Billy Bragg: Best of Billy Bragg at the BBC 1983-2019 (2019)

Here we have 38 tracks, culled from various BBC sessions. I just picked it up and listened to it once. It's a really great collection.

SIDE 1
1 A New England (John Peel session, 27th July 1983)
2 Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend [Cale] (John Peel session, 27th July 1983)
3 Love Gets Dangerous (John Peel session, 27thJuly 1983)
4 Like Soldiers Do (David Jensen session, 22ndDecember 1983)
5 The Man In The Iron Mask (w/ Dave Woodhead) (David Jensen session, 22ndDecember 1983)
6 The Saturday Boy (David Jensen session, 22ndDecember 1983)
7 A Lover Sings (John Peel session, 18thSeptember 1984)
SIDE 2
8 Between The Wars (John Peel session, 18thSeptember 1984)
9 A13, Trunk Road To The Sea [Troup/Bragg] (w/ Wiggy) (Saturday live, 13th October 1984)
10 There Is Power In A Union (John Peel session, 20th August 1985)
11 Days Like These (John Peel session, 20thAugust 1985)
12 Scholarship Is The Enemy Of Romance (Janice Long session, 18th December 1985)
13 Greetings To The New Brunette (John Peel session, 2nd September 1986)
14 Ideology (John Peel session, 2nd September 1986)
15 The Warmest Room (John Peel session, 2ndSeptember 1986)
SIDE 3
16 She’s Got a New Spell (John Peel session, 30th August 1988)
17 Valentine’s Day Is Over (John Peel session, 30th August 1988)
18 The Short Answer (John Peel session, 30th August 1988)
19 Rotting On Remand (John Peel session, 30th August 1988)
20 The Few (John Peel session, 12th May 1991)
SIDE 4
21 Accident Waiting To Happen (w/ Wiggy) (John Peel session, 12th May 1991)
22 Tank Park Salute (w/ Cara Tivey) (John Peel session, 12th May 1991)
23 Brickbat (John Peel session, 13th October 1995)
24 This Gulf Between Us (John Peel session, 13thOctober 1995)
25 Goal Hanger (London Music Week live, 1st May 1997)
26 The Boy Done Good [Bragg/Marr] (London Music Week live, 1st May 1997)
SIDE 5
27 From Red To Blue (London Music Week live, 1st May 1997)
28 The Busy Girl Buys Beauty (Janice Long Paris Theatre London Live, October 1999)
29 It Says Here (Janice Long Paris Theatre London Live, October 1999)
30 Lonesome Traveller [Hays] (John Peel session, 8thDecember 2004)
31 Goodbye, Goodbye (Phill Jupitus live, 30th March 2007)
32 Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key [Guthrie/Bragg] (Bob Harris live, 6th May 2012)
33 No-One Knows Nothing Anymore (Latitude Festival live, 18th July 2014)
SIDE 5
34 Levi Stubbs’ Tears (Glastonbury live, 26th June 2015)
35 Why We Build The Wall [Anais Mitchell] (Tom Robinson live Buxton Opera House, 21st January 2017)
36 I Ain’t Got No Home [Guthrie] (w/ CJ Hillman) (Radio 2 Folk Awards live, 5th April 2017)
37 The Space Race Is Over (Tom Robinson Now Playing 6Music ‘Billy Bragg Takeover’, 14th July 2019)
38 St. Swithin’s Day (Tom Robinson Now Playing 6Music ‘Billy Bragg Takeover’, 14th July 2019)

Billy Bragg & Joe Henry: Shine A Light, Field Recordings From The Great American Railroad (2016)

This is a hit and miss collection. In other words, some tunes are great and some are not. I love the idea of the project:

In March 2016 Billy Bragg and Joe Henry, guitars in hand, boarded a Los Angeles-bound train at Chicago’s Union Station looking to reconnect with the culture of American railroad travel and the music it inspired. Winding along 2,728 miles of track over four days, the pair recorded classic railroad songs in waiting rooms and at trackside while the train paused to pick up passengers. [source]

But, the results, as mentioned, are mixed.

Billy Bragg: Tooth and Nail (2013)

Like most Bragg albums, I have two copies: the US pressing, which is evidently a limited edition, as is the UK pressing. I have no idea how limited it is. On Bragg's website, it says: "Limited edition includes a free album download card - lovely!" That wording leads me to believe that the future vinyl editions will simply lack the download card, making the one with the download limited. I also own the deluxe CD edition, described on Discogs as follows: "Deluxe edition includes a DVD and is packaged in a book with lyrics and a collection of articles written by Billy for Q magazine."Discogs does not define this as a limited edition, but Bragg's website does: "Limited Special Edition Bookpack featuring CD & DVD."

Anyway, the damage done to my opinion of Bragg with the release of England, Half English was reversed with Mr Love & Justice, an album I really enjoy. I was greatly relieved to discover that Tooth and Nail is a really great record.

Billy Bragg: She's Got A New Spell (1988)

This limited edition 12" single contains She's Got A New Spell and an extended mix of Must I Paint you a Picture (originally from Workers Playtime), plus Wishing the Days Away (from Talking with the Taxman About Poetry), Sin City (which I believe made it's first appearance here), and Day's Like These (Original Version).  This record is not essential, unless you are a Bragg fan, like me.

Billy Bragg: Mr Love and Justice (2008)

This record was a bit of redemption after the disaster of England, Half English, which is the only Bragg record I hate, but I am getting sidetracked. I also have the double CD version, wherein disc two contains all of the tracks performed solo. I like both versions. Oddly, I can only find the solo version on youtube. I'd rank this as one of the best Bragg records.

Billy Bragg: William Bloke (1996)

William Bloke is one of my favourite Billy Bragg records. His next record, apart from the fantastic Wilco stuff, was abysmal. I can't even listen to England, Half English anymore.

Oddly, the LP version of William Bloke has an additional track -- Qualifications -- not found on the CD. A copy of this record is currently for sale on Discogs for almost $48. I paid no where near that much. A Pict Song is one of my fav Bragg tunes:

Billy Bragg: Workers Playtime (1988)

The title should really be Worker's Playtime or Workers' Playtime.

There was a time when I was absolutely sick of this record and I would have paid money so that I would never have to hear it again. I heard this album thousands of times back in '88 and '89, and it was killing me slowly. I even saw the tour for this record.

I guess this is Billy's love album, though there are three overtly political songs on it. Billy has always written love songs and mixed them in with political tunes. But, the music and production of this record seems to suggest that love is the major theme.

The three political songs are uneven. There is the really awful Tender Comrade, a song that I just cannot listen to. Rotting on Remand is marginally better, though it is not up to his prior political outings. The best of the political track is Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards, a song that is truly funny and serious at the same time.

I listened to this album for the first time in ages, and I can say that it's pretty good, though it wouldn't make it into my top five Bragg records. My copy is a UK pressing.

Billy Bragg: The Internationale (1990)

The Internationale is probably Bragg's most revolutionary release, and I mean that in terms of subject matter, not music. Apart from The Marching Song of the Covert Battalions, the songs are all cover version (some with Bragg re-writes and edits), with the highlight for me being Blake's Jerusalem. Unusually, for a Bragg release, there are tracks that I dislike. These are: I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night and Nicaragua, Nicaragüita. Since I also dislike Bragg's Chile Your Waters Run Red Through Soweto (from the Help Save the Youth of America EP), and Tender Comrade (from Workers Playtime - where is the apostrophe, Billy?), all this makes sense. A cappella Bragg has never worked for me. The Internationale is an interesting record. It sees Bragg at his most fervent. Parts of it work, but at times, it's a bit ridiculous. There's no denying the jaunty quality of The Red Flag, but it all seems a little naive or hopelessly idealistic and probably outdated.

Billy Bragg: Levi Stubbs' Tears (1986)

This UK 12" single differs from the Canadian version in that it contains only four tracks, and is, therefore, lacking these two track:

Scholarship Is The Enemy Of Romance
I Don't Need This Pressure Ron

Oddly, the running times of the four shared tracks are slightly different, but it is only a few seconds here and there. Who knows why? That's all I will say about this.

Billy Bragg: Levi Stubbs' Tears (1986)

One dark night he came home from the sea
And put a hole in her body where no hole should be
It hurt her more to see him walking out the door
And though they stitched her back together they left her heart in pieces on the floor

Thankfully, Billy knows how to use an apostrophe. After browsing the internet for any length of time (especially comments on various posts) it becomes clear that grammar is dead. I'm not talking about typos. I have my fair share of typos. I am referring to people who cannot construct a sentence and fail to use any punctuation. It makes me sad for the future.

Think Again, Bragg's cover version of the Dick Gaughan track, appears on side 2 of this 12" single. It's a song in the same tradition as The Box's Ordinary People and Sting's Russians. I prefer Bragg's live version on the Help Save the Youth of America EP, but this one is OK. The centerpiece, though, is Levi Stubbs' Tears, which is a really moving song.

A1 Levi Stubbs' Tears
A2 Walk Away Renee (Version)
A3 I Don't Need This Pressure Ron

B1 Think Again
B2 Scholarship Is The Enemy Of Romance
B3 Between The Wars (Recorded Live At The Festival Des Politischen Liedes In Berlin (GDR), February, 1986)

Billy Bragg: Talking With the Taxman About Poetry (1986)

The "Difficult Third Album" from Billy Bragg is one of my Bragg favourites. Bragg brought in other musicians, most notably, Johnny Marr of the Smiths, something that irritated Morrissey, or so I have read. As such, there is much more here that just Billy and his guitar and the echo from the room. The album features Greetings to the New Brunette, a killer Bragg track.

"I'm celebrating my love for you
With a pint of beer and a new tattoo
And if you haven't noticed yet
I'm more impressionable when my cement is wet"

By the way, I read some misheard Bragg lyrics years ago, one of which features the verse above, but misheard as "I'm more impressionable when my semen is wet." That's probably true. Some other great tracks from this record are The Warmest Room, Levi Stubbs' Tears, and (despite what Allmusic thinks), Help Save the Youth of America.

As you can see, I have a UK pressing, complete with the charming "pay no more that £4.49." I think I paid more.

Billy Bragg: The Peel Sessions (1987)

In 1991, another LP entitled The Peel Sessions Album was released on various formats, the CD version of which contains the entire contents of this brief six-track record. I have the CD version of the aforementioned album. The six tracks on this release are:

A New England
Strange Things Happen
This Guitar Says Sorry
Love Gets Dangerous
Fear Is A Man's Best Friend
A13, Trunk Road To The Sea

I couldn't believe that Bragg covered John Cale. To me, that was unexpected, and it's not a bad version at all, though quite different from the original.

Billy Bragg: Help Save the Youth of America: Live and Dubious (1986)

For some reason, Help Save the Youth of America is one of my favourite Billy Bragg releases, which is odd, because it is an EP and it contains a song that I hate. Allmusic describes Chile Your Waters Run Red Through Soweto as "an a cappella tour de force..." I really dislike the song.

On the other hand, Help Save the Youth of America is a fantastic song, though perhaps a bit dated. It's interesting to hear him sing that song to a Russian audience when the cold war was still ongoing.

And the cities of Europe have burned before
And they may yet burn again
And if they do I hope you understand
That Washington will burn with them
Omaha will burn with them
Los Alamos will burn with them

Bragg covers Think Again, the Dick Gaughan song. I've always appreciated that track, though there are moments when the lyrics are frankly way too simplistic.

Do you think that the Russians want war?
These are the parents of children who died in the last one
Do you think that it's possible, knowing their past
That they'd ever consider repeating the last
When 20 million were slaughtered by Nazi invasion?
They died fighting on our side, you know,
In a fight to defend humankind
Against Nazi terror and hatred

In the name of humanity, bitterly torn
In the name of our children as yet to be born
Before we do that which can never be undone I beg of you
Think, think again, and again and again and again and again

Do you think that the Russians want war?
They're the sons and the daughters of parents who died in the last one
Do you think that they'd want to go through that again
The destruction, the bloodshed, the suffering and pain?
In the second world war out of every three dead one was Russian
If we try with all of our power
Can we not find a way
To peacefully settle our difference?

Do you think that the Russians want war?
Will the voice of insanity lead you to total destruction?
Will you stumble to death as though you were blind?
Will you cause the destruction of all humankind?
Will you die because you don't like their political system?
There will be no survivors you know
No one left to scream in the night
And condemn our stupidity

The line "They died fighting on our side, you know" is really misleading. I think we can say that we shared a common enemy, but Stalin's war aims were certainly not shared in the west and vice versa.

Of all of the tracks, Days Like These (D.C. Remix) is perhaps the most dated. On this EP, the lyrics are largely rewritten adding references to El Salvador and Reagan: "It's no bloody consolation if Reagan cannot run again." But, the song resonated with me at the time and it remains one of my favourite Bragg tracks.

Billy Bragg: Accident Waiting To Happen (Red Star Version) (1992)

I own the 7" version, the double CD version, and this UK 12" version of Accident Waiting To Happen, drawn from Don't Try this at Home. The 7" and 12" versions are identical.  Disc one of the Australian CD version is has the same four tracks as the 7" and 12" releases:

Accident Waiting To Happen (Red Star Version)
Revolution
Sulk
The Warmest Room (live)

Disc two has live versions of:

Accident Waiting To Happen
Levi Stubbs Tears [with no apostrophe]
Valentine's Day is Over [with an apostrophe]
North Sea Bubble

Billy Bragg: You Woke Up My Neighbourhood (1991)

The corresponding CD single, which I also own, contains one extra track, a cover version of Seven and Seven Is. This 12" single only contains four tracks:

You Woke Up My Neighbourhood (co-written with Peter Buck or REM)

Ontario Quebec and Me (this may be one of the few times Bragg had something to say about Canadian politics)

Bread a Circuses (co-written with Natalie Merchant)

Heart Like a Wheel (written by Anna McGarrigle)

Billy Bragg: Don’t Try this at Home (1991)

This is a hard one to find, as it was pressed in the death of vinyl era. This is not my fav Bragg record, but it contains my fav Bragg song. If I said elsewhere that a different song was my fav Bragg song, that was wrong. Cindy of a Thousand Lives is my fav Bragg song. There a couple of tracks on this record that are failures to me, and I say that with much respect to Billy, who reminas one of my favourite singer/songwriters. Rumours of War and Tank Park Salute do not work for me. Highlights are The Few, You Woke Up My Neighbourhood, and Sexuality.

Billy Bragg: Days Like These (1985)

This is a 12" single, released in 1985. It contains Days Like These, I Don't Need this Pressure Ron, and Scholarship is the Enemy of Romance. The latter two tracks were uncollected until finally compiled on Reaching to the Converted (Minding the Gaps). Should I mention that I do not like I don't Need this Pressure Ron . It's another tiresome Bragg a cappella tune.

Billy Bragg: Back to Basics (1987)

I paid more than £5.99.

"Back to Basics is a 1987 collection of Billy Bragg's first three releases: The albums Life's A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy and Brewing Up with Billy Bragg and the EP Between The Wars. This collection did not contain any new material, but did document Billy Bragg's early "one man and his guitar" approach. The songs collected on this release demonstrate major recurrent themes in Bragg's work: highly critical commentary on Thatcherite Britain, laced with poetic love songs. The collection was re-released in November 1993 on the Cooking Vinyl label" [source]

In other words, I already have all of these tracks on other releases, and I own the CD as well.

Billy Bragg: Greetings to the New Brunette (1986)

Greetings to the New Brunette is one on my favourite Bragg tracks and it features Johnny Marr of the Smiths, one of my favoutite guitarists, on guitar. Somewhat fittingly, Bragg covers Jeanne, a Smiths track on this EP. There's also a couple of covers and an instrumental version of There is Power in a Union. Here is a live version of Jeanne:

Billy Bragg: Life's a Riot / Between the Wars (1985)

I bought this record in downtown Kitchener at some sort of mall record shop, likely a Music World, or some such place. I think it was indeed for sale at a "special nifty price" as advertised. Side one contains all of Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy and side two contains the four tracks from the 7" Between the Wars EP. In other words, side two is far more political than side one.

I guess I should point out that I have seen Billy in concert several times. I have even had three conversations with him in person. Somewhere, I have a ticket stub with his signature. I also have a bunch of CDs with his signature.

I have the DVD from which the following segment is taken.