Just wanted to put some love out there for Billy Bragg.
I’ve been a fan since the '80s, and while (I think) the popular opinion is that his later work (post-Don’t Try This At Home) hasn’t been up to the level of his early output, songs like “St. Monday”, “The Fourteenth of February” and “Upfield” are among my favorites. Even his most recent, Mr. Love & Justice, was solid - as good as I could expect from a man of his age and experience.
He’s always primarily been known as a political/protest singer (there’s a reason Woody Guthrie’s estate chose him for the Mermaid Avenue project), but IMO his relationship songs deserve just as much - if not more - praise.
Anyway, he’s always seemed like a really decent guy, and he’s fun to see live, so I was just fishing to see if there were other fans on this board.
Don’t know if I have an absolute favorite song, but “A New England”, “Greetings to the New Brunette”, “Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards” and “Accident Waiting To Happen” are some personal favorites. Anyone else?
I’l jump in and ask for some recommendations if you wouldn’t mind. Can’t say I’ve ever listened to Billy Bragg but I gather it’s something I would like based on what I do know about his musical style and the opinions of some acquaintances.
Either way, I think I’m going to go check him out because it’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a while.
Well, since you’re named (I assume) after a Pogues album, I feel pretty safe in saying you’d probably like Billy.
I’d start with the 1st 2 - Brewing Up With… and Talking With the Taxman About Poetry - the first is basically Billy and guitar; the second has more full band arrangements. That’s pretty much where you’ve got to start, IMO. If you like those, try Don’t Try This At Home (poppiest) and Workers Playtime (slowest), and discover more from there.
On Myspace music right now, listening to Taxman and pleasanty surprised that Help Save the Youth of America is a Billy Bragg song, I’ve heard (I think) Evan Greer cover it, and I like it a lot.
Glad to see this thread started, woodstockbirdybird! I’ve been thinking that I’d like to check out more of Bragg’s music, but didn’t really know where to start. I’m a fan of Mermaid Avenue, but came at it from the Wilco side and am otherwise not very familiar with his work.
The Web site Braggtopia is excellent. I especially like the Songfinder, which not only has all of his lyrics, but includes lots of little tidbits about them. For instance, the song “St. Swithin’s Day” was initially titled “St. Crispin’s Day,” which is why the Battle of Agincourt – fought on the latter – is mentioned.
No luck on what exactly the “Tank Park Salute” is, though. Billy has evidently never revealed it. I can’t imagine he will, either.
Oh God yes… I think Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards, Valentine’s Day is Over and Island of No Return in particular are just genius. I like the political stuff, particularly earlier tracks like Between the Wars and Days Like These, but as others have said his ‘love’ songs are often overlooked, and I think he’s often unfairly pigeonholed in the UK at least as a shouty political singer.
I do prefer his earlier work but I love me some Billy. He’s also great live, very personable and entertaining. I’ve seen him a couple of dozen times and he’s never disappointed.
Great thread. Love me some Billy. If I wasn’t MrDibble here, I’d be New Brunette.
He does the very British kitchen sink drama genre very well, doesn’t he? I love Levi Stubb’s Tears for this reason, as well as Valentine’s Day Is Over and The Marriage.
All great choices. Other favourites for me include You Woke Up My Neighbourhood, There Is Power In A Union, The Marching Song Of The Covert Battalions and Must I Paint You A Picture.
Favourite line will always be “Mixing pop and politics, he asks me what the use is.” that and “I’m more impressionable when my cement is wet.” Something about the way he uses language…
The Bard of Barking You guys know he used to drive a tank?
I can’t a big fan of his music* (I’m more of a Robyn Hitchcock** guy) but I met him when we did the sound for a Labour party support gig*** and he was a really nice bloke.
specifically his voice, some of his songs are excellent.
** I think they have played together occasionally, that’d be a great gig.
*** This was a lo—ong time ago (pre Blair), couldn’t see Billy doing that these days.
Should have read: I can’t say I’m a big fan… blah.
And I also wanted to add that he has turned up on serious political programs on BBC tv and Radio 4 where he’s been the voice of reason amongst the political twat-wits.
“And then one day it happened. She cut her hair and I stopped loving her.”
I couldn’t name a favorite Billy Bragg song. He’s one of the few people where I like every single song.
I met my wife at work. I had seen her walking around and I stopped in her office to talk to her. She was listening to Reaching to the Converted, which I hadn’t heard yet, but immediately recognized as Billy. I asked, “What’s that you’re listening to?”, and she assumed that I hadn’t heard of him. I think she fell in love immediately when I went on for five minutes about Billy, his old stuff, and where I’d seen him play (we’d been at the same shows at least twice before we met). I’ll never forget sitting on the floor of her office hearing “Walk Away Renee” for the first time.
I’ll second Must I Paint You a Picture as a recommendation. It’s designed to be the Essential Billy Bragg and I think it manages to hit the peaks and skip the valleys.
Like Red Roses for Me, I am a huge Pogues fan. I also count myself as a big Billy Bragg fan.
Some of my favourite B. Bragg songs:
Jerusalem (cover)
Little Timebomb
The Only One
The Short Answer
Greetings to the New Brunette
Shirley
Tank Park Salute
Tracks of My Tears (available on iTunes… great cover)
The Milkman of Human Kindness
Valentine’s Day is Over
Must I Paint You A Picture
On Mermaid Ave… and it really is more Wilco than Bragg, but ‘At My Window Sad and Lonely’
I don’t always agree with Billy’s politics, but he’s a great, great musician and vocalist. Enjoy.
I love the relationship stuff too, so much angst in there, without being self indulgent.
But some of the political stuff still sends a shiver down my spine. The Internationale (as an album, not a song) never grows old for me.The version of the Red Flag on it is fantastic.
All excellent examples, as is the underrated (IMO) “St. Swithin’s Day”.
Oh, I definitely should have mentioned “Must I Paint You A Picture?”.
My favorite line, from the same song: “The revolution is just a t-shirt away!”
Small Clanger, I’m a big Robyn fan, as well. They did indeed tour together - saw them a couple times, and they’d alternate who opened and who headlined, and at the end they’d sing a few songs together. Great shows.
They (Billy and Robyn) also did a few shows with R.E.M. under the name “Bingo Hand Job” in the early 90s, which was fun. The Bingo Hand Job live version of “Tom’s Diner” is on the b-side of some Out of Time single - “Radio Song”, maybe.
DSRB, I’ll second the “Tracks of My Tears” cover. Very nice. As is his cover of Love’s “7 and 7 Is”, though that song’s pretty much foolproof to begin with (though Rush managed to mangle it, unsurprisingly).
You guys know he used to drive a tank?