me your muxtape yet? Naw, I bet not!

WTF indeed!

Jesus, sometimes it really is better just to concentrate on the music and forget about the musician.

City To City's always been one of my favourite albums of its kind and that organ totally makes "Right Down The Line." I'm sure Green Gartside is or was a fan because that song is so proto-Scritti it's unreal.

(esp. the way GR sings "woman" in the chorus)

haha yes

This thread is making me want to hear not only City to City but also the Night Owl singles - for the first time since 1980, practically

"Right Down the Line" is pleasant enough but "Baker Street"? You can't fuck with that.

it's like preferring "Breaking Us In Two" to "Steppin' Out"

So is the rest of City to City worth hearing?

So is the rest of City to City worth hearing?

Absolutely, says the guy who's too in love with the album to be impartial.

Night Owl and Snakes and Ladders are both really good too.

Jesus wept, I didn't know about Rafferty's problems. Only looked in here because I heard 'Get it right next time' the other day, which now sounds blackly comic after reading that Scotsman piece.

I can't believe I heard 'Right Down The Line' just today. Didn't know it was Gerry Rafferty, had to look it up through bits of the lyrics I remembered. Goes to show how it planted itself in my memory the first time already. Timeless, and utter utter classic. I feel ashamed having gotten to know this song just today.

Yesssssssss. Such a fantastic song.

Do yourself a favor and listen to Star by Stealer's Wheel. That is the best Gerry Rafferty-related song. How that wasn't a major mega international hit is beyond me. Such a catchy song. makes Right On Down The Line sound like Faust.

Rafferty is alive and well

SCOTS singer Gerry Rafferty has reassured worried fans he is not "missing".

Concerns for the Paisley-born musician grew this week after reports that friends had not heard from him since he disappeared six months ago while being treated for liver failure at a London hospital.

But last night solicitors for the singer - best-known for his 1978 hit Baker Street - said he was "extremely well" and composing songs at his home in Italy.

A statement said: "Contrary to reports, Gerry is extremely well and has been living in Tuscany for the past six months.

"At his house there, which is just north of Florence, he continues to compose and record new songs and music.

"He would like to send a personal thank-you to all of his fans who have expressed their concern for his well-being and he hopes to release a new album of his most recent work in the summer."

Rafferty also had a huge hit in 1972 with Stuck In The Middle With You with the band Stealers Wheel.

His former Stealers Wheel bandmate Tony Williams said he had been concerned for 61-year-old Rafferty, who has a history of alcohol problems.

Last night he said: "I'm delighted he's fine."

Ouch. The same guy who did Baker Street did that awful "Stuck In The Middle With You" song? Oh the horror.

lol bimble

Finally got City to City. "Stealin' Time" is a quiet stunner.

i'm going with "baker st". not that "right down the line" isn't terrific. i agree w/the poster above who said you can't really compare "baker street" to anything else. it's a force of nature. you've got earth, fire, water, wind, and BAKER STREET

I have this best of & I love every song on it:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/4103961HE5L._SL500_AA300_.jpg

I also love the album cover – it could easily go stealth as a Talk Talk record.

Aren't the songs on that comp rerecorded?

I have no idea.

Still don't understand how "Right Down The Line" is even in the same neighborhood as "Baker Street," though I still like it a lot. Anyway, related thread (which more Rafferty talk toward the bottom, I believe):

Stealer's Wheel VS. Mouse & The Traps

The thread title's deliberately provocative, in the old ILM style; sorry if that wasn't clear. I wanted a Gerry Rafferty thread that didn't concentrate on "Baker Street."

City to City is a good album, better than I expected.

Aren't the songs on that comp rerecorded?

There are 3 or 4 minor remixes ("Baker Street" among them), but no rerecording as far as I can tell from the liners.

I wanted a Gerry Rafferty thread that didn't concentrate on "Baker Street."

Then let me mention that the two City to City follow-ups--Night Owl, Snakes & Ladders--are pretty damn good. (Says the guy who ranks City to City in his all-time Top 20, so apply many grains of salt as needed.)

"Home and Dry" is a very nice third single. The Night Owl singles aren't bad either.

RIP big man. TBH I'm amazed he made it to 2011.

Oh, that sucks. RIP

" In phases of renunciation, he smashed cases of superb wines into a stream on his land. "

Aw RIP. I have listened to his best of with pleasure so many times.

" In phases of renunciation, he smashed cases of superb wines into a stream on his land. "

worthy of Becker-Fagen.

What a moving story: comfortable with his millions yet always unhappy.

I think it's "Right Down the Line" for me, because sometimes the saxophone part grates on me in "Baker Street" after overexposure, and I love the harmonized chorus of "Right Down the Line".

I love the light disco groove of this minor American hit (but big UK hit):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vTnff0pkgs

Thanks to this thread, I finally listened to City to City (remembering the cover from the LP bins at the public library many years ago). I think I'd have to vote for "Baker Street" between these two songs, but is it strange to wonder if side 2 might actually be better than side 1? "Mattie's Rag" is the best McCartney song of 1978, "Home and Dry" shows he can do grandiosity without a sax, and "Waiting for the Day" has a lot more verve and momentum than you expect from "soft-rock". Al Stewart is like a sleepwalker in comparison.
It's sad that great records like this get forgotten because they don't fit people's narrative of what music in 1978 was about.

Funny this popped up... The other day while in the break room of the casino I work at, "Baker Street" was being piped in. I always heard that sax riff because, I mean... that sax riff. But for the first time I decided I would just pay my attention to the guitar and I am not a member of the guitar intelligentsia cabal but wow, that song has some subtly good guitar work and a solo that is perfect.

oh hell yeah that is some rippin guitar there. song is truly a “tour de force”

It is an absolutely perfect solo, and what's really remarkable is that because Rafferty wanted it to sound spontaneous, he didn't allow the session guitarist, Hugh Burns, to rehearse or experiment with different ideas. What you hear is a single take, played off the cuff. That's talent!

“Right Down the Line” is truly one of the best songs of the 70’s.

Is there a thread that covers a similar mood/vibe/genre to this song? I want to hear more in this vein, a few examples come to mind but they’re not close enough or they’re not as plenty as I want them to be. I just want a 1 hour+ playlist in this style to play while making a bbq.

Here’s some examples of songs which I think are close but not quite:

Steely Dan - only a fool would say that
Fleetwood Mac - Rihannon
Ned Doheny - get it up for love
Jeremy Spencer Band - travellin

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUkyD7clZLw

First time I heard "Baker Street" was via The Simpsons having no idea what it was, and that sax riff sounded like a charming bit of cheese. I've heard it countless times since, and I've grown to intensely dislike it. Like right now, in this godforsaken drugstore piping it through their speakers.

I can't even remember "Right Down the Line" but I see Bonnie Raitt did a cover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYp8lYT9Zhk

I love both songs, but "Right Down the Line" edges out "Baker Street." The Lucius cover really nails it.

The sax break is fine as part of the song, it's tiresome when removed from context as a signifier for "coked-out yacht rock corny awesomeness" etc.

I think I know what you mean. Rafferty's singing on "Baker Street" always sounded dull to me, which is unfortunate because I actually like what he's put into the song lyrically, or at least what he's trying to write about. When the sax comes in, as cheesy as it may be, it does pump a sudden burst of life into the record. I don't know, maybe it's supposed to evoke the sudden pleasure you get from taking in a drug (or a smoke or a drink)?

That actually makes hearing it in a pharmacy wrongly appropriate.

Do yourself a favor and listen to Star by Stealer's Wheel. That is the best Gerry Rafferty-related song. How that wasn't a major mega international hit is beyond me. Such a catchy song. makes Right On Down The Line sound like Faust.

Joe Egan's song!

I suddenly wondered whether "constant as a northern star" (in "Right Down The Line") originated with Joni, but it turns out Shakespeare put it in Julius Caesar.

This eccojam version of Baker St

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awAp5UGpncY