"Baker Street" - Gerry Rafferty (1978)

Rafferty wrote the song during a period when he was trying to extricate himself from his Stealers Wheel contracts, his earlier band. He was regularly travelling between his family home in Paisley and London, where he often stayed at a friend's flat in Baker Street. The resolution of Rafferty's legal and financial frustrations accounted for the exhilaration of the song's last three lines.


Winding your way down on Baker Street
Light in your head and dead on your feet
Well, another crazy day
You'll drink the night away
And forget about everything

This city desert makes you feel so cold
It's got so many people, but it's got no soul
And it's taken you so long
To find out you were wrong
When you thought it held everything

You used to think that it was so easy
You used to say that it was so easy
But you're trying, you're trying now
Another year and then you'd be happy
Just one more year and then you'd be happy
But you're crying, you're crying now

Way down the street there's a light in his place
He opens the door, he's got that look on his face
And he asks you where you've been
You tell him who you've seen
And you talk about anything

He's got this dream about buying some land
He's gonna give up the booze and the one-night stands
And then he'll settle down
In some quiet little town
And forget about everything

But you know he'll always keep moving
You know he's never gonna stop moving
'Cause he's rolling, he's the rolling stone

And when you wake up, it's a new morning
The sun is shining, it's a new morning
And you're going, you're going home