Artist I Truly Wish I Could Embrace: Billy Bragg
By Mr. Moderator on May 1, 2008
Except for the fact that he initially lacked a drummer and bassist, the concept of Billy Bragg, when he first hit the scene, was right up my alley: Clash-inspired, heart-on-his-sleeve type with more than a dash of righteous Paul Weller; meat and potatoes chord changes and no-punches-pulled vocal style; distinctive album art; DIY game plan; seemed like a great bloke. To this day he retains all those qualities, plus he's not against using a rhythm section now and then. I truly wish I could embrace the records of Billy Bragg, but all I've ever owned by him is the Joe Boyd-produced Workers Playtime, which is strong and includes the one Billy Bragg song I've always loved without reservations, "The Great Leap Forwards". I check him out every few years, sampling songs I might download and hearing new stuff on the radio, but beside his songs on that first Woody Guthrie album he did with Wilco, I don't come close to embracing his music. Maybe it's because he's a little too focused, too put together. Are there nooks and crannies in Billy Bragg's music? He always seems to be shoving his Braggness in my face. His accent almost seems like a put-on. Is it for real or an affectation? And the solo electric guitar performances, although cool in concept, don't cut it for me. An unaccompanied electric guitar usually sounds silly to my ears.
It's too bad. Bragg seems like a guy who'd be cool to hang with. We would talk about Joe Strummer and other topics near and dear to our hearts. We'd drink a few cups of coffee and take in a sporting event. Someone would recognize him while we were standing in line for sausages, and I'd be impressed by how gracious he was with this stranger. Is there any hope for me and Billy Bragg?
7 comments
big steve is gonna yell at me, but this guy's another folkie, only he has no pop sensability.
the sad(maybe) part is, mermaid ave was the first wilco i heard, and it blows.
maybe if i heard some other wilco before that, i might not dislike them so much as well.
Mod, It sounds like you have a very complete appreciation of what Bragg brings to the table. If it's not working for you, then I say time to move on.
For me, there is a place for the accent and the attitude and, yes, even the folkiness of Billy Bragg. But I've got to be in the right mood.
my dad likes this shit and i hate it.
big steve is gonna yell at me, but this guy's another folkie, only he has no pop sensability.
You won't get mad if I yell at you first, would you? :-) In all seriousness, I like Billy Bragg a lot, but my view of what I like about him and what I don't in terms of his records and his live shows is almost diamterically opposed to Mr. Mod's views. I've seen him live 3 times now and 2 of these times, it was either completely solo like the show last year in Collingswood or accompanied by just an organist (Ian McLagan, whose name I'm probably butchering now, formerly of The Faces). Those shows were completely awesome. The one time I saw him with a full band, honestly it was a snooze. To me, he's one of those folkie guys like Ed Hammell (i.e. Hammell on Trial) who function best by themselves and who should, generally speaking (and especially in a live context), never, ever be accompanied by a full band. It dulls their power and their impact both in terms of the performance and the interaction with the audience. Then again, I think that just means I like Bragg in this raw, unadorned fashion much more than you do, Mr. Mod, though I'm not quite sure why you can't embrace him given that he should be a natural for your sensibilities. Perhaps it's the lack of pop sensibility that shawnkilroy implied. I don't think that's fully true, either, though. Songs like "She's Got a New Spell" and the aforementioned "Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards" (both from Workers' Playtime) are both poppy as all get-out. Then again, my favorite Bragg stuff, by far, is the material on his 1st few albums where he's basically unaccompanied. The next few albums have some really great songs, though, like the ones I mentioned from Workers' Playtime as well as "Greetings from the New Brunette" and "Must I Paint You a Picture", just to give a few examples. I find a lot of his albums inconsistent, though.
...until I saw him live a few months ago. There were several reasons I shouldn't have liked this concert (solo electric generally does little to nothing for me, more spoken bits between songs than songs) but I loved it.
Bragg displaced the normal cynic in me though and, at least for the course of the show, I bought into the unrepentant, socialist, almost up-with-people context of the whole thing.
Like the Springsteen show I saw in October, for the course of the evening I was a much more idealistic 18 year old, buying into the idea that a song could change the world.
It may have been solo, it may have been folk-based but it was the power and glory of rock & roll on stage that night.
At this point, anything that makes me feel 35 years younger is a good thing.
I also get the feeling that I ought to like him more. I like his politics, and I think his heart's in the right place. I put it down to his sensibility coming out of a particular time and place in British culture that for some reason I have a hard time relating to.
I think Bragg fits one definition of a folkie, but it's not a very accurate one. It's just not a very useful term anymore. And as far as his not having a pop sensibility, he's actually something of a (minor) pop star in the UK. He's had hit records and sold a bunch of them there. So I think it's not that he's not pop, just that the British version of pop does not always map to the US version very snugly.
One thing I do like about him is that when he plays solo he plays electric guitar. I don't know why there's a rule that solo performers have to play acoustics.
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