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

Histoire_de_melody_nelson_1584529535_resize_460x400

Serge Gainsbourg - Histoire de Melody Nelson

I became popular in France prior to becoming popular anywhere else; for whatever reason they just adopted me. I didn’t speak any French, I didn’t tailor that in any way, but they said I was a bit like Serge and then I got into him as a consequence. The French are a weird culture, I’m really blessed that I’m popular there but I also think… fuck, it is quite uncool there. They’re the only nation in the world that clap on the one and the three, everyone else claps on the two and the four, so there’s something inherently corrupt about their understanding of music. They’re better at pastry than they are at music. Serge Gainsbourg understood how shit French music was, and he turned it around.