Baker Street - Gerry Rafferty

[sweggie]

Baker Street has been nominated on best song intro (see below) which has just reminded me of an urban myth. The sax solo was played by Raphael Ravenscroft, but a few years ago it was put about that it was played by Bob Holness of Blockbusters fame! It was even a question in a pop quiz i did a while back which i refuted strongly. Did anyone else hear about this and does anyone know how this UB came about? 

[qatopboy]

Stuart Maconie, now radio 2 dj, started it in the NME apparently.

 

Marc

[jenstar]

Yes, it originally appeared in the NME, on their satire/silliness page "Thrills", written by Stuart Maconie. It was in a section called "Believe It Or Not" which was just a list of blatant lies intended to raise a laugh. Nobody who saw the line in that contextcould possibly have taken it as anything other than a joke. Unfortunately Tommy Boyd, who was hosting a late-night radio show in London at the time, for some reason decided it would be a good idea to nick the gag. Dunno how he said it, but it clearly wasn't as blatantly false in Boyd's telling as it was in the NME, because a lot of gullible people believed him. All the same, I'm surprised at it coming up in a pop quiz. It's the sort of urban legend that's usually quoted as an Example of an urban legend - in fact, I don't think I've ever heard anyone quote it as a "fact" at all.

[Champagne]

Supposedly Bob Holness hates this rumour. I kinda wish it were true though.

[sglazier]

Sherlock Holmes played violin on Baker Street - fact. Or fiction?

[Haggisdj]

Sweet Child Of Mine and Pretty Vacant have better intros...

[BigDogsWang]

sglazier - I just googled your question, and came up with nothing.

I think therefore it could possibly be fiction, but I will look into it more......

I also heard a rumour that Bella Emberg sang Pink Floyd's 'Great Gig in the Sky'. Anyone clarify this?

[OBonio]

I think Bob Holness does actually play the sax though. At least the answer to 'What does Bob Holness and Clinton have in common?' was they both play sax.... Whether that question was based on the 'fact' that Bob played Baker Street is another matter though....

[sglazier]

Sorry BDW it was actually Sherlock Holness, as mentioned in the NME's Arthur C. Doyle Elementery Pop Quiz 1986.