Billy Bragg Vol.2 - Billy Bragg

Back To Basics - Billy Bragg

So this is where it all began for the Bard of Barking. One man and his guitar, with only foghorn vocals for company. And it works brilliantly. The melodies and lyrics are all spot on, so half the time you don't even notice that there's no backing band. Billy's famous for his political statements, and there are plenty of those here, including the unjustifiably much-maligned Between The Wars EP, which is tagged onto the end of the CD. However, I find his ability to express the trials and tribulations of romance to be almost peerless. From teenage crushes to pushing prams, it's all here. The highlight for me has to be 'A New England', as sung by Kirsty MacColl. ...

Back To Basics - Billy Bragg

So this is where it all began for the Bard of Barking. One man and his guitar, with only foghorn vocals for company. And it works brilliantly. The melodies and lyrics are all spot on, so half the time you don't even notice that there's no backing band. Billy's famous for his political statements, and there are plenty of those here, including the unjustifiably much-maligned Between The Wars EP, which is tagged onto the end of the CD. However, I find his ability to express the trials and tribulations of romance to be almost peerless. From teenage crushes to pushing prams, it's all here. The highlight for me has to be 'A New England', as sung by Kirsty MacColl. ...

Talking With The Taxman About Poetry - Billy Bragg

Spy and Brewing Up With... - whilst playing host to an instrumental diversity hitherto sidelined in favour of that extraordinary, stark, piercing electric guitar / terrace-chant vocals combo. Billy Bragg understands better than anyone since Woody Guthrie how entwined the personal and the political truly are. For the most part, the protest songs and the love songs are wound so tight around one another as to be nigh-on inseparable. Nowhere is this more evident than in the albums two blinding centrepieces - the harrowing Levi Stubb s Tears, as uncommonly sharp an analysis of spousal abuse, of shattered relationships, of the effect of the social on the private, as anyone ...

Talking With The Taxman About Poetry - Billy Bragg

Spy and Brewing Up With... - whilst playing host to an instrumental diversity hitherto sidelined in favour of that extraordinary, stark, piercing electric guitar / terrace-chant vocals combo. Billy Bragg understands better than anyone since Woody Guthrie how entwined the personal and the political truly are. For the most part, the protest songs and the love songs are wound so tight around one another as to be nigh-on inseparable. Nowhere is this more evident than in the albums two blinding centrepieces - the harrowing Levi Stubb s Tears, as uncommonly sharp an analysis of spousal abuse, of shattered relationships, of the effect of the social on the private, as anyone ...

Talking With The Taxman About Poetry - Billy Bragg

taste! I know I have look I even own a Dire Straits Cd ( but shhhhhhhh we won't talk about that now will we?) Billy Bragg in his pre Woody Gutherie cover versions days was very much an acquired taste! His monotone neo chanting style of singing accompanied by him strumming along on his guitar wasn't every ones cup of tea - my mum particularly hated him with a vengence this might have due to the fact I like to sing along with our Billy! Now if you thought Billy was tone deaf you should have heard me singing along at the top of my voice! My Mum thought of him as a busker who got a record contract some how! Talking to the Taxman about Poetry was Bragg's ...

Talking With The Taxman About Poetry - Billy Bragg

taste! I know I have look I even own a Dire Straits Cd ( but shhhhhhhh we won't talk about that now will we?) Billy Bragg in his pre Woody Gutherie cover versions days was very much an acquired taste! His monotone neo chanting style of singing accompanied by him strumming along on his guitar wasn't every ones cup of tea - my mum particularly hated him with a vengence this might have due to the fact I like to sing along with our Billy! Now if you thought Billy was tone deaf you should have heard me singing along at the top of my voice! My Mum thought of him as a busker who got a record contract some how! Talking to the Taxman about Poetry was Bragg's ...