Billy Bragg: Back to Basics

Billy Bragg: Back to Basics

1987

Cooking Vinyl

Format I Own it on: Compact Disc

Track Listing: 1. The Milkman of Human Kindness  2. To Have and To Have Not  3. Richard  4. Lovers Town Revisited  5. A New England  6. The Man in the Iron Mask  7. The Busy Girl Buys Beauty  8. It Says Here  9. Love Gets Dangerous  10. The Myth of Trust  11. From a Vauxhall Velox  12. The Saturday Boy  13.Island of No Return  14. St Swithin's Day  15. Like Soldiers Do  16. This Guitar Says Sorry  17. Strange Things Happen  18. A Lover Sings  19. Between the Wars  20. World Turned Upside Down  21. Which Side Are You On?


A 1987 compact disc that contains Billy Bragg's first three releases...



The first 7 tracks are from his 1983 debut album, "Life's a Riot With Spy Vs Spy."  I guess this would probably be considered  an EP or a mini-LP at best... Featuring nothing but an electric guitar and vocals, this establishes Billy's lyrical preoccupation with politics and personal relationships...Protest folk meets punk rock...Songs like "Richard' and "To Have and To Have Not" could be the Clash if he had included drums and bass, but the starkness gives it an emotional immediacy...I think this is his best release...And it features his trademark track "A New England" which is pretty hard to deny...



Tracks  8-18 are from his second album "Brewing Up With Billy Bragg" which was released in 1984.  This is very similar in style to the debut. Again, a mix of love and politics, but when that trumpet shows up on "The Saturday Boy" it's pretty startling...A lot of great moments here: the anthemic riff that kicks off "It Says Here" s a hell of a way to start an album...I also like the cool harmony at the end of "Love Gets Dangerous."

The final three tracks originally appeared on the  1985  "Between the Wars" ep. This release has a very angry political protest vibe...The title track is in direct reference to a Coal Miner's Strike that took place in the UK during 1984-85....

"Which Side Are You On?" is another strike song, but it was originally written by  Florence Reece, about a mining strike that took place in the US in the 1930's... Although Billy Bragg significantly updates the lyrics and melody in his interpretation..His cover of  Leon Rosselson's 1975 folk song "The World Turned Upside Down" is much more faithful to the original source material...However Billy's version is much more muscular and the anger more palpable...I think even without the lyrics, the cutting guitar alone would get the point across! Absolutely one of the best songs on the disc....

All in all, a good call combining these three releases...They are all very similar in tone and taken together paint a vivid portrait of  1980's England while remaining timeless..If you're looking to get into the folk-punk music of Billy Bragg, I can't think of a better place to start...

Let's listen to "To Have and to Have Not"...Enjoy...