{"id":1407,"date":"2008-05-01T00:34:11","date_gmt":"2008-05-01T04:34:11","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-05-01T00:34:11","modified_gmt":"2008-05-01T00:34:11","slug":"artist-i-truly-wish-i-could-embrace-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/artist-i-truly-wish-i-could-embrace-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist I Truly Wish I Could Embrace: Billy Bragg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lBX1Bw-9rbU?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nExcept for the fact that he initially lacked a drummer and bassist, the <em>concept<\/em> of <strong>Billy Bragg<\/strong>, when he first hit the scene, was right up my alley: <strong>Clash<\/strong>-inspired, heart-on-his-sleeve type with more than a dash of righteous <strong>Paul Weller<\/strong>; 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&#8217;s not against using a rhythm section now and then. I truly wish I could embrace the records of Billy Bragg, but all I&#8217;ve ever owned by him is the <strong>Joe Boyd<\/strong>-produced <em>Workers Playtime<\/em>, which  is strong and includes the one Billy Bragg song I&#8217;ve always loved without reservations, <strong>&#8220;The Great Leap Forwards&#8221;<\/strong>. I check him out every few years, sampling songs I might download and hearing new stuff on the radio, but beside <em>his<\/em> songs on that first <strong>Woody Guthrie<\/strong> album he did with <strong>Wilco<\/strong>, I don&#8217;t come close to embracing his music. Maybe it&#8217;s because he&#8217;s a little too focused, too put together. Are there nooks and crannies in Billy Bragg&#8217;s music? He always seems to be shoving his <em>Braggness<\/em> 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&#8217;t cut it for me. An unaccompanied electric guitar usually sounds silly to my ears. <\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s too bad. Bragg seems like a guy who&#8217;d be cool to hang with. We would talk about <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2007\/11\/15\/the_future_is_unwritten_refutes_townsman\">Joe Strummer<\/a><\/strong> and other topics near and dear to our hearts. We&#8217;d drink a few cups of coffee and take in a sporting event. Someone would recognize him while we were standing in line for <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/2008\/04\/25\/sausage_fest_big_dipper_at_maxwell_s\">sausages<\/a>, and I&#8217;d be impressed by how gracious he was with this stranger. Is there any hope for me and Billy Bragg?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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; <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/artist-i-truly-wish-i-could-embrace-bill\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}