ALB
UMS: Talking with the Taxman about Poetry (1986); Back to Basics (1987)
MVC Rating: Taxman 4.0/$$$; Basics, 3.5/$$$$
A smart bloke this Billy Bragg. Articulate working class. We could be mates I think, over a pint.
He doesn’t even try to change his thick English accent. Hell why should he? To sell more records, maybe?
Basics is a compilation of early songs, mostly just Bragg and his guitar. Taxman has higher production values which means a violin and trumpet sneak in some of the songs.
He was a smart lad; I haven’t followed him in years but I’m sure he retains his intellect, if not his passionate fight for the poor and working class. But I do know he worked with Wilco producing an extraordinary song together called ‘California Stars,’ taken from unpublished writings of Woody Guthrie.
To get a sense of his mind, one can look at the song titles: ‘Ideology,’ ‘There is Power in a Union’ ‘Help save the Youth of America’ ‘To Have and to Not Have.’
Or burrow down deeper into his lyrics. In one of his best songs, Levi Stubb’s Tears, a few lines capture a world of hurt.
She ran away from home in her mother’s best coat
She was married before she was even entitled to vote
And her husband was one of those blokes
The sort that only laughs at his own jokes
The sort a war takes away
And when there wasn’t a war he left anyway
Weaving songs of personal relationships and their many hazards with songs of protest and activism have an interesting way of meshing; one side illuminates the others.
But listening through these earlier songs, a line jumps out that’s probably not surprising given his age and by the fact it is hard and slow to change the system.
Bragg sang, “I don’t want to change the world. I’m not looking for a new England, I’m just looking for another girl.”
Counting down my 678 vinyl records before I die of brain disease.