Week 2, revealed on Sunday 18 October
Gerry Rafferty
City to City, 1978
Nobody voted this week. The record still earned its place on the shelf.
About the record
Everyone knows the saxophone. Almost nobody knows what comes after it.
"Baker Street" is here, and so is "Right Down the Line". Gerry Rafferty was a Scottish songwriter who had already had a hit with Stealers Wheel, and then spent three years unable to release anything while the band's contracts were fought over. He kept travelling down to London for meetings with lawyers and sleeping at a friend's flat on Baker Street. That's where the song comes from, and the album title too.
When the record finally came out in 1978, it went to number one in the United States and knocked the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack off the top.
Listen for how unhurried it is. These are songs by a man who is tired of the music business and wants to go home. Start with "The Ark" and let it run.