Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

9. Doris DukeI’m A Loser

I heard about this album in a book called The Atlantic Story by Charlie Gillett. It’s very social music. Some of these songs will make you weep, like ‘Sunny Side Of The Street’ – it’s heavy stuff about getting with a man who then gets you into prostitution. Heavy heavy stuff. No one knows what happened to Doris Duke. It’s really weird. She packed it in one day and no one, as far as I know, has been able to track her down. It’s as sad as one of the songs she sings. She had a disagreement with her producer after this second lot of recordings but it doesn’t say what this was in the book. Now that would be interesting to know. I don’t even like the first song on the album but after that it really goes into this lovely lush set of songs.

PreviousNext Record

The Quietus Digest

Sign up for our free Friday email newsletter.

Support The Quietus

Our journalism is funded by our readers. Become a subscriber today to help champion our writing, plus enjoy bonus essays, podcasts, playlists and music downloads.

Support & Subscribe Today