RIP Raphael Ravenscroft (Sax Line on Baker Street)

[lowdown]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Another one gone today.[/font]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][size=4]Raphael Ravenscroft's solo on 'Baker Street' is a very memorable pop sax line.[/size][/font]

Edited October 21, 2014 by lowdown

[KiOgon]

Great Sax - RIP Raphael.

[Urban Bassman]

Sad indeed, but that solo lives on!

[Bilbo]

Raf did some stuff with Brand X, IIRC.

[bassace]

A session player made BBC TV news this morning! And rightly so.

RIP Raf.

[Geek99]

I totally misread the part in brackets ... Must be the cards ..,
Rip

[Roger2611]

Posssibly the most famous sax solo ever?

Rip Raf

Edited October 21, 2014 by Roger2611

[Hobbayne]

I read somewhere that he was not happy with that sax part. He thought it was poorly played and off key.
I think its beautiful

[woodenshirt]

They say he was only paid £27 for the Baker Street session.

Mart

[peteb]

[quote name='woodenshirt' timestamp='1413982738' post='2584370']
They say he was only paid £27 for the Baker Street session.

Mart
[/quote]
And that the cheque apparently bounced...!

[ras52]

[quote name='woodenshirt' timestamp='1413982738' post='2584370']
They say he was only paid £27 for the Baker Street session.

Mart
[/quote]
...as one would expect, if that was the MU rate back then.

[lowdown]

£27, (assuming the cheque did not bounce) would have been around the minimum MU rate at the
time for a standard three hour session (porterage and doubling on top, if a MU contract).
Those guys might have been doing three sessions a day. They wouldn't have a clue what
would be a 'hit' or not, so would take the money and run.

Regular studio/TV/film players did really well wages wise back in those days,
because there was so much of that type of work available.

[4 Strings]

I listened to a radio programme on Gerry Rafferty a while back and he said that line was originally for guitar. Someone had the idea for it to be sax and, perhaps because Raphael played it so beautifully (timing is excellent!), it stuck.

It's certainly the stand out of that track and has made it the most famous of Rafferty's work.

[cybertect]

[quote name='4 Strings' timestamp='1414018116' post='2584997']
I listened to a radio programme on Gerry Rafferty a while back and he said that line was originally for guitar. Someone had the idea for it to be sax and, perhaps because Raphael played it so beautifully (timing is excellent!), it stuck. [/quote]

The original demo of [i]Baker Street[/i] is an extra on the 2011 remaster of City to City and a guitar plays the line.

[url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bcXRkMs0fs"]https://www.youtube....h?v=7bcXRkMs0fs[/url]

[Count Bassy]

Way, way, too young. A sad loss.