A ’70s pop masterpiece was his legacy

It always was the sax line that got me, like the sax in Lou Reed’s “Walk on the Wild Side,” a rare sax solo that captures the memory.

And while Gerry Rafferty didn’t play the solo, he wrote the basic melody and the song the sax made famous. “Baker Street,” though, was more than the solo; it was a shimmering bit of mid-’70s pop that stands among the best music of its decade. That Rafferty managed only a couple of minor hits from the same album — the underrated City to City — ultimately doesn’t matter. What matters is that he gave us “Baker Street” and “Stuck in the Middle” (recorded with Stealer’s Wheel), a feat few can claim.

Rest in peace, Mr. Rafferty.

• Read poetry at The Subterranean. 
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• Certainties and Uncertainties a chapbook by Hank Kalet, will be published in November by Finishing Line Press. It can be ordered here.  
• Suburban Pastoral, a chapbook by Hank Kalet, available here.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet