Billy Bragg

[roman meal]

Saw this man perform in Northampton, MA last Thursday. Outstanding.

Incredibly authentic and talented. Made fun of football, though, says its called "runny runny catchy" in England. "Not a sport, but a marketing option." Prefers rugby.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FknxIkLbn7E

[nick0137]

Ah Billy. Brings back all those memories of anti-Thatcher 80s Britain - Red Wedge, the miners' strike, the sinking of the Belgrano, unemployment, the demise of the old industries of the industrial revolution.

And Billy doing Woody Guthrie songs with an alt country band should have been car crash music. Yet it was great (at least for the first album): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGlsfM3Tf70

[redir]

Bragg is awesome, I'd love to see him.

[davids]

I work with a woman named Shirley. I can't say her name without wanting to break into song... She's not a brunette.

http://panther1.last.fm/coverart/300x300/2347371.jpg

[roman meal]

I work with a woman named Shirley. I can't say her name without wanting to break into song... She's not a brunette.

http://panther1.last.fm/coverart/300x300/2347371.jpg

'Shirley, you're my reason to get out of bed before noon"

[Alexi]

I dreamed I saw billy bragg last night, alive as you and me...

[manet]

well I dreamed I saw the knight in armor coming

[DRZRM]

I saw Billy Bragg open up for the Smiths at the Beacon a lifetime ago (must have been around the mid 80s). One of the best shows ever!!!

[roman meal]

well I dreamed I saw the knight in armor coming
.

[goonster]

The angels asked me how I felt about all I'd seen and heard
That they spoke to me, a pagan, gave me cause to doubt their word
But they laughed and said: I doesn't matter if you'll help us in our art
You've got a socialism of the heart

:beer:

I saw Billy Bragg open up for the Smiths at the Beacon a lifetime ago (must have been around the mid 80s). One of the best shows ever!!!

Wow. Please don't tell me there were five Smiths on stage, 'cause then I'd be really jealous.

[Bill Bove]

The Iron Horse is still open?

Zuma's on fire.

[roman meal]

BB told the story of this original Woody Guthrie song he sang- Guthrie lusted for Ingrid-(the imagery is so obvious). Isabella Guthrie?

Ingrid Bergman, Ingrid Bergman,
let's go make a picture
On the island of Stromboli, Ingrid Bergman

Ingrid Bergman, you're so perty,
you'd make any mountain quiver
You'd make fire fly from the crater,
Ingrid Bergman

This old mountain it's been waiting
All its life for you to work it
For your hand to touch its hardrock,
Ingrid Bergman, Ingrid Bergman

If you'll walk across my camera,
I will flash the world your story,
I will pay you more than money, Ingrid Bergman

Not by pennies dimes nor quarters,
but with happy sons and daughters,
And they'll sing around Stromboli,
Ingrid Bergman

WORDS: Woody Guthrie 1950 - MUSIC: Billy Bragg


The rest from Wiki:

In 1949, Bergman met Italian director Roberto Rossellini in order to make the film Stromboli (1950), after having been a fan of two of his previous films that she had seen while in the United States. During the making of this movie, she fell in love with him and became pregnant with a son, Roberto Ingmar Rossellini (born February 7, 1950).

The pregnancy caused a huge scandal in the United States. It even led to her being denounced on the floor of the U.S. Senate by Edwin C. Johnson, a senator from Colorado, who referred to her as "a horrible example of womanhood and a powerful influence for evil." In addition, there was a floor vote, which resulted in her being made persona non grata. The scandal forced Ingrid Bergman to exile herself to Italy, leaving her husband and daughter in the United States. Her husband, Dr. Petter Lindström, eventually sued for desertion and waged a custody battle for their daughter.

Ingrid Bergman married Roberto Rossellini on May 24, 1950. On June 18, 1952, she gave birth to twin daughters, Isabella Rossellini, who is a famous actress and model, and Isotta Ingrid Rossellini.

[Tom]

well I dreamed I saw the knight in armor coming

Today's quiz, kiddies. Insert a common form of punctuation into the quoted sentence to make a funny.

[manet]

Today's quiz, kiddies. Insert a common form of punctuation into the quoted sentence to make a funny.

.

[stevep]

The pregnancy caused a huge scandal in the United States. It even led to her being denounced on the floor of the U.S. Senate by Edwin C. Johnson, a senator from Colorado, who referred to her as "a horrible example of womanhood and a powerful influence for evil." .

thank god nothing like that could happen today.

[Ken Robb]

ATMO he can't play the guitar and his singing is awful. I guess I'd have to see his bit knocking pointy-ball football as opposed to "real" football to judge his humor.

[roman meal]

ATMO he can't play the guitar and his singing is awful

Sooo, what's not to like? He's kind of cute for a communist. OT, my bro in law was evacuated yesterday from LaJolla. He took his surf boards and his girlfriend, in that order. You got the garden hose at ready?

[davids]

...And Billy doing Woody Guthrie songs with an alt country band should have been car crash music...Not a bad backing band (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGHtVWWXIdU), atmo. There was a time I didn't get him, but Jeff Tweedy's become one of my musical heros.

[nick0137]

for a communist.

Since when did left of centre British politics = communist? At the last election I think he stood as a Liberal Democrat candidate, admittedly trying to get out a Tory.

Know who is a real honest-to-God unrepentent communist though? The father of our present Foreign Secretary. Do you think he takes his Dad with him when he goes to Albania......?

[Ken Robb]

Sooo, what's not to like? He's kind of cute for a communist. OT, my bro in law was evacuated yesterday from LaJolla. He took his surf boards and his girlfriend, in that order. You got the garden hose at ready?

As far as I know, and I've had the tv and computer going all day, there haven't been any forced evacuations from La Jolla. I think your brother just wanted an excuse to head out with his girlfriend and his boards. :beer:

[roman meal]

Of course. He said he went to Vegas.

[roman meal]

Since when did left of centre British politics = communist? ?

Button for sale.

[nick0137]

Never heard that. But Google is my friend and I see it was a quote from a US fan. Makes sense. :) But then I have wondered how Churchill would have been judged against the "Are you now or have you ever been a member" question.

[roman meal]

"Mixing Pop and Politics he asks me what the use is
I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses"

[Peter P.]

... you've got true taste in folk music (or is BB a punk?!)

Remove the music and he's still a tremendously inciteful poet. Pulls no punches, either. Sure, he's a radical; but someone's got to tell the truth.

[ols]

i dont want to change the world, i'm not looking for a new england, i'm just looking for another girl

[Viper]

I caught Billy Bragg back in 1990 FTW. Good time.

[pe3046]

If you have never heard his peel sessions cd it is worth a listen, raw guitar and vocals.

[DRZRM]

June 1985 tour for Meat is Murder, I think they were all there. It was the first real tour in the US. Hell of a show!!

Wow. Please don't tell me there were five Smiths on stage, 'cause then I'd be really jealous.

[djg]

I love the album with Wilco. Somehow it all came together, at least for this listener.

My wife has several of BB's albums going way back and my reactions to them are all over the map. So many of the songs seem dead to me -- too much lecture or not enough music or both -- and then there are moments and songs here and there where it's great -- really strong or lovely or touching or funny.

[pdonk]

I've seen him three times in the past year in Toronto (free show at HMV, at the Opera House and at the Danforth Music Hall). Part of his charm is that he is a normal guy, who has great ideas and can communicate them. I think that if he could sing or play the guitar better his message would be lost.

My favourite line from one of his songs is

and then she cut her hair and I stopped loving her.

I'll have to see if he is making it to TO again this fall.

[Russell]

I saw Billy Bragg open up for the Smiths at the Beacon a lifetime ago (must have been around the mid 80s). One of the best shows ever!!!

I saw that tour in DC; it was a great show.

He was going off on Reagan when someone in the crowd told him to "f" off. He yelled back, "f" off and said something along the lines off, "You have to realize that what you do affects the rest of us. You need to take responsiblity for who you elect." I guess we still haven't learned.

[roman meal]

All of these replies are great. Even though Woody Guthrie is no longer here, I think BB does a pretty good job of stepping up to echo him, in his own British way.

I have a poster with this quote framed in my office:

“I hate a song that makes you think that you are not any good. I hate a song that makes you think that you are just born to lose. Bound to lose. No good to nobody. No good for nothing. Because you are too old or too young or too fat or too slim or too ugly or too this or too that. Songs that run you down or poke fun at you on account of your bad luck or hard travelling. I am out to fight those songs to my very last breath of air and my last drop of blood. I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work. And the songs that I sing are made up for the most part by all sorts of folks just about like you. I could hire out to the other side, the big money side, and get several dollars every week just to quit singing my own kind of songs and to sing the kind that knock you down still farther and the ones that poke fun at you even more and the ones that make you think that you’ve not got any sense at all. But I decided a long time ago that I’d starve to death before I’d sing any such songs as that. The radio waves and your movies and your jukeboxes and your songbooks are already loaded down and running over with no good songs as that anyhow.

-Woody Guthrie

[nick0137]

To those of us like me (in the UK) who were brought up in the certainty that (a) Dylan was the spiritual successor to Woody and (b) that Billy Bragg was punk by another name and as far removed from dustbowl folk as you could be, the BB/Wilco collaboration was a revelation.

BB wasn't really punk, he was (and always had been) a troubadour for his times singing songs of protest and inspiration with the odd touch of sentimentality. And Dylan wasn't (any longer at least) the guy who visited Woody in hospital and took up his mantle - he had become, I was going to say "more" than that, but in fact just different.

A guy from Barking succeeds a long-dead guy from the mid-west. And all before the internet.....

[goonster]

June 1985 tour for Meat is Murder, I think they were all there. It was the first real tour in the US. Hell of a show!!

I meant the Queen is Dead Tour, with Craig Gannon along as an extra guitarist. Don't think he was ever a full member, but the sound was great, as documented on the "Rank" live album.