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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

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Al Green - Let’s Stay Together

Someone told me that the middle of the road is the only place you definitely get run over, and this is very obvious, housewife soul… you can’t say that any more, can you? But I just like how it’s created. I get really into the fact that the band used to just bang out these songs, they’d put down these drum tracks then Al Green would just come in at the last minute and sing on top of it all. They’re so patterned, cyclical, and he just it off. It’s a load of faux, pre-religious romantic nonsense, but really well done. They were kind of cynical, I reckon. ‘Let’s knock a few of these out in a day and we’re on!’ They’re kind of simple songs when you look back at it, there’s a lack of depth to Al Green, but he’s got such a good voice, and such a good drummer. And age has made it sound cooler, but the core isn’t cool at all.