Billy Bragg

BILLY BRAGG
 
 
Billy Bragg  (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist.  His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes. He has been called the “Bard of Barking”.  (More from Wikipedia)


 

I was rather surprised years later to hear my home town come up again as I played one of the songs on the two excellent Mermaid Avenue CD’s, consisting of a set of performances of the lyrics to several of literally hundreds of unrecorded songs by Woody Guthrie that were set to music by the American rock band Wilco and the English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg.  One of the songs, “Aginst th’ Law” goes on and on about all of these illegalities – “It’s against the law to talk, and it’s against the law to walk”, etc. – and later in the song, there is the lyric:  “Everything in Winston-Salem is against the law!” 

 

(March 2013)

 

*       *       *

 

Speaking of Woody, activist English rock singer Billy Bragg teamed up with the American alternative rock band Wilco in 1998 to create new music for several unperformed Woody Guthrie songs where only lyrics were available (there are more than 1,000 such songs that Guthrie wrote).  Named Mermaid Avenue for the street in Coney Island, New York where Woody lived for many years, they looked upon the albums as a collaboration of modern rock musicians with the legendary troubadour of the Depression era.   

 

Mermaid Avenue, Vol. II followed in 2000; “All You Fascists” was originally released on this album.  A box set that collected the two earlier CD’s with a third disc of additional music was released in 2012 and called Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions.  

 

(November 2014)

 

*       *       *

 

Wikipedia states:  “Such songwriters as Bob DylanPhil OchsBruce Springsteen, Robert HunterHarry ChapinJohn MellencampPete SeegerAndy IrvineJoe StrummerBilly BraggJerry GarciaJay Farrar, Bob WeirJeff TweedyBob Childers, and Tom Paxton have acknowledged [Woody] Guthrie as a major influence.”  

 

*       *       *

 

I have already written about the wonderful Mermaid Avenue Series albums.  Leftist English folksinger Billy Bragg and the American rock band Wilco put together music to accompany some of the complete lyric sheets that Woody Guthrie left behind that had no accompanying music – more than a thousand songs in all.  In part, Billy Braggs liner notes on Mermaid Avenue, Vol. II state:  “Woody Guthrie was the first alternative musician.  While Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley were busy peddling escapism for the masses, Woody was out there writing songs from a different point of view with a lyrical poetry that captured the awesome majesty of America’s scenery and the dry-as-dust humor of its working folks.” 

 

As terrific as they are, the dozens of songs on these albums only scratch the surface; Billy Bragg said in the liner notes that until these other songs can also be unearthed, “Woody Guthrie has so much more to say to us.”  

 

(March 2015)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021