Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 336 - Back To Basics

Back To Basics - Billy Bragg

Go! Discs

Released 7th July 1987

UK Chart #37

 Tracklist

 The Links below contain live or alternative versions.

A1 The Milkman Of Human Kindness    
A2 To Have And To Have Not    
A3 Richard    
A4 Lovers Town Revisited    
A5 A New England    
A6 The Man In The Iron Mask

    
B1 The Busy Girl Buys Beauty    
B2 It Says Here    
B3 Love Gets Dangerous    
B4 From A Vauxhall Velox    
B5 The Myth Of Trust

    
C1 The Saturday Boy    
C2 Island Of No Return    
C3 This Guitar Says Sorry    
C4 Like Soldiers Do    
C5 St. Swithin's Day

    
D1 Strange Things Happen    
D2 A Lover Sings    
D3 Between The Wars    
D4 The World Turned Upside Down    
D5 Which Side Are You On

******************

Back To Basics was the first compilation from Billy Bragg and contained the mini-album Life's A Riot with Spy Vs Spy, Brewing Up With Billy Bragg and the Between The Wars EP. All were originally released on Go! Discs and enjoyed some chart success.

The Back To Basics part is simply "one man and his guitar" venting his spleen against the Thatcher Government and adding a plethora of poetic love songs and everyday life. 

May 1983

UK Chart #30

Live at the Factory Theatre, Sydney, 13th September 2013. The entire encore consisted of his debut album Life's A Riot with Spy Vs Spy (albeit in different order, it's tradition to close with A New England!)

 
1. Lovers Town Revisited
2. To Have and Have Not
3. Richard
4. The Man In The Iron Mask
5. The Milkman of Human Kindness
6. The Busy Girl Buys Beauty
7. A New England

July 1984

UK Chart #16

 The standout track of the album for me is St. Swithan's Day.

In Germany St. Swithan's Day was released as a Single with A New England as the B-Side in 1984.

February 1985

UK Chart #15

Between The Wars (Top Of The Pops).

The album was re-issued in 1993 by Cooking Vinyl and was available on Vinyl, Cassette and CD

A number of these early songs have been covered by other artists

New England - Kirsty MacColl.

Richard - Kidz Get Down.

Lovers Town Revisited - The Loved Ones.

The Man In The Iron Mask - Paul Young.

St. Swithan's Day - Dubstar.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Albums of the Year for 2016: Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad - Billy Bragg & Joe Henry

 Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad - Billy Bragg & Joe Henry
Cooking Vinyl
Produced by Joe Henry
Released 23rd September 2016

Side A

A1 Rock Island Line   
A2 The L&N Don't Stop Here Anymore   
A3 The Midnight Special   
A4 Railroad Bill   
A5 Lonesome Whistle   
A6 KC Moan   
A7 Waiting For A Train   
 

Side B
B1 In The Pines   
B2 Gentle On My Mind   
B3 Hobo's Lullaby   
B4 Railroading On The Great Divide   
B5 John Henry   
B6 Early Morning Rain

**********************

When you are planning a 4 Day Train Journey most people would make sure they at least had a good book and maybe a few DVD's to watch on the laptop to pass the time. For Billy Bragg and Joe Henry their source of entertainment through 2,278 miles was to record an album!

Yep, that's what you heard! Recording in Station Waiting Rooms or on the Platforms as the train stopped to pick up passengers on the way, Bragg and Henry captured the very essence of all those great country and folk songs about travel on the railroads that the likes of Johnny Cash and Hank Williams performed decades ago showing the humble Hobo criss-crossing the nation by rail in search of work, new life or just getting away from a bad situation.

Recorded on board the Texas Eagle 421 Service, upon platforms and in station halls, from Chicago to Los Angeles via San Antonio, 14-18 March 2016, except for "Waiting For A Train," recorded in Suite 414 of the Sheraton-Gunter Hotel, San Antonio, TX, March 17." 

What you get is a set of 13 cover songs recorded pretty much live with all the hussle and bussle of a busy station going on around them as they played. There's little fancy studio trickery to rectify the sound of life rushing by as they sing songs like Gentle On My Mind (made famous by Glen Campbell) or The Carter Family's Railroading On The Great Divide.

 

I must admit I've never quite heard anything like it! Surely for the absolute genius of the idea itself should Shine a Light: Field Recordings from the Great American Railroad be considered as one of the Albums of the Year for 2016.

It may not end up on many of the music magazines best of the year reviews but it's ended up on mine.

Grab your ticket and get on board!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 153 - Riff Raff

I Wanna Be A Cosmonaut EP - Riff Raff

Chiswick Records

Produced by Ruan O'Lochlainn, The Ruff Micks

Released June 1978 (though Billy Bragg thinks it was April 1978)

 Tracklist
A1 Cosmonaut (Written-By – Billy Bragg) 
A2 Romford Girls (Written-By – Billy Bragg, Robert Handley)
B1 What's The Latest (Written-By – Billy Bragg)
B2 Sweet As Pie (Written-By – Billy Bragg)

********************

Everyone has to start somewhere and the man we know as the Bard of Barking, Stephen William "Billy" Bragg began his musical life in 1977 when him and his mate Wiggy formed Riff Raff. Their debut EP was released on Chiswick Records, not that a lot of people outside of London knew about it.

Here's some thoughts by the man himself on Riff Raff's debut EP.

They didn't stick around for too long releasing a single on Albion and the final four singles on the Geezer label. They split in 1980. You can hear all the singles below. The final single New Home Town even has a song that Billy would record for his solo career, Richard. Infact you can already begin to see what Bragg would become in the last few singles.

Afterwards Bragg went off to join the British Army but after three months bought himself out for £175 and returned home. He began playing some shows and busking under the banner of Spy Vs Spy. He also made a demo and shopped it around.

His demo tape initially got no response from the record industry, but by pretending to be a television repair man, he got into the office of Charisma Records' A&R man Peter Jenner. Jenner liked the tape, but the company was near bankruptcy and had no budget to sign new artists. Bragg got an offer to record more demos for music publisher Chappell & Co., so Jenner agreed to release them as a record. Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy (credited to Billy Bragg) was released in July 1983 by Charisma's new imprint, Utility. 

I love this story: Hearing DJ John Peel mention on-air that he was hungry one night, Bragg rushed to the BBC with a mushroom biryani, so Peel played a song from Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy albeit at the wrong speed (since the 12" LP was, unconventionally, cut to play at 45rpm). Peel insisted he would have played the song even without the biryani and later played it at the correct speed. 

Gives me a chuckle everytime, but I guess that's how you take the opportunities that come your way.

Riff Raff - The Singles

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 151 - Billy Bragg & Wilco

I don't have time today to write a lot about the wonders of this album so I apologise off the bat for that.

It's the second in the Mermaid Avenue series featuring the songs of Woody Guthrie performed by Billy Bragg & Wilco.

It was released on this very day back in 2000.

Mermaid Avenue Vol. II

Billy Bragg & Wilco

Elektra

Produced by Billy Bragg, Wilco and Grant Showbiz

Released 30th May 2000

 Personnel
    Jeff Tweedy - guitar, vocal, clapping, Mellotron, cabasa, 12 string guitar, slide guitar, mandolin, Wurlitzer
    Jay Bennett - guitar, backing vocal, slide guitar, shaker, saw, 12 string guitar, B3 organ, Leslie pedals, Farfisa organ, mandolin, piano, tambourine, electric sitar, soloing, nylon string guitar, banjo, harmonica, drums, upright bass, Delayaphone, bells
    John Stirat bass, backing vocal, claps, upright bass, baritone guitar
    Billy Bragg - guitar, vocal, resonator guitar
    Ken Coomer - drums, tape box, tambourine, percussion, backing vocal, hollering, kick drum, gas heater

Additional Musicians
    Mike Henry - backing vocal on "My Flying Saucer"
    Natalie Merchant - guest lead vocal on "I Was Born"
    Leroy Bach - piano on "Remember The Mountain Bed"
    Corey Harris - guest lead vocal and acoustic guitar on "Against Th' Law"
    Eliza Carthy - violin on "Joe DiMaggio Has Done It Again"

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 36 - Levi Stubbs' Tears

Yesterday Billy Bragg's song 'Levi Stubbs' Tears' randomly popped into my head a couple of times. It's not unusual for such things to happen as my wife says I'm got a jukebox up there in part of my brain! Anyway, I'm always struck, when listening to this fourth single from the Bard of Barking, by the line: 

"Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong
Are here to make everything right that's wrong
Holland and Holland and Lamont Dozier too
Are here to make it all okay with you"

In those four lines of lyrics Bragg manages to bring together five of the finest Songwriters from the days of Motown and 60's Soul who penned so many amazing hits.

So this morning when I woke up that song was still in my head

Next I checked to see what things happened on this day in musical history (I have a couple of sites that I usually visit to glean this information) and there it was, jumping off the page, almost shouting at me: Today is the 75th birthday of Barrett Strong.

Barrett Strong was one of the first artists signed to Berry Gordy's Motown label and is the man who holds the distinction as having the young label's first hit in 1959 with 'Money (That's What I Want)'. The song, which Strong says he Co-wrote (and apparently did have a writers credit on the original release), has been at the centre of a legal storm for many years now because Strong had his name removed from the Copyright Registration three years after it was recorded and he has not received a Dime for his co-write. This song went on to greater popularity thanks to The Beatles, and many others including The Flying Lizards, The Doors, The Kingsmen, and John Lee Hooker being among just a few who have covered it.

Barrett was an artist in his own right but is probably better known for his songwriting alongside Norman Whitfield. Between them they wrote some classic tunes. Here's a few of them (click on the links to enjoy the music):

Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home) - Marvin Gaye 1962

Gonna Give Her All The Love I Got - Jimmy Ruffin 1966

I Heard It Though The Grapevine - Gladys Knight and the Pips 1967 and Marvin Gaye 1968

I Wish It Would Rain - The Temptations 1968

Cloud Nine - The Temptations 1968

Too Busy Thinking About My Baby - Marvin Gaye 1969

That's The Way Love Is - Marvin Gaye 1969

Psychedelic Shack - The Temptaions 1970

 Ball of Confusion (That's What the World is Today) - The Temptations 1970

War - Edwin Starr 1970

Just My Imagination (Running Away From Me) - The Temptations 1971

Papa Was A Rollin' Stone - The Undisputed Truth 1972, The Temptations 1972

For more songs by Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong CLICK HERE.

Happy Birthday Barrett Strong

and

Thanks Billy Bragg for the reminder

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!

45RPM: #55 Between The Wars EP - Billy Bragg (1985)

I was thinking about the song Between the Wars this morning and thought why not share it as part of the 45RPM Series.

What I loved about it was the simplicity of it, just one bloke and his guitar rattling of his heart about the state of world as he saw it. There's no glitz and glamour, no great thrills, just the Bard of Barking and no guitar hero histronics.

This was his debut EP. He had previously released two projects prior to this, 1983's Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy and 1984's Brewing Up With Billy Bragg. Spy Vs Spy could have actually been considered an EP with it's 7 tracks, 15mins and 57secs of music and it's 45RPM speed but strangely enough it qualified as an album (I have no idea how this was differentiated).

Between the Wars was inspired by the UK miners' strike (1984–1985). The choice of other songs on the record was also relevant to the dispute - "Which Side Are You On?" is an American pro-trade union song from the 1930s, whilst Bragg's own composition "It Says Here" is critical of the political bias of British newspapers, most of which opposed the strike.

The proceeds from sales of the record were donated to the striking miners' fund.

It's quite incredible to think that this record is over 30 years old and yet there is still a relevancy about the lyrical content.

Between the Wars EP

Go Discs

Produced by Kenny Jones

Februay 1985

UK Chart #15

Top of the Pops Performance

of

Between the Wars

  

A-Side: 1. Between The Wars.

A-Side: 2. Which Side Are You On?.

B-Side: 1. World Turned Upside Down.
B-Side: 2. It Says Here.

Between the Wars

Rockpalast 1985

Which Side Are You On? (Live in Sheffield 2011).

World Turned Upside Down (Live at Wembley 2012).

It Says Here (BBC Breakfast Time 1984).

Rewind: 1998 - Billy Bragg and Wilco Unleash Woody!

Released 23rd June 1998

Elektra Records

Nora Guthrie's liner notes in Mermaid Avenue indicate that it was her intention that the songs be given to a new generation of musicians who would be able to make the songs relevant to a younger generation. Nora Guthrie contacted Bragg, who in turn approached Wilco and asked them to participate in the project as well. Wilco agreed, and in addition to recording with Bragg in Ireland, they were given their own share of songs to finish.

The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and went on to place fourth on the Pazz and Jop Critics Poll for 1998 (right behind Bob Dylan's Live 1966).

For Further Listening:

Mermaid Avenue Volume 2.

Mermaid Avenue Volume 3.

Happy Birthday Billy Bragg

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

BILLY BRAGG

Live on KEXP

Set

Sexuality
No One Knows Nothing Anymore
Handyman Blues
Greetings to the New Brunette
I Ain't Got No Home In This World Anymore
There Will Be A Reckoning
Waiting For The Great Leap Forward

Click on the links to enjoy more music from Billy Bragg.

Live in the DDR.

Tank Park Salute.

Live at The Termon Hall, Donegal 1999.

No Glory In The War Performance 25/10/13.

Life's A Riot With Spy vs Spy (Live in Sydney 2013).

Talking To The Taxman About Poetry (Full Album Playlist).

At The National Collective.

Stage on Sixth - Texas 2013.

I Keep Faith - Human Rights Awards 2014.

Happy Birthday Billy Bragg

Happy Birthday to the Bard of Barking, born on this day in 1957.

Full Performance on KEXP 14/04/13.

Songs:
Sexuality
No One Knows Nothing Anymore
Handyman Blues
Greetings to the New Brunette
I Ain't Got No Home In This World Anymore
There Will Be A Reckoning
Waiting For The Great Leap Forward

NPR Tiny Desk Concert June 2013.

Set List
"Handyman Blues"
"I Ain't Got No Home"
"Sexuality"
"No One Knows Nothing Anymore"

The Times They Are A Changin' - with Frank Turner (Live in London 13/04/12).

Waterloo Sunset - with Frank Turner (Busking in London 17/12/13).

Life's A Riot with Spy Vs Spy - Live in Sydney 13/09/13.

Live at The Tremon Hall, Donegal, Ireland 17/07/99 (Full Concert).

Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key (02/04/13 The Bing Lounge).

If Not For You - with Olivia Newton John (One Show March 2013).

 

Billy Bragg - Reaching To The Converted 1999

	Tracklist
	"Shirley" (Billy Bragg) "Sulk" (Words by Billy Bragg, Music by Billy Bragg & Cara Tivey) "Accident Waiting to Happen" (Red Star Version) (Billy Bragg) "The Boy Done Good" (Words by Billy Bragg, Music by Johnny Marr) "Heart Like a Wheel" (Anna McGarrigle) "Bad Penny" (Billy Bragg) "Ontario, Quebec and Me" (Billy Bragg) "Walk Away Renee" (Version) (Music by Mike Lookofsky, Toby Sansome, Bob Calilli, Monologue: Billy Bragg) "Rule Nor Reason" (Billy Bragg) "Days Like These" (UK Version) (Billy Bragg) "Think Again" (Dick Gaughan) "Scholarship Is the Enemy of Romance" (Billy Bragg) "Wishing the Days Away" (Ballad Version) (Billy Bragg) "The Tatler" (Ry Cooder, Russ Titleman) "Jeane" (Stephen Morrissey & Johnny Marr) "She's Leaving Home" (John Lennon & Paul McCartney) "I Don't Need This Pressure Ron" (Billy Bragg)
	Probably my favourite collection of Billy Bragg tunes: B-sides, A-Sides, Cover Versions and even an unreleased version of a tune or two.
	No particular reason for posting it other than the fact I was listening to and thought it would be nice to share some of these great tunes.
	The album was released in August 1999 inbetween the Mermaid Avenue releases and reached a respectable number 41 in the UK Charts.
	Click on song titles to go to a video for the song (apologies for not having complete links, some songs are not on You Tube).

Gems From My Collection: Billy Bragg

I've always liked Billy Bragg. He has a wonderful way of putting things into a song that you just wouldn't expect from anyone else. The song below was written on Friday 8th July 2011 and performed live for the first time at the Garforth Arts Festival on Saturday 9th July 2011 and the video was shot in his dressing room prior to his performance.

Never Buy The Sun


Hearing that got me thinking about the works of Billy Bragg and I thought I'd share here a number of my favourite tracks from the Bard of Barking.

Between the Wars (Top of the Pops)


Days Like These (The Tube)


She's Got A New Spell (Town & Country Club 1991 Live)


Accident Waiting to Happen (Town & Country Club Live 1991)


Levi Stubbs Tears (Roundhouse 2008)


Tank Park Salute (Town & Country Club 1991 Live)


St. Swithin's Day (Germany 1985)


Greetings To The New Brunette (The Filmore, SF 2008)


New England (1983 John Peel Session)


The World Turned Upside Down (Greenbelt 2007)


Help Save The Youth Of America (American TV 1989)


The Short Answer (John Peel Session)


Must I Paint You A Picture (Extended Version)


Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key (with Natalie Merchant)