BILLY BRAGG
CAWLEY DAVE D
If you like your folk music with a lot of bite, politically speaking,
then you will want to go out and buy Billy Bragg albums.
His latest album is entitled The Internationale. It is a short album
(less than 25 min.) but it is a powerful one none the less. On it he updates
`The Internationale' and restores some socialist anthems to their original
glory.
Some songs he restore are `The Red Flag' which you sing without knowing
it. The song was changed later by unknowns to `Tannanbaum' (sp?).
Also `My Son Came Home Today' written by the Irishman who wrote `The Band
Played Waltzing Matilda' and other anti-war songs.
He also changes `Joe Hill' (i dreamed i saw joe hill last night) to
`I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night' which gives the old union song an
interesting twist.
Another interesting song written by Billy himself is `The Marching
Hymn of the Covert Battalions' quite humorous and painfully honest.
You don't have to be a member of the Socialist Labor Party to like the
album just a sense of humor and an interest in diverse music.
Other Billy Bragg albums have political songs on them interspersed with
love songs and stuff like that, but this is pure politics from the socialist
angle. It is also a lesson in old union songs, for those who are history
buffs. He even gives you background on the songs in the liner notes (where i
got most of my info from-i guess this is my foot note).
So go out and buy it, but don't spend more than $10 on it. Find a used
record store that also deals in CD's and get it there, that's what I did.
In The Struggle,
-dc
Muffy Barkocy
["The Internationale"]
Other Billy Bragg albums have political songs on them interspersed with
love songs and stuff like that, but this is pure politics from the socialist
Well, I don't know if this was intended as negative or not, but I
wouldn't put down Billy Bragg's love songs at all. They are not at all
typical, and many of them are pretty political, too, dealing with
sexual/political issues. Even if they didn't, they'd still be great
songs.
I'd recommend his last album, "Worker's Playtime," in particular. Great
love and political songs. I remember hearing that he said something (or
quoted someone) to the effect that you can't be a good revolutionary
unless you understand love, and take time to enjoy yourself. (I guess
this is sort of like Emma Goldman's "if I can't dance, I don't want to
be part of your revolution.")
Muffy
Jim Hori
>In article <4...@platypus.uofs.edu> dd...@jaguar.ucs.uofs.edu (CAWLEY DAVE D) writes:
> Other Billy Bragg albums have political songs on them interspersed with
> love songs and stuff like that, but this is pure politics from the socialist
>wouldn't put down Billy Bragg's love songs at all. They are not at all
>love and political songs. I remember hearing that he said something (or
>quoted someone) to the effect that you can't be a good revolutionary
>unless you understand love, and take time to enjoy yourself. (I guess
>this is sort of like Emma Goldman's "if I can't dance, I don't want to
>be part of your revolution.")
Or Che Guevara's "The true revolutionary is guided by great
feelings of love". Here is a second for Billy's love songs,
perhaps the most conscious and literate in pop music.
"A New England" from his first EP is sweepingly romantic,
ironic and bittersweet, and has a great guitar propulsion
all at the same time.
....
jimh
D A Fay
>In article <MUFFY.91A...@remarque.berkeley.edu> mu...@remarque.berkeley.edu (Muffy Barkocy) writes:
>>In article <4...@platypus.uofs.edu> dd...@jaguar.ucs.uofs.edu (CAWLEY DAVE D) writes:
>> Other Billy Bragg albums have political songs on them interspersed with
>> love songs and stuff like that, but this is pure politics from the socialist
>>Well, I don't know if this was intended as negative or not, but I
>>wouldn't put down Billy Bragg's love songs at all. They are not at all
>>I'd recommend his last album, "Worker's Playtime," in particular. Great
>...
>>love and political songs.
(Before I begin to fume, I'm a great admirer of BB's music & politics &
live shows (though none of the times I've seen him since have matched
a show @ the Mean Fiddler in London with his high school band RiffRaff,
summer 1987)...)
The album w/the Internationale referred to at the start isn't that
new--released in the US sometime around August of last year. Good to
see a return to a more raw sound on some of those tracks.
"Worker's Playtime" took a while to grow on me. My tape was eaten about
a month ago & I'm not sure I'll replace it, though. I had a lot more
respect for BB's politics before a "Capitalism is Killing Music"
promotional coffee mug arrived along with the album at the radio station
I worked at at the time. Also the instrumentation was a little heavy.
A song like "This Saturday Boy" (reissued on Back to Basics) can convey
the same emotion without all the instruments & effects. I think his
best stuff is still the Weller-esque guitar work on "New England" &
"Milkman..." etc.
As for live shows, if at all possible don't see him in the US. Unless
you're so into the politics that you don't mind hearing 5 minutes of
lecturing for every 10 of music.
Finally I'm glad he's drawing attention to Phil Ochs. The man certainly
deserves it.
Derick Fay
University of Edinburgh
Muffy Barkocy
In article <MUFFY.91A...@remarque.berkeley.edu> mu...@remarque.berkeley.edu (Muffy Barkocy) writes:
>love and political songs.
A GREAT album, although it took me months to find it in a store. I had only
heard one song on the radio and because of his accent, I kept looking for a
song called "Missed Appointment" (which turned out to be "Must I Paint You A
Picture"!) Actually, I got "WORKERS PLAYTIME" and still didn't have much of
a sense of how political Billy is until I saw him in person. There's really
only one song on that album, "Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards," that's
overtly political. The rest could pass for typical social commentary.
Speaking of this song, the video for it is *hilarious*...and very
political. Unfortunately, I only saw it a few times, on a college cable
station. However, I just picked up a videotape with two 50-minute films
he did on tours - "Mr. Bragg Goes To Moscow" and something which I don't
remember the name of, about unions in the USA.
Muffy
Ron McBay
>love and political songs.
A GREAT album, although it took me months to find it in a store. I had only
heard one song on the radio and because of his accent, I kept looking for a
song called "Missed Appointment" (which turned out to be "Must I Paint You A
Picture"!) Actually, I got "WORKERS PLAYTIME" and still didn't have much of
a sense of how political Billy is until I saw him in person. There's really
only one song on that album, "Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards," that's
overtly political. The rest could pass for typical social commentary.
>I remember hearing that he said something (or
>quoted someone) to the effect that you can't be a good revolutionary
>unless you understand love, and take time to enjoy yourself.
He uses that to introduce "A New England." He says something like you can't
really be a socialist until you have totally and completely loved another
human being because that's what socialism is at its heart.
>(I guess
>this is sort of like Emma Goldman's "if I can't dance, I don't want to
>be part of your revolution.")
Huh, I've also heard him say this at the end of playing "Waiting For The
Great Leap Forwards"!
BY THE WAY, Billy seems to be on a mini tour of the states these days. He
just played the Earth Day II concert in Foxboro on the 20th and is playing
Atlanta (lucky me!) on May 1st appropriately enough. He's also supposed
to be playing on a bill with R.E.M. in Charlotte, NC (DOES ANYBODY HAVE A
DATE FOR THIS CONCERT -- OR ANY OTHER CONCERT DATES FOR BILLY AT ALL???)
Ron
--
Ron McBay/Atlanta University Center| Daniel, my brother, you are older than me.
usul%auc....@mathcs.emory.edu | Do you still feel the pain
UUCP: ...!{gatech,emory}!auc!usul | Of the scars that won't heel?
BITNET: USUL@EMORY | "DANIEL" -- ELTON JOHN/BERNIE TAUPIN
Mark D. Hessman
|> >I'd recommend his last album, "Worker's Playtime," in particular. Great
|> >love and political songs.
|>
Yep. Lot of good stuff on here. An interesting fact is that I didn't
realize how great a song "Valentine's Day Is Over" is until I heard it
covered on *Freedom & Rain* (Oyster Band & June Tabor). Their version
gave it the propulsion it needed; the somewhat self-indulgent lyrics
are offset wonderfully by the fast walk of the beat and by the distance
Tabor lends to the vocals.
-- Mark
<--------------------------------------------------------------------->
< st60...@brownvm.bitnet - Mark Hessman - cs13...@cs.brown.edu >
< Box 5131, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912 >
< >
< 'Thank you for the things you taught me when you hit me hard.' >
< -- Billy Bragg >
<--------------------------------------------------------------------->
Ron McBay
>In article <32...@auc.UUCP> us...@auc.UUCP (Ron McBay) writes:
> There's really
> only one song on that album, "Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards," that's
> overtly political. The rest could pass for typical social commentary.
>
>Speaking of this song, the video for it is *hilarious*...and very
>political. Unfortunately, I only saw it a few times, on a college cable
>station.
Billy has a VIDEO??? I saw him once and he made this big deal about his being
able to think of much better things to do with money than making 3-minute
personal adverts to play on MTV.
>However, I just picked up a videotape with two 50-minute films
>he did on tours - "Mr. Bragg Goes To Moscow" and something which I don't
>remember the name of, about unions in the USA.
"WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON" was the name of the second film.
Muffy Barkocy
In article <MUFFY.91A...@remarque.berkeley.edu> mu...@remarque.berkeley.edu (Muffy Barkocy) writes:
>In article <32...@auc.UUCP> us...@auc.UUCP (Ron McBay) writes:
> There's really
> only one song on that album, "Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards," that's
> overtly political. The rest could pass for typical social commentary.
>
>Speaking of this song, the video for it is *hilarious*...and very
>political. Unfortunately, I only saw it a few times, on a college cable
>station.
Billy has a VIDEO??? I saw him once and he made this big deal about his being
able to think of much better things to do with money than making 3-minute
personal adverts to play on MTV.
Well, it didn't play on MTV...*grin*. But yes, he definitely has a
video, and he must have participated, since I *know* that was him
dressed up as Fidel Castro...*smile*...I saw it a few years ago and
unfortunately didn't record it.
Muffy
Dan Parmenter
in fact appear on MTV - during 120 Minutes. I saw it least once, and
I thought it was almost embarassingly awful, especially Billy dressed
in spandex with a long wig attempting to poke fun at rock video styles
but just looking basically ridiculous.
- Dan
--
____________________________________________________________________________
|Dan Parmenter |Think! It ain't illegal yet! - P-funk |d...@gnu.ai.mit.edu |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dan Parmenter
> Yep. Lot of good stuff on here. An interesting fact is that I didn't
> realize how great a song "Valentine's Day Is Over" is until I heard it
> covered on *Freedom & Rain* (Oyster Band & June Tabor). Their version
> gave it the propulsion it needed; the somewhat self-indulgent lyrics
> are offset wonderfully by the fast walk of the beat and by the distance
> Tabor lends to the vocals.
I thought the Tabor/Oysters version was one of two weak links on an
otherwise solid album. It just lacked the stark emotion of Bragg's
version. Bragg seems to resist good cover versions - remember the
poppy "A New England" by Kirsty MacColl (which got a few coolness
points for keeping the line about "just looking for another girl" -
oh, *are* you now Kirsty?).
The other weak link was even more devastating - the shoddy version of
"Night Comes In", which is one of my all time favorite Richard
Thompson songs. Honestly, Richard has a whole, potential second career
based on long, jam-oriented songs with cryptic, esoteric lyrics
("Sloth", "Night Comes In", "Calvary Cross"). The Oysters 'n' June
made it too fast and poppy and totally missed out on what could have
been a highlight. Tabor is capable of that sort of material, as
demonstrated on the '87 Cropredy reading of "A Sailor's Life".
She certainly made up for things with "All Tomorrow's Parties", but
then I'm slightly biased - I prefer both the Tabor/Oyster version AND
the Nick Cave version to Nico's vocal on the original. The VU should have
let Moe take it or something :-)
bailing out near line 1
d...@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Dan Parmenter) am i; gaze on my wonders, ye mighty, and despair:
>Bragg seems to resist good cover versions - remember the
>poppy "A New England" by Kirsty MacColl (which got a few coolness
>points for keeping the line about "just looking for another girl" -
>oh, *are* you now Kirsty?).
Is that what she sings? I always thought she'd changed it to "Are
you looking for another girl?", which preserved the (degenerate) rhyme
but changed the whole sense of the chorus. Did my ears deceive me?
-- Stewart
--
"It sounds like interstellar cat torture, and I mean that
as a compliment."
-- Marty Stevens (mar...@sco.COM)
/* uunet!sco!stewarte -or- stew...@sco.COM -or- Stewart Evans */