Lucifer's Grain

Baxter Dury recorded “Lucifer’s Grain” for Len Parrot’s Memorial Lift, his debut album, at Sanctuary Westside and Stanley House in London and State of Art in Bristol. Dury produced the recording with Craig Silvey and Geoff Barrow, with the song featuring Johanna Hussey as a vocal foil. Released by Rough Trade in 2002 as part of the Gingham Smalls 2 / Lucifer’s Grain single and on Len Parrot’s Memorial Lift, it helped introduce Dury’s hushed, character-driven songwriting outside the shadow of Ian Dury. Contemporary reviews singled out the album’s atmospheric arrangements and highlighted the tension between Dury’s delivery and Hussey’s darker vocal presence. The track remains part of Baxter Dury’s formative Rough Trade period and a marker of the off-kilter intimacy that shaped his later work. Its place on his debut album keeps it tied to the earliest public definition of his solo voice.