CD Odyssey Disc 1905: Billy Bragg

This next artist is more folk/rock than indie folk and so our streak of alternating folk/metal records comes to an end at seven.

How do we know it is rock and roll? The guitar, mate!

Disc 1905 is… Brewing Up with Billy Bragg

Artist: Billy Bragg

Year of Release: 1984

What’s up with the Cover? Industrial town spewing some on one panel, and dude looking out a window thinking deep thoughts on the other. That sums up Billy Bragg about as well as a cover could.

Have you ever sat at a window looking out at a factory spewing smoke and had deep thoughts? Reader, I have. Those deep thoughts took me on a most unexpected journey.

But this is not about my story, it’s about Billy Bragg’s stories, so let’s stop all this wistful digression and return to the main plot.

How I Came To Know It: I first heard this record one night at my friend Nick’s house when he played his vinyl original. I loved it, but it took a few years before I got around to buying it. Then, I did. My copy is a re-issue with a bonus disc of extra music, but more on that later.

How It Stacks Up: I have nine Billy Bragg albums. Competition at the top is fierce and finds “Brewing Up” locked in a dead heat with “Tooth & Nail” for the third spot. They are very different from each other, making comparisons tricky, but despite my iconoclastic leanings to give the win to the underdog, I will place “Brewing Up” where it belongs, in third.

Ratings: 4 stars

“Brewing Up” introduces itself to the listener with a barrage of brassy guitar that reverberates with a power that makes your bones shiver. It lets you know this is not a record inclined to say “how do you do?” so much as to shout “hey!”. It’s a greeting, but also a call to sit up and pay attention.

This is early Billy Bragg at his best, his busker guitar skills – honed to cut through traffic noise and conversation – translated to the recording studio, creating a sound that is loud at any volume. Turn it down all you want – it will make itself heard.

This is the punk undercurrent to Bragg, and his playing and singing style (also bold and rich) adds extra angst and emotion to every word he utters. It provides a visceral quality to everything, but with folk overtones that express themselves in melodic decisions that you won’t find in punk rock. The crossover is a natural fit, each influence enriching the other, and sounds just as fresh 40+ years later.

There is also an old school Chuck Berry feel in places, notably in the guitar riff that launches “From a Vauxhall Velox” which clarifies that this, despite all counter influences and flourishes, is a record celebrating rock and roll. The song benefits from having very little going on other than guitar. Yeah, there’s a bass down there in places, but this is mostly just Bragg giv’n ‘er. You will air guitar along with it because if you don’t want to air guitar along to this song, you should pawn that thing. (n.b. – you will likely not get much from the pawnbroker for an air guitar. I’ve tried it and it never goes well…).

Like the approach to his guitar, Bragg presents stories that are unabashed, raw, and direct. The style lends itself equally well to protest and heartbreak, and he goes deep in both directions.

The record begins with “It Says Here” an attack on newspaper bias, and an invitation to read your morning news with a critical eye. Bragg invites you to pay attention, see that bias, and draw conclusions as you will. He draws a few himself, but this is a music review, not a critique of newspaper bias, so let’s move on to…heartbreak!

My favourite of these on “Brewing Up…” is “The Saturday Boy” a heartbreaking tale of the romantic and strangely noble fools we make of ourselves pursuing unrequited love. I’ve done it a few times, and on “The Saturday Boy” Bragg captures the experience of the early and awkward lessons we learn in these moments in a way that takes you right back to being 15 again. Best line:

“She danced with me and I still hold that memory soft and sweet
And I stare up at her window as I walk down her street
But I never made the first team, I just made the first team laugh
And she never came to the phone, she was always in the bath”

Having once literally been told on the phone by a mom that the girl of my affections was washing her hair, I can relate. If you can’t, well, you’re in very rare company and probably ridiculously handsome. Congrats!

“Brewing Up…” is a classic in the folk/rock/punk genre that Bragg helped to create and a must-have if you like his work.

Bonus Disc:

A quick note on my copy of this album, which is a re-issue that includes a bonus disc of additional material which is a delight, partly because of the range of material (including the best version of “Which Side Are You On?” in my collection), but mostly because the label wisely puts all these tracks on a separate disc. This means I can choose to listen – or not listen – without wrecking the original structure of the album. Kudos!

Best tracks: It Says Here, Love Gets Dangerous, From a Vauxhall Velox, The Saturday Boy, Like Soldiers Do

From the Bonus Disc: Talking Wag Club Blues, Which Side Are You On?

CD Odyssey Disc 1515: Billy Bragg

Rolling this album was a confluence of coincidence. My friend Andrew had just been texting me about how much he was enjoying early Billy Bragg AND Bragg released his first album in eight years just this week. I haven’t heard that new one yet (although I’m optimistic).

Disc 1515 is….  Talking with the Taxman About Poetry

Artist: Billy Bragg

Year of Release: 1986

What’s up with the Cover? My album is a remastered version where they’ve altered the cover, but I’ve gone with the original because I spent last night having steak and beers. As a result I’m feeling a little traditionalist this morning.

The cartoon of a city eats money, or maybe city makes money and the cartoon creature living under it eats some of it? If my degree was in Economics instead of English I might be able to figure it out. Whatever is going on, the creature seems decidedly unfriendly and looks to be in need of a timeout.

This cover has other fun details, including a second smaller cartoon in one corner, a printed price (4.49 British pounds, which was a lot less than I paid), and the admission that the record was “difficult”.

How I Came To Know It: I did not know this record when it came out, but instead discovered it several years ago while digging through Bragg’s back catalogue.

How It Stacks Up: I have nine Billy Bragg albums. Of those, there are about four that are all equally good, but if I have to pick (and I do) I’ll put “Talking with the Taxman” at #1.

Ratings: 4 stars

On his third studio album Billy Bragg completes his transition from street busker to recording artist, with brilliant results.

Bragg’s first two records heavily evoke a street-performer, relying on his bawling vocals and big guitar sound. “Talking with the Taxman about Poetry” (hereafter referred to as ‘Taxman’) incorporates all the visceral power of those early records, to which he adds well placed additional instrumentation into the arrangements. The result is a much more well-rounded sound, that doesn’t take anything away from the passion that makes Billy Bragg such a great experience.

Like all Bragg records, the songs are a mix of the personal and the political, with Bragg approaching both with bravery and truth.

The record begins with “Greetings to the New Brunette”. It is a love song, but it is a complicated love. The narrator’s enthusiasm for a woman named Shirley is clear, but through a series of vignettes you get the impression that she’s just not that into him. The song has potential for heartache, but Bragg sticks with a playful approach, repeating the song’s title at the end as his girl moves on to a true love, and our hero realizes she wasn’t ever “his girl” anyway.

“The Marriage” is another standout, as a man expresses his abiding love for his partner, while explaining why getting married isn’t something he’s into, claiming “marriage is just when we admit/our parents were right”. However, in the end he relents to the ceremony because hey – that’s love.

At the other end of the spectrum, Bragg’s social justice warrior is on full display, with two of his finest songs.

“Ideology” is a protest song against the sitting government that hearkens back to his earlier sound. His voice is big and bold here, and his guitar hits with a power and energy that makes it feel like a full orchestra. “There is a Power in the Union” is a union organizing song, based originally off an old Civil War song for Union soldiers (“Battle Cry of Freedom”) repurposed by Bragg for the labour movement. Apparently “Battle Cry of Freedom” was so popular a tune in the Civil War that the Confederates rewrote the lyrics to suit them and sang it as well. Proof that a good tune has a staying power all its own.

My copy of this record is a re-release with an extra disc of bonus tracks. I can’t say enough about how much I appreciate Bragg keeping the original record as-is and putting bonus content on a separate disc. Thank you, Billy!

As for those tracks, there are a lot of demos and alternate versions, which didn’t do much for me. Outside of the ‘no cowbell’ version of BOC’s “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” I’m not much for demos. However, there are a couple of beautiful covers (Woody Guthrie’s “Deportees” and Smokey Robinson’s “The Tracks of My Tears”). He also does a cover of Gram Parsons’ “Sin City” that I did not like. I recommend you to Emmylou Harris’ version if you want to enjoy that song properly. There is also a killer extra track called “A Nurse’s Life is Full of Woe” which is easily good enough to be on the original record.

“Taxman” is not a perfect record, but it has some of Bragg’s most enduring classics, and even the lesser tunes are strong. Bringing additional instrumentation and a slightly softer production lets you appreciate his songwriting even more, without taking away from the raw brash sound that gives him his passion.

Best tracks: Greetings to the New Brunette, the Marriage, Ideology, There is Power in a Union, Help Save the Youth of America, The Warmest Room

CD Odyssey Disc 1458: Billy Bragg

I’ve had a pretty amazing day in music. My buddy Ross got one of my music idols (Eric Bloom from Blue Oyster Cult) to send me a personal video greeting. He even sang along to “Take Me Away”. Holy crap. Best gift ever. Thanks to Ross and to Eric as well.

Disc 1458 is…. William Bloke

Artist: Billy Bragg

Year of Release: 1996

What’s up with the Cover?  My copy of this album is part of a series re-issue, with a bunch of bonus content (more on that later). For this release they changed the cover and just put a typewriter. However, I’ve decided to honour the original cover which is [drum roll] a typewriter and a bunch of coloured bars. My assumption is that someone was playing the world’s most unwinnable version of tabletop Tetris (“another long bar that won’t rotate!!!”) and, losing their shit, dropped a typewriter on the game.

For those of you who would prefer just the typewriter, separate and safely apart from the angry Tetris bars, here you go.

You’re welcome.

How I Came To Know It: I come to Billy Bragg through my buddy Nick, but I’m not sure if he had this album, so it might have just been me burning through Billy’s back catalogue.

How It Stacks Up: I have nine Billy Bragg albums. Of those, I put “William Bloke” in at #2.

Ratings: 4 stars

Billy Bragg is constant in his exploration of social themes and political protest folk music, but over the years his sound has evolved considerably. With “William Bloke” he demonstrates some new tricks, while maintaining the qualities of his early work that fans will know and love.

Still present is Bragg’s signature guitar sound, which is big and bold, betraying his busker origins. This is particularly strong on “A Pict Song.” On the surface, it is a tune about the Pict resistance to Roman rule in England, but at a deeper level is the inevitable victory of the small and resilient over the overbearing and powerful. For a song ostensibly about a struggle over 1,500 years old, with lyrics over 100 (lifted from a Rudyard Kipling poem of the same name) it does an impressive job of infusing a dose of modern-day fist pumping. A big part of this is the language, which is gorgeous and evocative throughout, but the heavy-handed and authoritative chords on Bragg’s electric guitar are also a key part of the experience.

The album also ranges far afield from this traditional Bragg offering, adding the jump of a horn section here and there for emotional intensity. On “Upfield” those horns dig in and lift the song’s natural elation. On “Goalhanger” the horns play a minor key “wuh-waah” that makes it clear our main character is to be mocked and dismissed. “Goalhanger” is one of the best songs about upper class twits of the year you will hear. The horns set the mood, but Bragg’s lyrics do most of the damage. A sampling is in order:

“He's got the bonhomie of a game show host
And his handshake is so limp it's like meeting a ghost
His apologies are tired 'cause he uses them a lot
His excuses are so lame if they were horses they'd be shot
He lies through his teeth with impeccable grammar
In the game of life he's just a dreadful goalhanger”

A cutting ode about a guy we’ve all met at some point in our lives.

Bragg was approaching the age of 40 when he released “William Bloke” and songs about aging and changing perspectives are also in evidence. My favourite, “The Space Race is Over,” is a forlorn exploration of lost innocence. Bragg recalls his boyhood dreams of on day going to the moon. As he stands staring up at the sky with his son, the youthful enthusiasm comes back to him, but it feels pale and distant, knowing it is a dream that will never come true. Welcome to middle age, Billy.

As noted earlier, my copy of “William Bloke” is a re-issue that comes with a whole second disc of bonus content. It mostly consists of demo versions that serve to remind me (as demos usually do) that the final version is almost always better. There are a few good demos out there (Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘no cowbell’ version of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” comes to mind) but mostly, they should have stayed in the studio as a reference point to something better.

The bonus disc also has a cool version of the Smiths’ “Never Had No One Ever” and a few other odds and ends, but the best thing about it is that it is on a separate disc! I can’t stress this enough, people. If you want to include additional material on your CD reissue please put it on a separate disc, so I can choose to hear just the original album if I wish. Kudos to Billy Bragg for getting this.

Also, kudos to him for making one of his best records ever, which given his storied career is no small feat.

Best tracks: From Red to Blue, Upfield, A Pict Song, The Space Race Is Over, Northern Industrial Town, Goalhanger

CD Odyssey Disc 1239: Billy Bragg

I’m a bit worn out after a hard day at work but I haven’t reviewed an album since Saturday and I’m keen to keep the Odyssey sailing.

Disc 1239 is… Don’t Try This at Home

Artist: Billy Bragg

Year of Release: 1991

What’s up with the Cover? A collection of helpful public signs. Clockwise from left we have: “Wait Here”, “Caution: Unbalanced Teeter-Totter”, “Decapitation Hazard” and “Divorcee Soccer League”.

My cover of the album is a bit different, as I own a 2006 special edition re-issue, but I prefer to stick with the original cover so that’s what I’m featuring.

How I Came To Know It: I believe this album was a birthday gift from my friend Nick many years ago. It sparked a serious run on Billy Bragg albums, so many thanks to Nick!

How It Stacks Up:  I have 9 Billy Bragg albums. Of those, “Don’t Try This at Home” comes in at #4 which doesn’t earn it a medal but does earn it respectability. I feel like “Respectability” is the kind of word that would make a good Billy Bragg song. But I digress…

Ratings:  3 stars but almost 4

Sometimes Billy Bragg is political, and other times he’s just a sappy romantic, but he’s best when he’s a bit of both. On “Don’t Try this at Home” he finds the right balance of these two ingredients but makes a meal too big to eat in one sitting.

Bragg is a folk rocker with a punk edge. He’s like Frank Turner’s kindly uncle; not less edgy, just having the benefit of a bit more experience under his belt. “Don’t Try This at Home” is him transitioning from his early street busker sound into a more complex studio savvy approach. I enjoyed watching the two parts of his career come together. They don’t collide so much as they twine around one another, making each other stronger in the process.

 The album opens with “Accident Waiting to Happen” a vintage Bragg song, jaunty, edgy, brash and unapologetically political. There are plenty more that follow in the same vein, Bragg never being a shrinking violet when it comes to giving his opinion. “Accident Waiting to Happen” is the best of the bunch though, as he beats chords out of his guitar and lets his English accent soar over top of it.

On “Sexuality” Bragg calls for tolerance and diversity on a song with a jaunty Cure-like feel to it. It is actually cowritten by Johnny Marr, but I’m going with the Cure because it was too upbeat to be a Smiths’ song.

There are touching tributes to his father (“Tank Park Salute”) that’ll put a lump in your throat and anthems for English soccer fans (“God’s Footballer”) that won’t – unless you root for Wolverhampton. I do not.

The album’s absolute standout, however, is “Everywhere” an anthem about the Second World War as seen through the eyes of two childhood friends. One, a man destined to die fighting the Japanese in the Philippines, the other a Japanese American jailed for no reason other than his heritage. Bragg connects the two through completely different experiences that both exemplify the horror of war. The ending gets me every time:

“I never got home, my platoon was never saved

That little fox hole became my island grave

Lee got out of jail but a prisoner he remained

Till he ended his own life to lose that ball and chain”

“Everywhere” is one of my all-time favourite songs – Billy Bragg or otherwise – and a masterclass in telling a life’s story in five minutes or less. Or in the case of “Everywhere”, two life stories.

The biggest issue I have with this record is that at 16 songs it is too long. Knock it back to a reasonable 12 and this could be Bragg’s greatest work, but all that extra stuff dilutes the best the album has to offer.

This re-release also had a bonus disc of 14 tracks. That is a lot of bonus tracks, and most of it is just demos that don’t sound as good as the finished product. However, “Piccadilly Rambler” is a pretty sweet track about an indigent wanderer, and Natalie Merchant does a couple of guest vocals that give songs a novel approach. The best part is that since they are all on a separate disc you can play them or skip them as you wish. Other artists releasing bonus tracks could learn a lot from this practice.

While the record is a little bloated, for the most part wears it well and is a fine example of the brilliance, passion and optimism that is Billy Bragg.

Best tracks: Accident Waiting to Happen, Moving the Goalposts, Everywhere, Sexuality, Tank Park Salute, Body of Water

CD Odyssey Disc 1146: Billy Bragg

With my holidays over let’s get the pace of these music reviews back on track. How the hell will the internet decide what’s worth listening to without the CD Odyssey?

I was further delayed by the length of this record, which was a deluxe edition with two CDs, one recorded with a backing band and one solo with just Bragg and his guitar. It was 77 minutes of Billy Bragg which is a lot of Bragg, but I liked both versions.

I’ve seen this a lot lately, with Frank Turner (2015), Lucinda Williams (Blessed in 2011) and a Josh Ritter re-issue (Hello Starling in 2010) all being released with “acoustic only” CDs on albums. I like the trend. Sometimes I like the full band, and sometimes just the guitar but it is nice to have the option.

Disc 1146 is… Mr. Love & Justice

Artist: Billy Bragg

Year of Release: 2008

What’s up with the Cover? I have no idea if there is any significance to the buildings that Billy Bragg is staring at on this cover. Whatever the case for an album about love and justice this cover is appropriately laid out in shades of grey. Life is complicated, man.

How I Came To Know It: A while back I did a deep dig through Bragg’s back catalogue and identified all the albums I wanted to have in my collection. “Mr. Love & Justice” was devilishly hard to find for some reason and it took over six months before some kindly anonymous stranger dropped off a used copy at Ditch Record Store.

How It Stacks Up:  I have nine of Billy Bragg’s 13 solo studio albums which for now is all I want. “Mr. Love & Justice” comes in at ninth place. This is not an indictment of its quality, however – it is a testament to how much I like the other eight albums.

Ratings: 3 stars

In the last decade Billy Bragg’s boisterousness has faded a bit, but his principal passions – love and various social and political causes – burn as brightly as they ever have. If anything, his mellowing vocals help the message go down easier. I don’t think he’s lost his edge, I think he’s learned you don’t have to shout to be heard.

These themes are once again present on the aptly titled “Mr. Love & Justice”, a record that explores both concepts, although on balance the songs about justice land stronger overall than those about love.

The opening track, “I Keep Faith” is the exception to this. It is a gentle song of forgiveness and endurance – two key and underrated strengths to any great love affair. It is also Bragg’s strongest vocal performance on the record. He’s not a gifted singer, but he has a resonant tone that matches well with the heavy twang of his guitar playing here.

After this, love takes a step back. “I Almost Killed You” feels like a throwback to mid-eighties Bragg but it had me wishing I could hear those early songs, not reinvent them. “You Make Me Brave” feels a bit schmaltzy, and when Bragg delivers it a capella on the acoustic Disc 2 it doesn’t help. Instead it reminded me of that kid singing “Killing Me Softly” in “About a Boy” but…more awkward. And that’s a lot of awkward. I’m sure this song gets played at Billy Bragg fans’ weddings but I would recommend they switch to “Handyman Blues” if you’re looking for heartfelt expressions of love and devotion. But I digress…

Bragg more than makes up for any clunkiness in the love department when he dons his social justice warrior’s hat. This worked strong on the acoustic version of the CD particularly, giving the album an imminence that made you feel like Bragg was busking in the streets where he got his start – but this time the new songs were welcome. It also helps that Bragg has the ability to pull a lot of background power out of his solo guitar playing and not lose the plot.

I liked the acoustic CD better overall, but most of the songs were good either way. I particularly loved both versions of the peace song “Sing Their Souls Back Home.” On the full instrumentation version there is a built in chorus and backup singers that makes you want to sing along. On the acoustic version, it is just Bragg and his guitar but he sings with such full heart and passion that you can hear the ghosts of all those backup singers joining him in spirit.

“Farm Boy” is a worthy entry in the canon of war songs that feature characters far from home, confronting moral quandaries as they encounter their enemy only to find them not so different from themselves. It had me thinking of John McCutcheon’s “Christmas in the Trenches,” and Steve Earle’s “Rich Man’s War”.

Whatever you think of the reasons for any specific war, the heroics and human cost of the soldiers that fight them is something that Bragg has always understood and respected. For him, love and justice will always be inseparable concepts and his concern for young men cast into peril and foreign lands shines as brightly as ever.

Whether Billy Bragg is going acoustic or electric, he is always plugged in to the nobility of the human spirit and like all his work, “Mr. Love & Justice” has a tender but principled optimism that helps make it soar.

Best tracks: I Keep Faith, Sing Their Souls Back Home, Mr. Love & Justice, O Freedom, Farm Boy

CD Odyssey Disc 853: Billy Bragg

I’m just back from running a bunch of errands and prepared to settle in and wait for movers to bring me some new furniture.

Amidst the chores I found time to nip into the local record store(s) and find a few bargains. I am now the proud owner of two new Dar Williams albums and one more Carolyn Mark album. I guess it was a day for folk music.

On that note, here’s another great folk artist.

Disc 853 is….Worker’s Playtime

Artist: Billy Bragg

Year of Release: 1988

What’s up with the Cover? Based on the title of the album, this would be some workers taking a break. This particular break looks suspiciously like a formal meeting, with a loudspeaker a bunch of flags and assorted sloganeering. Holding a meeting over the lunch hour is not a break, Billy.

I note the cover has a logo that says “capitalism is killing music.” Er…what? I’m more concerned with illegal downloads. Don’t steal your music. Buy it and support musicians!

How I Came To Know It: Last year I was digging through looking for Billy Bragg albums I’d missed earlier and were worth getting. “Workers Playtime” is one of two albums I picked up along the way. The other is “England, Half English” (reviewed not long ago at Disc 804). I am still looking for “Mr. Love and Justice,” which I haven’t been able to find on CD yet. Yes, I happen to buy my music on antiquated technology. All those CDs is what the blog is all about, people!

How It Stacks Up:  I have eight Billy Bragg albums. Of the eight, I put “Worker’s Playtime” in seventh, just edging out “England, Half English.” That doesn’t mean it is bad. I only own my favourite Billy Bragg albums, so competition is tough.

Ratings: 3 stars

Some albums just feel like break up albums. I have no idea what Billy Bragg’s personal life had going on in 1988 (I like to encounter the music with as little outside knowledge as possible), but “Workers Playtime” has a lot of heartache on it.

Fortunately, Bragg is a gifted storyteller, so even if his stories are sad and troubled they are still enjoyable to listen to. At least half this record is composed of break up songs, seen from different facets. Bragg deftly paints the picture of relationships at the painful edge of ending, others in full decay, and still others that are just plain destructive from the outset.

The best of the lot is “Valentine’s Day Is Over” which is told from the perspective of a woman who is tired of her drunk, abusive partner. Bragg weaves poverty and unemployment into the story, reminding us that money issues puts pressure on any relationship, while still not excusing the dirtbag’s behaviour.

The song ends with the man trying to win back his lady’s affection with a Valentine’s gift and her answer is a fitting wakeup call for him:

“Thank you for the things you brought me, thank you for the card

Thank you for the things you taught me when you hit me hard

That love between two people must be based on understanding

Until that’s true you’ll find your things

All stacked out on the landing, surprise, surprise.”

Beyond the lyrics, “Valentine’s Day is Over” is set to a melody that is mournful and thoughtful, with a clever transition to a triumphant chord progression, mirroring one woman’s journey from despair to empowerment.

While not all of the heartbreak tracks on “Workers Playtime” can’t match the musical strengths of “Valentine’s Day is Over” all of them deliver great insight into the many ways love can die.

This being a Billy Bragg album, it wouldn’t be complete without some social commentary. “Tender Comrade” is an a capella track against war, and “Rotting on Remand” is a critique of the conditions prisoners undergo while imprisoned and awaiting trial. Both songs are OK, but musically neither grabbed me.

Much better on this front is “Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards” in which Bragg seems equally disillusioned with capitalism and communism. The song cuts a nice path between disappointment and inspiration. At his core, Bragg has always been an optimist when it comes to the human spirit, and the song’s energy builds naturally until it ends with a chorus of people singing along in unison.

“Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards” has Bragg saying that if you don’t like the system you’re living under, work to build a new one. I don’t share his revolutionary fervor, but I agree that if you want to make a difference, sitting around complaining isn’t gonna do it.

This is a music blog, not a political blog, so I’ll leave it at that, just as Bragg’s song fades out and leaves us energized despite all those damned broken hearts he’s peppered the record with earlier.

Best tracks:  Must I Paint You a Picture, The Price I Pay, Valentine’s Day is Over, Waiting For the Great Leap Forwards

CD Odyssey Disc 804: Billy Bragg

Tonight is the final ‘redraft’ in my football pool, so I’m squeezing in a review before everyone arrives to drop all the useless and injured players on their roster and pick over whoever’s left.

For some, this is a chance to slightly adjust their well-tuned football machine for the final lap. For others it’s more akin to pumping four more dollars of gas into the tank of your old beater and hoping it’s enough to get it home in one piece. This year, I’m in the latter category. So it goes…

Disc 804 is….England, Half English

Artist: Billy Bragg and the Blokes

Year of Release: 2002

What’s up with the Cover? It is half an English flag. Get it?

How I Came To Know It: I only bought this album in the last year as I drilled through a half dozen Billy Bragg albums I didn’t have and determined which of them I wanted. “England Half English” made the list, obviously.

How It Stacks Up:  I have eight Billy Bragg albums, with plans to get a ninth and then call it a day. I like them all, but sadly must put “England, Half English” down near the bottom. I’ll say 7^th or 8^th best pending my review of “Worker’s Playtime.”

Ratings: 3 stars

With all the mistrust and fear in the world in the aftermath of the Paris bombings, it was fitting that I rolled a Billy Bragg album that is all about embracing our differences and living together.

“England, Half English” is Bragg’s love song to immigration and multiculturalism, and his reminder that England itself is a nation founded largely by people who came from somewhere else (Angles and Saxons foremost among them).

This record reminds us that not only can we live together and celebrate our differences, we do it every day without even noticing. The title track, sung with a heavy English accent has the main character drinking a cappuccino, while alternating between meals of veggie curry and bubble and squeak. As he later points out:

“Britannia, she’s half English, she speaks Latin at home

St. George was born in the Lebanon, how he got here I don’t know

And those three lions on your shirt

They never sprang from England’s dirt

Them lions are half English, and I’m half English too.”

The working class brogue helps the song point out that this recognition of England’s many different traditions is just common sense. The song also tries to pull together different music traditions to underscore the point, but unfortunately I found the efforts to transition between styles a bit less successful than the transition between foods.

This is the biggest detraction to the record, which has Bragg gamely trying to mix in different musical styles from England, the Middle East and South Asia. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t, and when it doesn’t it is really noticeable. In particular, “Baby Farroukh” is an unlistenable jingle to begin with and efforts to change it up halfway through just make it worse.

Better in terms of making his point is the more traditionally arranged “Distant Shore” which captures the isolation and sadness of refugees fleeing repressive regimes that does the best it can in helping you feel what it would be like to walk in those shoes.

Bragg finds time to get in a few folk protest songs as is his want, and here he decides to take aim at the United Kingdom. I rather like the UK, Billy, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a rollicking good protest song. “Take Down the Union Jack” is as catchy as it is nasty, as Bragg runs through all the problems he has with his own country. The album’s themes come back to the fore in the final verse:

“Take down the Union Jack, it clashes with the sunset

And pile up all those history books, but don’t throw them away

They just might have some clues about what it really means

To be an Anglo hyphen Saxon in England.co.uk.”

There’s those Angles and Saxons again, with the emphasized hyphen to remind you that those two groups were also distinct and distrustful of one another but got over it.

When he decides to take a break from the bigger themes on “England, Half English” Bragg shows he can still write love songs that are both pretty and clever. “Jane Allen” is a song about being tempted by an old flame but going home to your true love. “Another Kind of Judy” is a strangely upbeat song about a relationship that didn’t work out but left a lot of pleasant memories. Bragg explores the darker side of love with “He’ll Go Down” a warning to a woman to not let a good for nothing bastard drag her down with him.

The album has some unfortunate production decisions, most notably the failed effort at Caribbean rhythms on “Dreadbelly” and the aforementioned “Baby Farroukh” but for the most part “England, Half English” is a good folk record with an important message of tolerance and acceptance.

Best tracks:  Jane Allen, Distant Shore, Take Down the Union Jack, He’ll Go Down

CD Odyssey Disc 696: Billy Bragg

This is the second album in a row that has an ampersand in the title. Why Bruce and Billy? You are both literate people – there is another way. Use your words.

Disc 696 is…. Tooth & Nail

Artist: Billy Bragg

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover? Billy and his guitar, still on that long walk toward wisdom. Bragg has transformed seamlessly from young rebel with a guitar to guy you wish was your dad – still with a guitar.

How I Came To Know It: I saw Bragg on his tour for this album. I didn’t actually own it then (which is why I didn’t review it at the time) but my buddy Nick bought it and played me a few tracks. I really liked those, as well as the concert, so went out and bought it. It has since inspired me to more than double my Billy Bragg collection.

How It Stacks Up:  Not counting his work with Wilco on “Mermaid Avenue,” I have eight Billy Bragg albums – I had six just a month ago, but I’m now at the point where I’m only really missing one I still want (that would be 2008’s “Mr. Love and Justice”). Of the eight, “Tooth & Nail” holds up beautifully – I’ll put it 3^rd or 4^th.

Rating: 4 stars

It is always exciting when a long established artist delivers an album that is as good as anything he made in his so called heyday; that is what Billy Bragg has accomplished on “Tooth & Nail.”

“Tooth & Nail” sees Bragg’s brand of protest folk rock settling comfortably into middle age. This is usually a death knell, when an artist loses the edge that made them so compelling. That doesn’t happen here. Instead, we find Bragg with just as many important things to say, saying them just as brilliantly.

What has changed is Bragg’s delivery, which is softer both vocally and on the guitar. The rough percussion-driven guitar playing has become more nuanced, still delivering an emotional charge at just the right time, but without feeling like he’s about to snap a string. It lets Bragg put more energy into gentle playing, as he trips through bass note walk-downs and idle plucking with the ease of someone taking a stroll through a flower garden.

Bragg’s voice is also quieter and his signature English accent even seems subdued for the first time. I found this allowed me to appreciate what a fine vocalist he is more than ever before – even making me go back and hear his early work with fresh and eager ears.

Lyrically, this is still Bragg at his finest, alternate between touching love songs and staunch and unyielding social commentary.

On the love song front, “Handyman Blues” is a modern day classic. It instantly spoke to me with its narrative of someone who admits he isn’t very handy around the house, but instead appeals to his other qualities as a mate:

“Don’t be expecting me to put up shelves

Or build a garden shed

But I can write a song that tells the world

How much I love you instead

I’m not any good at pottery

But let’s lose a ‘t’ and just shift back the ‘e’

And I’ll find a way to make my poetry

Build a roof over our heads.”

As someone who is also terrible at home repairs, and pays the bills with the written word (albeit less creatively at this point) this song held a deep appeal.

On the unyielding social commentary, Bragg ably tackles homelessness (“I Ain’t Got No Home”) and intolerance (“There Will Be A Reckoning”). Most of all, I like the way “Tooth & Nail” blends big messages with an obvious love for the human race in general. He does so without ever becoming preachy, even on “Do Unto Others” where he is literally referencing the bible.

My favourite song on the album has Bragg making an appeal to uncertainty. “No One Knows Nothing Anymore” is both an admission of fallibility and a clever call to action. Bragg starts with what I think is a reference to the Higgs Boson particle:

“Deep down in the underground

Atoms spinning round and round

Scientists monitor readings

Searching for the Holy Grail:

The particle – or at least a trail –

Of the one that gives the Universe its meaning.”

This is the second song from 2013 about the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle (Nick Cave does a song called “Higgs Boson Blues” on his “Push the Sky Away” album). Bragg uses the Higgs Boson to preach uncertainty, going on to sing:

“But what if there’s nothing?

No big answers to find?

What if we’re just passing through time?

“No one knows nothing anymore

Nobody really knows the score

Since nobody knows anything

Let’s break it down and start again.”

What I love about this song is how Bragg takes not knowing as an opportunity to rebuild our assumptions. The song isn’t constructed to create dread. It soars melodically as Bragg slips into a run of unanswered questions on not just science, but economics and later philosophy itself. He ends each chorus on a musical upstroke to generate a sense of triumph, not dread.

“Tooth & Nail” reveals Bragg to be an optimist and a humanist, to go along with his activism. This in no way diminishes his quest for justice; if anything it makes that quest more believable and real. What the answer is or how we get there can be a matter of debate. As long as we’re out there practicing the golden rule and standing up for each other along the way, Bragg figures we’ll be going in the right direction. As he reminds us on the final verse of the album’s final song:

“Don’t be disheartened baby, don’t be fooled,

Take it from someone who knows: the glass is half full

Tomorrow’s going to be a better day

No matter what the siren voices say

Tomorrow’s going to be a better day

We’re going to make it that way.”

This album just makes me feel good about the world, or at the very least feel good about the possibilities for the world, which can often be enough.

Best tracks: No One Knows Nothing Anymore, Handyman Blues, I Aint’ Got No Home, Swallow My Pride, There Will be a Reckoning, Tomorrow’s Going to be a Better Day

CD Odyssey Disc 684: Billy Bragg and Wilco

I’m not feeling 100 per cent. I won’t say I’m sick, but I’m light on energy reserves. My plan at this point is to ignore it until it goes away. You’d be surprised how often this works.

Disc 684 is…. Mermaid Avenue

Artist: Billy Bragg and Wilco

Year of Release: 1998

What’s up with the Cover?  I am going to guess this is a picture of Woody Guthrie’s Coney Island home on Mermaid Avenue, since that’s what the album is named after, and would therefore make for a fitting cover. Unless it is one of those ironic hipster moments, where the picture doesn’t mean anything. I just can’t see Billy Bragg and Wilco doing that to Woody, though.

How I Came To Know It: I once again don’t remember. I think someone sent me the song “Way Over Yonder In a Minor Key” and that caused me to fall down the Youtube hole and into the embrace of “Mermaid Avenue.”

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Wilco albums and six Billy Bragg albums, but only two albums featuring both of them; this one and “Mermaid Avenue Vol. II” (reviewed back at Disc 537). Of the two, Volume 1 (this one) is best.

Rating: 4 stars

One day Woody Guthrie’s daughter Nora took a bunch of her father’s unrecorded lyrics to Billy Bragg and Wilco and asked them “can you do something with these?” “Hell, yes!” they presumably replied, and made this record.

Guthrie didn’t write his music down, just the words, so Wilco and Bragg were able to bring their own prodigious talents to the equation. As a result, “Mermaid Avenue” is thrice blessed.

I can’t think of a better fit for this project than Billy Bragg, whose own brand of socially conscious protest rock makes him a natural inheritor of Guthrie’s work. Guthrie’s down-home folksy charm rings through on the songs Bragg takes lead on.

Unsurprisingly, “Mermaid Avenue” has some socialist gems that Bragg gives voice to, including “Christ for President” and the union anthem “I Guess I Planted.” These are good tracks, but Bragg’s got nothing to prove on this front, and I preferred him taking on Guthrie’s whimsical side. Drunken adventures abound on “Walt Whitman’s Niece” and “Ingrid Bergman” has Guthrie reminding latter-day audiences just what a sexual icon she was in the day. The song has Guthrie hoping for a few minutes alone with Ingrid on Mount Stromboli, convinced her beauty would cause the mountain to erupt.

The best of all is the song that got me into this album, “Way Over Yonder In a Minor Key.” This is a song that gives you a glimpse into misadventure in the forties (Guthrie wrote the lyrics in 1946). It also reminds us that even the ugly boy gets the pretty girl if he can sing and write songs – as long as he’s willing to brave her mom’s willow switch later. Bragg’s treatment is the perfect mix of playful and pastoral.

Jeff Tweedy and Wilco bring a whole other dimension to the music. This is early in Wilco’s career, and they are still firmly in their folksy/blue-eyed soul phase. While very unlike Bragg’s approach, it is the perfect counterbalance. Where Bragg’s songs are deep and boisterous, Wilco’s are bright and jangly. Standouts include the laid back “California Stars” and the mournful “At My Window Sad and Lonely.”

Although mostly just doing backup vocals, it was also nice to hear Natalie Merchant get in on the action, taking lead vocals on the strongly traditional “Birds and Ships.”

This record is a fitting legacy for Woody Guthrie and the great folk artists he’s inspired for decades since he wrote these songs. There is no better example on “Mermaid Avenue” than the rolling folk song “The Unwelcome Guest” which is about an outlaw that steals from the rich and gives to the poor. The song is typical fare for Bragg and Guthrie, which puts message above character in the end by converting the song’s title character into a movement:

“Yes, they’ll catch me napping one day and they’ll kill me

And then I’ll be gone but that won’t be my end

For my guns and my saddle will always be filled

By unwelcome travelers and other brave men.”

The song is the last on the record, which lets it linger in your ears and echo through the ages. It shows that both Bragg and Wilco understand that they are standing on the shoulders of a folk music giant, even as they pull him back into the consciousness of a whole new generation.

I saw Bragg in concert very recently, and he was still singing songs off of “Mermaid Avenue” and still talking about the experience of recording it. It was clear that he was deeply touched by the opportunity. “Mermaid Avenue” shows that both he and Wilco made the best of it.

Best tracks: California Stars, Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key, Birds and Ships, At My Window Sad and Lonely, Ingrid Bergman, The Unwelcome Guest

CD Odyssey Disc 537: Billy Bragg and Wilco

Sometimes the random element to what I review can be a bit disappointing.  For example, to introduce you to this next album – a collaboration of two great artists inspired by a third - it would have been easier to have done their first album together, rather than Volume II.

But hey, that’s the way the random cookie crumbles.  So here’s Volume II – it’s still good.

Disc 537 is…. Mermaid Avenue Vol. II

Artist: Billy Bragg and Wilco

Year of Release: 2000

What’s up with the Cover?  I’m guessing the background of this shot is Mermaid Avenue, around the time of Woody Guthrie, however who cares about that when you have a cute kitty in the foreground!  In recent years I’ve come to love the tuxedo cat, but there’s a lot to be said for the tabby. 

How I Came To Know It:  I had found out about the amazing first “Mermaid Avenue” album just a few years ago, and then learned there was a sequel.  Without delay I sought it out and added it to my collection.  If one album of this music was good, I reasoned, then two must be better.  

How It Stacks Up:  Turns out I was right, and “Mermaid Avenue Vol. II” is a strong record as well, but overall the first “Mermaid Avenue” is stronger, so I have to rank this one second.

Rating:  3 stars but almost 4

On his 1997 song “Christmas in Washington” Steve Earle pines:

“Come back Woody Guthrie

Come back to us now

Tear your eyes from paradise

And rise again somehow.”

A year later, Steve’s wish would symbolically come true, when Guthrie’s daughter Nora met up with Billy Bragg and Wilco and gave them a myriad of song lyrics her father had penned but never recorded.  If there had ever been music to go with these lyrics, they were lost to the mists of time, but with the help of Bragg and Wilco, they were brought to life and with them, Guthrie rose again somehow.

The “Mermaid Avenue” project was such a success (artistically at least) that two years later Bragg and Wilco did another whole second album of them.  That album, not terribly inventively, is called “Mermaid Avenue, Vol. II” again after the street in Coney Island, Brooklyn that Guthrie lived on.  Whatever its title, it is a worthy successor to a contemporary folk classic.

As with the first record, Billy Bragg and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco alternate taking lead vocals and they both bring something beautiful to Guthrie’s original thoughts.  Bragg’s protest folk styles are a more natural fit for Guthrie’s lyrics, but Jeff Tweedy frontman and the rest of Wilco are equally good.  In fact, the indie rock style of Wilco gives a nice counterbalance to Bragg’s more traditional approach.  The ghost of Guthrie is everpresent, and the three artistic voices form a nice triangle, each corner equally propping up the record’s feel.

Given Earle’s prayer for the return of Guthrie, the opening track, “Airline to Heaven” is a fitting start, as Guthrie muses about one day going to heaven.  The words were penned in 1939, but like every song on the record it is as fresh and relevant today as any song.

I enjoyed hearing, “My Flying Saucer” as the next track, a true 1950s whimsical approach to the topic at a time when flying saucers were just becoming a fad.  I’ve always wanted to do a ‘flying saucer’ playlist which would feature the song, plus Blue Rodeo’s “Cynthia”, Blue Oyster Cult’s “Sole Survivor” the Carpenters’ “Calling Occupants” and Tool’s “Rosetta Stoned”  I’m sure I could find a few more once I put my mind to it.  But I digress…

Back to “Mermaid Avenue (Vol. II).”  Not surprisingly some of the most resonant songs are those that speak to social justice issues, something that all parties to the music understand.  “Hot Rod Hotel” is the song about a porter/night clerk at a hotel and all the menial tasks he is forced to perform to put food on the table, until one day he rebels when asked to clean up a particularly horrible room.  The song sounds like it will end sad and defeated, but it actually is a working class triumph:

“The lammy tried to make me clean up that crappy mess

Or else he’d fire me off my job and let me starve to death

I laid aside my polish rag and downed my dusting pan

And I’ve not seen the old Hot Rod nor that old town since then.”

This song is a timely reminder that no matter where we find ourselves on the corporate ladder, we can always choose dignity and honour if faced with acquiescing to the unreasonable.

Not all the songs are as compelling as this, unfortunately.  “I Was Born” sounds like a transcription of a toddler trying to remember when she was born, and the guest vocals of Natalie Merchant plays that up to the further detriment of the song.  “Blood of the Lamb” has a pretty gospel feel to it, but it is just a bit too preachy for my tastes (note:  good gospel never feels actually preachy).  Finally, “Joe Di Maggio Done It Again” would be a fun song if you were a baseball fan, but I am not.

These misses are more about my personal preferences, however, rather than being inherently bad songs, and even so they are the exceptions that prove the rule.

The rule here makes a heartfelt record that misses very few beats.  There is political commentary aplenty, including calling out fascists, and supporting a write-in third party candidate due to disgust with all the people approved on the ballot.

The album also features gentle love songs like “Remember the Mountain Bed” rich with verses dripping with sexy autumnal glory:

“Do you still sing of the mountain bed we made of limbs and leaves

Do you still sigh there near the sky where the holly berry bleeds

You laughed as I covered you over with leaves, face, breast, hips and thighs

You smiled when I said the leaves were just the color of your eyes.”

Whew!  Is it getting hot in here?

                          
Er…anyway, many of the themes on “Mermaid Avenue Vol. II” are twenty or thirty years before their time, and Bragg and Wilco ensure they fit for the modern ear without ever losing the protest folk charm of Guthrie himself.  This album is a worthy successor to a project that was inspired by Guthrie's own 'Airline to Heaven', and a little honest hope from some talented folks still down here waiting in this earthly terminal for their turn to be remembered.

Best tracks:  Airline to Heaven, Hot Rod Hotel, Stetson Kennedy, Remember the Mountain Bed, All You Fascists, Black Wind Blowing, Someday Some Morning Sometime