Chaise Longue

by Baxter Dury

Methods of parenting and education have progressed in recent years, especially compared to some of the more casually experimental routes inflicted on children of artistic professionals in the 70s and 80s. One experience that would take some beating is that endured by Baxter Dury.

When punk rock star Ian Dury disappeared to make films in the late 80s, he left his teenage son in the care of his roadie, in a rundown flat in Hammersmith. But this was no ordinary roadie; this was the Sulphate Strangler. The Strangler, having taken a lot of LSD in the 60s, was prone to depression, anger and hallucinations. He was also, as the name suggests, a drug dealer. What could possibly go wrong?

In a period that we can now only imagine, a young Baxter ricocheted from one adventure to another, narrowly swerving one disaster only immediately to collide with another. At times, his situation was perilous in the extreme - the world is lucky to have him at all. CHAISE LONGUE is an intimate account of those escapades, evocatively illuminating a bohemian west London populated with feverishly grubby characters. Narrated in Dury's candid tone, both sad and funny, this moving story will leave an indelible imprint on its readers.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography, Audiobook, Autobiography

244 pages, Audiobook

First published August 5, 2021

Reviews

[Sarah Neal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Baxter Dury’s memoir is a fascinating insight into coming of age as the wayward son of Ian Dury. Told in a series of often-hilarious anecdotes, recounted in Dury’s witty, likeable, self-deprecating style, the story of this unconventional upbringing is as vivid and dramatic as fiction but so much stranger. Colourful characters populate the narrative, from small-town delinquents to drug-addled roadie-cum-childminders, and the rollercoaster ride of life with a superstar parent makes for compelling reading, but at heart this is a deeply personal story of a troubled boy which transcends the category of rock memoir into something much more universal, and as such would appeal to a wide range of readers.

[Sam Holmes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sounds like he'd probably have bullied me in school

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Black Francis wrote: "Baxter Dury is currently the best user of the English language on planet earth". After reading the book, the only reasonable explanation for this statement is that Francis was on serious drugs at the time of his statement.

That being said, the books has it's moments.

[Ray Smillie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit of jumping back and forward with the chronology but it is fair to say that Baxter Dury's upbringing was far from the norm even if it does make for a good read. Having a famous dad who left his son to, mostly, his own devices left Baxter finding his own way and moving around the houses (literally) for somewhere to stay. This didn't help his social skills which, in turn, wasn't always advantageous in getting a roof over his head or finding a job. A mixture of scary, funny and sad.

[Emma French · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gud hur förklarar man något så galet, Baxter's första 20 år av livet är lika fyllda av händelser som en hel stads livstid. Är ni intresserade av att få en bild av London runt 80-talet, musikscenen runtomkring Ian Dury eller vill sätta er in i Baxter's mycket händelserika liv tipsar jag verkligen, oavsett om ni vet vem han är sen innan skriver han på ett sätt som gör allt intressant. Tycker Baxter Dury är en otrolig låtskrivare och plötsligt får hans låtar en annan innebörd, likaså hans pappas låt "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" som kan verka ironiskt men i all sin enkelhet var den nog fullt ut sanning.

Googlade en del under läsningen, läste bland annat en intervju med Jane Horrocks som under en tid dejtat Ian Dury vilket precis som Baxters övergripande kärlek gav en bild av att Ian Dury faktiskt hade sina kärleksfulla sidor. Kom också i en av mina googlingar fram till att frontfiguren i det brittiska punkbandet 999, Nick Cash, var en gammal elev till Ian Dury och därefter spelade i hans första band Kilburn and the High Roads och Clutter spelade med 999 på stadsgårdsterminalen.

Boken i sig ger mig samma känsla som Pulps låt "Mile End", diskhoar fyllda av matrester och mögel, nergångna lägenheter och männsikor utan några andra framtidsplaner eller visioner än att leva dagen ut.

"West London lounge syndicate
Less dinner, sons and daughters of Dracula
Talking in riddles and class jigsaws
I tried to talk lowbrow like pappy
Spit on you from his balcony"

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loses a star for covering only the first 20 years of Baxter's life but what a life! With Ian Dury as your father you'd expect a colourful childhood to say the least, and this does not disappoint. Baxter is as eloquent with his writing as he is with his lyrics. Can't wait for next installment.

[Seren Brockway · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first memoir, and I loved it because it really felt like Baxter was right next to you telling his story. A writing style I rarely encounter.
I’m also seeing him perform for the second time next month at Forwards and cannot wait :)

[Adriaan Pels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this book actually. But after reading two thirds of the book I lost it on a train. So if anyone wants to get rid of their copy I can finish the rest. Marking this as read for now

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a fairly concise read, but it's also relentless bizarre, depressing, and astonishing to think that anyone lived through that kind of childhood. Reading this memoir boggled my mind.

[Beth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Seduced by the cover blurb regarding the quality of writing, I picked this up from an exchange shelf on a campsite in Portugal.

It wasn't long before I realised that Baxter isn't even close to being a wordsmith - one gene he failed to inherit from his father.

Dull, self-indulgent, poorly written. It failed to completely address the relationship between father and son. I fear an additional volume may appear. I won't be reading it.

[Derek Baldwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is all over the place, matching perfectly the chaotic teenage years Baxter lived through. I’d be keen to read about how he got it together and built a career of his own, and maybe that will be a future project. Altogether a better singer-songwriter than memoirist, BD nevertheless spins a good yarn and to have emerged from all this mess as an in any way sane person is admirable. Encore

[Jelena Maksimovic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dosta je pismen Bakster Djuri, s obzirom na činjenicu da je napustio školu s 16, a i pre toga je duvao i bežao s časova, a većinu vremena je provodio s ćaletovim roudijem, koji je sa strane dilovao spid.

Zanimiljivo štivo za savremene roditelje.

[Jon Lisle-Summers · Rating 5 out of 5]

How to survive a wild childhood, or not

The story of Baxter Dury's upbringing in a rock & roll world should be a cautionary tale for any musician also considering becoming a parent: don't.
Being the son of Ian Dury would be a challenge for anyone. Luckily, Baxter is made of stern stuff, has survived and is doing very well. Yes, that is part of a Ian Dury song.
1976 and all that was part of my growing up. The anarchy and no-sleep-till-Hammersmith style of the era comes across with sometimes painful accuracy - work on a Monday morning, after three nights/days on the lash, if I turned up, must have been a sight for sore eyes.
Ian Dury himself comes across as a total mess, not necessarily in a good way. And yet. Ian was so completely focused on his music/performance that the rest of his life, lovers, and son seem to have been things he sort of bumped into incidentally, along the way.
Nevertheless, Baxter clearly loved his dad which is a triumph on Baxter's part, frankly.
This book is a twitchy snapshot, from the inside, of the madness of punk/new wave, though not much about the music. Have it.

[Joe Downie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Given Baxter's brilliat lyrics and mildly demonic, always hilarious chattering-classes-baiting live performances over the years, I was really looking forward to this one.

While it's true he paints an outragous picture of his early years - it is indeed a wonder he survived to adulthood - and this reader at least emerges with a sense of sadness and sympathy that he had it so tough for so long, it doesn't make for compelling reading. Anecdotes are told matter-of-factly and there's little emotional depth. We don't really get a sense of how these things made him feel, or impacted him in later life. They just happened, the chaos was his reality.

The book also suffers a bit from lack of narrative drive, jumping about as it does; Baxter explains why in the introduction and that's fair enough, but compared to the way Bobby Gillespie's book explores in detail how he got into music and built towards success with Primal Scream, there's almost no mention of what music he was into, what bands he went to see (apart from his Dad), and no sense of how his upbringing took him towards writing lyrics and music, or how his musical career developed. Maybe that will all be in the sequel...

[Shannon Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came to this book having recently discovered Baxter's music and having been won over by it's self-conscious sleaziness and deadpan storytelling, somewhat akin to pulp/ Jarvis cocker. His music is not derivative of his dad's and he stands as a talented musician in himself, but you can feel the influence, especially in the vocal delivery. And so I came to this book, intrigued to learn about the influence of his dad and his upbringing on his character, hoping it would provide some deeper insight into his music. While the book is a charming and fun read, comprised of discombobulated anecdotes about suspect patenting, strange Bohemian characters, school truency and general misbehaviour - that is all it is. No reflection or real context is provided, and most of the anecdotes end abruptly leaving the reader wondering what the point of them was. My main takeaway from this book is that for someone raised in chaos, a good way to cope must be to not think too deeply about it.

[Marlon Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent post-show reading material. I got to see Baxter play a few weeks ago and checked this out right afterwards. Although it's definitely quick and lightly-written, it did everything I hoped it would, offering startling stories about Bohemian SE UK life with the famous punk father, vivid accounts of BD's peregrinations through a string of secondary schools, and a few telling details which ended up inspiring songs I recognised. If you want a full CV starting from age 6 and carrying on to middle age, this isn't the book for you, but I found it a thorough pleasure from start to finish and great accompaniment to Baxter's incomparable stage presence. Does what it says on the tin, as all the best Amazon reviewers say.

[Aran Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a remarkable book in terms of the characters and encounters that Baxter had met and lived through in the first 20 odd years of his life

It reads like fiction in parts and I suppose like any retelling of ones past, there's always going to be a collision of truths and untruths (Baxter even mentions this at the start)

I read it in 4 sittings, absolutely flew through it. The fact that this part of his life story ends with him wandering around my home town of Newport, the same streets that I've walked along gave a weird sort of connection to him

"I left the hospital and walked around Newport, a town of sometimes unflattering greyness"

Perfectly described Baxter

[Martin Castle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing simple as that. I was very lucky to have seen Ian Dury a number of times, each time was brilliant but you weren’t quite sure what was going to happen mainly only chaos was guaranteed. So to call this creative fragile complex man your dad makes for an unforgettable book. Baxter comes across as lost out of control and wayward. But at the same time he never loses his love for his dad or mum it just gets stretched at times. This is one of the best books I have read this year.

[Mike D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent, if a little underwhelming. Im a big fan of his music but there's very little mention of his influences or musical education here, maybe he's saving that for later, i hope so. Until then we will have to make do with this intimate peek into his chaotic childhood and misspent youth. Its an easy read, very funny in places and full of larger than life characters, with his dysfunctional relationship with dad Ian at the centre of it all. Worth a read.

[Simon Chipps · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars
I loved this book! I read it on the back of seeing the author in concert supporting Pulp this summer. The book is really engaging, and whilst it tells the chaotic story of his formative years, it manages to be so much more than a series of extreme incidents and escapades. The writing drags you in so that people like 'The Strangler' can be fully described in their evident complexity, which in such a short text is a real achievement. Definitely hope there's a next volume!

[Emily Thornhill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really loved this and was left wanting more! Dury’s bizarre upbringing and his retellings of it are wild and compelling, being so very different to anything I could ever relate to. The eccentric characters he introduces us to and the unconventional situations he seeks out and gets himself into alike, create such an interesting read. I cannot even begin to imagine having a childhood as chaotic as his and dread to think how I would have turned out if I had. Reading this makes it all the more impressive that Baxter has created the life and career for himself that he has. After seeing him perform, I can see the same cheeky, troublesome child within him, both on stage and within his song writing, that he portrays throughout the book. I did struggle slightly with the changing timeline and the jumping around, but this structure does perfectly mirror the erratic nature of his childhood.

[Rob · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mildly diverting stuff from the indie raconteur and son of Ian. Bizarrely, I found the sections devoted to spells living with his mother in Aylesbury and Tring to be more arresting than the tales of Bohemian excess and childhood neglect in west London. The stories are generally amusing although they do occasionally stray towards nineties style. ‘he was a headcase, didn’t give a f***’ FHM mag feature territory.

[Tom Thornton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was a bit concerned about reading this because Baxter Dury is my favorite musician and my favorite gig to this day. I was a bit scared of finding anything which might change my mind but no, it's excellent. Sort of written in a similar voice to the way he composes his song lyrics, this is a superb book which has helped me understand my favorite artist even more. Thanks, Baxter!

[Nicola · Rating 3 out of 5]

For once, made me glad my middle-class married parents had been around!! As a teenager reading this book I'd have loved the complete chaos of Baxter's life and aspired to have had similar but having grown up it is clear that it was a chaotic and dangerous way of life and that Baxter has thankfully had an ability to survive and make the best of what came his way.

[Iain Hosie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good autobiography, slightly disjointed. Realized that it would be a better audio book with Baxters deadpan voice over some lazy electro beats, certain phrases accentuated as choruses with female voice overs ala jjgrey or Delilah Holliday. So... better to listen to his music than read his books. Cheers for the recommendation Black Francis, but it was over-pitched.

[Megan Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

My first biography!

Honestly it was a breeze to read, incredibly chaotic and all over the place but I enjoyed it. How Baxter Dury has enough brain cells left to make the bangers that he does is beyond me. Also he has such a kind and optimistic view of life and his family despite how rough and neglectful his upbringing was. Just a sound guy I guess. Definitely would’ve bullied me tho.

[Becky Timmins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed rambling my way through Dury’s formative years, and there were some moments of pure linguistic joy in here. A strange life, told in his iconic tone. As always, I just wanted more, or perhaps a different structure?

[Esther · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a childhood. Both parents absent at times, chaotic moves, hanging out with drug dealers, bunking off school. How he survived and then became a successful musician himself, god only knows. This was a fast, funny read.

[David Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this one up as I recognised Baxter Dury as an artist in his own right, having not even known who his dad was. This made the chaotic nature of this book all the more surprising - tales of car crashes both literal and figurative, and a frantic childhood most people could only imagine.

[Stev · Rating 2 out of 5]

A brief retelling of car-crash of an upbringing (literally at one point) told without insight or context. At least it’s a quick read. I suspect a large font size was used to make it look less shallow.