Album: Billy Bragg, Back to Basics, 1987
Acquired: Received as a Christmas gift from a family member in 1988. To whomever I need to thank, I say, "Thanks." I'm nothing if not gracious.
Best Track: "The Saturday Boy"
Lasting Memory: I finally got to see Billy Bragg do a solo concert in 2002. The World Cup was being played, so Bragg, a West Ham supporter, spent a good deal of time between songs describing how being a touring musician was great because he had plenty time to watch the football matches either live or on tape. He also spoke briefly about a clean water for Africa charity (I think) he was donating tour proceeds to, and he introduced "The Saturday Boy" by admitting, "Anyone who knows me knows that I'm an incurable, er, insufferable romantic."
Self-deprecation is as much Bragg's thing as is socialism. For that, one might be tempted to pity poor Billy because there should be nothing sadder than a man who is unlucky in love, war, and politics. Bragg earns only admiration, though, because the third of his songs that are pro-labor, anti-corporate media, and pacifistic are the equal of anything written and recorded by Woody Guthrie or Phil Ochs.
The other third of Bragg's songs that describe love sought, betrayed, lost, or unachieved are the equal of anything produced in the Brill Building by Burt Bacharach, Carol King, or Neil Diamond, as well as the Motown weepers of Smokey Robison and the bluesy proto funk of Philadelphia's own Holland/Dozier.
Those are pantheon names, but Bragg deserves to be put in their company. Want proof? Happy to oblige.
On the political front, consider Bragg's "To Have and Have Not," which takes the Thatcherites to task for breaking the long-observed Labourite social contract of guaranteeing employment for all residents of the United Kingdom (except maybe, you know, the Catholics in Northern Ireland):
Up in the morning and out to school
Mother says there'll be no work next year
Qualifications once the Golden Rule
Are now just pieces of paper
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards
If you look the part you'll get the job
In last year's trousers and your old school shoes
The truth is son, it's a buyer's market
They can afford to pick and choose
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because I dress like this
Doesn't mean I'm a Communist
The factories are closing and the army's full -
I don't know what I'm going to do
But I've come to see
In the Land of the Free
There's only a future for the Chosen Few
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards
At twenty one you're on top of the scrapheap
At sixteen you were top of the class
All they taught you at school
Was how to be a good worker
The system has failed you, don't fail yourself
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards
As evidence of Bragg's prowess with songs about love, I offer "The Milkman of Human Kindness":
If you're lonely, I will call
If you're poorly, I will send poetry
I love you
I am the milkman of human kindness
I will leave an extra pint
If you're sleeping, I will wait
If your bed is wet, I will dry your tears
I love you
I am the milkman of human kindness
I will leave an extra pint
Hold my hand for me I'm waking up
Hold my hand for me I'm waking up
Hold my hand for me I'm making up
Won't you hold my hand - I'm making up
If you are falling, I'll put out my hands
If you feel bitter, I will understand
I love you
I am the milkman of human kindness
I will leave an extra pint
As good as his stand-alone political and love songs are, though, where Bragg really shines is on his songs that combine ideology and emotion. More than half of Bragg's complete discography (shut up, this isn't a math blog) consists of songs that lay bare how all politics is personal and how all personal conflicts are political. In "St. Swithin's Day," Bragg compares a relationship that ended over a silly row with one of the most famous battles in English history. He also works in a rather rude joke about autoeroticism, so score one for the not-always-good guys:
Thinking back now,
I suppose you were just stating your views
What was it all for
For the weather or the Battle of Agincourt
And the times that we all hoped would last
Like a train they have gone by so fast
And though we stood together
At the edge of the platform
We were not moved by them
With my own hands
When I make love to your memory
It's not the same
I miss the thunder
I miss the rain
And the fact that you don't understand
Casts a shadow over this land
But the sun still shines from behind it.
Thanks all the same
But I just can't bring myself to answer your letters
It's not your fault
But your honesty touches me like a fire
The Polaroids that hold us together
Will surely fade away
Like the love that we spoke of forever
On St. Swithin's Day
Billy Bragg's official Web site biography quotes an unnamed person calling Bragg "a one man Clash." The degree of praise fits, but the comparison is inapt. Bragg is every bit of a folk musician in that most of his songs feature new lyrics set to old tunes and each of his studio records -- Back to Basics is a combined re-release of his first two albums, Life's a Riot with Spy vs. Spy and Brewing Up with Billy Bragg -- include his interpretations of (mostly union) standards. And even as late as his fourth full-length release, most of Bragg's tunes are just him and his electric guitar. Low overhead and recycling are the keys to commercially viable folk.
I have four more Bragg cassettes to profile this week, so I'll stop now with one fairly obvious bit of self-reflection and the standard link to the best track. I won't quote "The Saturday Boy" at length because it really does need to be heard to be fully appreciated, especially how Bragg shoehorns the lines "In the end it took me a dictionary/ To find out the meaning of 'unrequited'" into the song's meter and rhyme scheme.
The fairly obvious bit of self-reflection is that I am a HUGE fan of Billy Bragg's music. His work has done a lot to shape my views on politics and relationships. You all who know me can comment on whether Bragg's influence on me has been good or bad, but I am happy to have discovered him. Thanks MTV's 120 Minutes, which played Bragg videos fairly regularly in 1988 when Barry and I would watch it instead of getting enough sleep for our early Monday classes.
Up Next: Billy Bragg, Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, 1986
Word Count to Date: 10,375
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