Jethro Tull singer, composer and lyricist Ian Anderson wrote this “marathon piece” (as he called it) at a time when he was living alone in a small cottage near Baker Street, a hectic London street between Regent’s Park and Hyde Park.
Baker Street is legendary as the home of the fictional Sherlock Holmes. Just a few years after Jethro Tull, Gerry Rafferty also dedicated a song to this busy street: “This city desert makes you feel so cold / It’s got so many people but it’s got no soul.”
Ian Anderson also seems to have felt the soulless cold of this street (“crowded emptiness”). “I was very lonely there, just sitting around or walking through a relatively unfamiliar part of town.” Anderson was suffering from his divorce from Jenny, and at the same time he was (thus far unsuccessfully) courting Shona, an employee at Chrysalis Records. His homelessness and bitterness apparently colored the way he experienced Baker Street – in keeping with a wise Doors song: “People are strange when you’re a stranger. Faces look ugly when you’re alone.” Anderson also took everything “very, very seriously” when recording the track (as well as the entire Minstrel In The Gallery album), as his guitarist Martin Barre would report. The band leader later had to admit that the album had turned out a little angry and humorless because of him.
And yet: “Baker Street Muse” is a poetic gem of progressive rock music. Alongside “Thick As A Brick” and “Passion Play”, this “mini concept piece” (Anderson) is the longest track Jethro Tull have ever recorded in the studio (16:39). It consists of six sections that flow smoothly into one another, along with a dozen tempo, sound and mood changes. The actual song “Baker Street Muse” forms the framework, i.e. part 1 (up to 5:07) and part 6 (from 13:53). The lyrics describe the street: bus stop, shop window, underpass, Indian restaurants, newspaper vendors. In the chorus, there is an unmediated look inwards at the heartbreak: “Didn’t make her… I’m just a Baker Street Muse”.
The song in part 2 (“Pig-Me And The Whore”, from 5:07) tells of a prostitute and her suitor near the corner of Blandford Street. Part 4 (“Crash-Barrier Waltzer”, from 7:44) depicts the encounter between a homeless woman and a policeman, surreally distorted like a ballet scene. Part 5 (“Mother England Reverie”, from 10:06) finally reflects on the lonely lovelorn man’s own situation: “I’m drifting down the Baker Street valley in my steep unreality”.
The sound is typical of Jethro Tull: the acoustic guitar, adorned with piano and strings, then repeatedly jumping into rocking band power with improvised fills from electric guitar and flute. There is a beautifully crafted instrumental section (3:36 to 5:07), interrupted by a short, aggressive vocal interlude (“Walking down the gutter…”). Part 3 (“Nice Little Tune”, 6:37 to 7:44) is another instrumental miniature with lots of glockenspiel. Part 5 begins with a soundscape without a beat (but with street noises). A bluesy song section (“I have no time for Time Magazine”) is followed by a fast, rocking one (“There was a little boy”). And with the cue “Baker Street Muse”, we return to the main song at 13:53.
Jethro Tull – Minstrel In The Gallery on discogs.com