Purple Diary

[March 15 2009]

Alain Bashung died Saturday early afternoon at Saint-Joseph Hospital in Paris, after a 2-year fight against a lung cancer.

Bashung was commonly thought of by the French as the best rock singer after Serge Gainsbourg (who worked with Bashung on the album Play Blessures). Solitary, uncompromised and eccentric, he has been able to mix the tradition of chanson française, surrealism, and rock & roll in an almost abstract poetic and erotic dimension. His last album Bleu Pétrole is a masterpiece. I have been listening to it almost every day at work for the past 6 months.
Text Olivier Zahm

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