The Quietus - A new rock music and pop culture website

Baker's Dozen

Vanity Subjects: Baxter Dury Picks His 13 Favourite Albums
Patrick Clarke , March 18th, 2020 11:10

Patrick Clarke meets Baxter Dury in his West London flat, to talk about his favourite albums from Frank Ocean to his father, and an excruciating encounter with Lou Reed and Lana Del Rey

Original_cast_recording_oliver_-551044_1584529160_resize_460x400

Lionel Bart - Oliver! Original Cast Recording

I’m just obsessed by Lionel Bart. He’s just an amazing character. When you get someone like him who really understood Dickens, you’re away, it’s a chain of brilliant people. I think these songs are very similar to what dad was writing, I mean he pre-empted him, Lionel Bart, but ‘Pam’s Moods’ and Oliver are really similar in the construction of language. The language is so fucking brilliant in Oliver, the melodies, it’s just unbelievable songwriting. That 1960 production, Ron Moody who plays Fagin is particularly brilliant.