Typically dismissive of one of his greatest character traits, but there is no false humility about Billy. How could there be when he continues to divest so much of his own time assisting with a book about his life? He knows how important he is. Even back in prehistoric 1998, before Facebook and Twitter, a glance at what was then a prototype fans’ noticeboard on his website confirmed it, contributed to daily from all corners of the globe. A typical day revealed entries from Philadelphia, Harrogate, Barcelona, Toronto, Stockholm, Stirling, Austin and Nyon (it’s in Switzerland). Tiny used to keep a letter up on her noticeboard from an American Merchant Marine written to Billy on 13 March 1995, which, she said helped to remind her of where her focus should be in her fantastic job as his assistant. ‘Billy will tell you that music cannot change the world but I don’t believe that, I agree with the bloke who wrote this letter.’
The letter was typical of a Bragg fan then, and remains so now. Its writer had recently visited Rwanda, where he was appalled by the ‘horror and inhumanity’ there, and also the subsequent ‘lack of compassion and indifference’ among those he told about it. ‘I am now an activist,’ he wrote, ‘From fighting for labor or fighting for the rights of individuals. There are too many things wrong in this world just to sit back and relax. So I want to take the time to thank you for your inspiration. Your music speaks of what is right and wrong, of what injustices have been done and the power of the people. Keep writing your music and keep the fight going, because what you are doing is important and in the end will make the world a better place.’
Billy gigs less intensively these days – he describes frugal trips across America as ‘three middle-aged blokes on a fishing trip’ – and likes nothing better than to put his feet up at Barton Olivers and coo over actress Romola Garai on the telly, until Juliet playfully digs him in the ribs. But the fight has not left him, as a visit to the Bragg-curated Leftfield at Glastonbury will confirm. Quite unlike the apparently apolitical New Paul Weller, he’s still suitable for miners. His faults are the faults of any bloke. Yes, he put it about a bit during his wild years. Yes, he fell in love too much. But at least he’s honest about it, and valiantly blames himself for all the doomed romances.
He’s ordinary, but, without a shadow of a doubt, a true one-off.
In a dressing room in Leeds on the Red Stars tour, whilst poring over the latest questionnaire for a music magazine, Billy asked Wiggy to think of a word to describe him. Wiggy told him to put down that he was conservative with a small ‘c’. Billy conceded the point: ‘He was right, I am conservative in my taste, in the way I dress.’
Pushed for a further profile of his lifelong friend, Wiggy declares, ‘He’s definitely the funniest guitar player I’ve ever heard.’
‘What you see is what you get,’ concludes Tiny. ‘He’s real. He has grumpy mornings, I’m not saying he’s a saint, but I feel I am really lucky to know Billy personally. You don’t often meet people like that in your life, who have that sort of integrity, and are that kind. He’s a big, warm, witty person who doesn’t take himself too seriously. I’d better not say any more, he’ll kill me.’
Phill Jupitus is no less effusive: ‘He is one of the few genuinely nice people in a business awash with weasels on every level. He’s very placid. I’ve got a few friends who lost their Dads early and they’re very calm, level people. They don’t lose their temper or get out of hand.’
Andy Kershaw, long-established as his own man, and no longer thumbnailed as Billy Bragg’s valet, has nothing but gratitude for those 12 months in the saddle: ‘I couldn’t have had a better letter of introduction to working in music, radio and television than having been Billy’s right-hand man. At that time, you couldn’t have come through with better credentials.’
Andy Macdonald’s tribute to Billy concentrates on the music: ‘His records will still be out there in fifty years’ time. Billy’s in the same category as Dylan or Woody Guthrie.’
Paul Heaton – who played the rehabilitated Leftfield for him in 2010 – hits the nail on the head when he says that ‘Billy Bragg is somebody you have to rekindle your thoughts about occasionally. I may not call myself a Billy Bragg fan now, but he’s not done anything that’s put me off him. If I went to see him live again, I probably would be.’
Joe Henry, Billy’s most recent collaborator and, for five days, his Pasadena host, describes him as the ‘perfect houseguest. My whole family loves Billy. He was a dream to work with.’
Perhaps Neil Kinnock’s description says it clearest.
‘Ginger, angular, restless, earnest, emotional, independent, forceful, funny.’
It sometimes takes a redhead to spot another redhead.
Ask Billy if he has any regrets and he can come up with only three. That in 1990 he never got round to replying when the authors of The Book Of Lists (a well-thumbed Bragg lavatory volume) requested he compile his Top Ten Favourite Songwriters for their 90s edition. Blowing his chance to be immortalised between 25 Famous People Who Had Tuberculosis and 7 Researchers Who Used Themselves As Guinea Pigs, the experience taught Billy never to put off ‘till tomorrow what you could conceivably do today.
He also regrets putting ‘Sean Penn’ in the 1991 Q Questionnaire when asked who he would like to play him in a film (‘It should’ve been the young Bernard Bresslaw’). And that, due to time constraints, on his 50th birthday at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, they never made it to the guitar solo when he played the vinyl version of Thin Lizzy’s ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’.
Billy’s not one for regrets, or bitterness, or grudges, or rewriting history. Funny and enjoyable things are more Billy’s line. He might shoulder what P.J. O’Rourke called ‘all the trouble in the world’, but Billy is not unhappy – at least any more. ‘There was a feeling I used to get every Sunday night,’ he says. ‘And the word melancholy doesn’t come near it. It was years and years of this repetitive Sunday-night-Monday-morning feeling going on forever. I still do occasionally feel it, once every five or six years, but it used to be every fucking week until I was about 25. It was a deep, deep, totally irrational feeling of melancholy: Oh my God, here we go again, the start of another week, and I know what this fucking week is going to be like. But one of the great things about this job is that now, I don’t.
‘And I’ll know when this is all over, because I’ll get that feeling every Sunday again. And I’ll stop, I’ll go and do something else.’
As a closing image, it’s still impossible to top the one that concluded the first edition of this life story, so let us leave it there, with Billy Bragg driving down the M4 to Heathrow in January, 1998.
He is with Juliet and Jack, the enduring loves of his life, and he is playing William Bloke, one of the records that made it all possible. ‘Brickbat’ comes on, and after the ‘baby in the bathroom’ line, in a sudden flash of recognition, the four-year-old Jack calls out, ‘That’s me! I’m the baby in the bathroom, aren’t I?’ Indeed he is. Billy smiles. That’ll be another epiphany, then.
As they used to say in Riff Raff before racing through ‘A13’ …
Last one to the end buys the drinks.
TOWARDS A BRAGGIOGRAPHY
Discography of UK releases
BILLY BRAGG
Albums
May 1983
Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy (Utility/Charisma, UTIL 1)
Tracklisting:
The Milkman Of Human Kindness/To Have And To Have Not/Richard/Lovers Town Revisited/A New England/The Man In The Iron Mask/The Busy Girl Buys Beauty
November 1983
Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy (Utility/Go! Discs, UTIL 1)
March 2006
Re-released as Expanded Edition (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 302B)
Bonus disc tracklisting:
Strange Things Happen (Alternative version)/The Cloth [1]/Love Lives Here/Speedway Hero/Loving You Too Long/This Guitar Says Sorry (Alternative version)/Love Gets Dangerous (Alternative version)/The Cloth [2]/Man In The Iron Mask (Alternative version)/A13, Tru
nk Road To The Sea/Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend
November 1984
Brewing Up With Billy Bragg (Go! Discs, AGOLP 4)
Tracklisting:
It Says Here/Love Gets Dangerous/From A Vauxhall Velox/The Myth Of Trust/The Saturday Boy/Island Of No Return/This Guitar Says Sorry/Like Soldiers Do/St Swithin’s Day/Strange Things Happen/A Lover Sings
March 2006
Re-released as Expanded Edition (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 3 03B)
Bonus disc tracklisting:
It Must Be A River/Won’t Talk About It/Talking Wag Club Blues/You Got The Power/The Last Time/Back To The Old House/A Lover Sings (Alternative version)/Which Side Are You On?/It Says Here (Alternative version)/Between The Wars/World Turned Upside Down
September 1986
Talking With The Taxman About Poetry (Go! Discs, AGOLP 6)
Tracklisting:
Greetings To The New Brunette/Train Train/The Marriage/Ideology/Levi Stubbs’ Tears/Honey I’m A Big Boy Now/There Is Power In A Union/Help Save The Youth Of America/Wishing The Days Away/The Passion/The Warmest Room
March 2006
Re-released as Expanded Edition (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 304B)
Bonus disc tracklisting:
Sin City/Deportees/There Is Power In A Union (Instrumental)/The Tracks Of My Tears/Wishing The Days Away (Alternative take)/The Clashing Of Ideologies (Alternative version)/Greetings To The New Brunette (Demo)/A Nurse’s Life Is Full Of Woe/Only Bad Signs/Hold The Fort
June 1987
Back To Basics (Go! Discs, AGOLP 8)
Tracklisting:
The Milkman Of Human Kindness/To Have And To Have Not/Richard/Lovers Town Revisited/A New England/The Man In The Iron Mask/The Busy Girl Buys Beauty/It Says Here/Love Gets Dangerous/From A Vauxhall Velox/The Myth Of Trust/The Saturday Boy/Island Of No Return/This Guitar Says Sorry/Like Soldiers Do/St Swithin’s Day/Strange Things Happen/A Lover Sings/Between The Wars/The World Turned Upside Down/Which Side Are You On?
(Re-released November 1993 on Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 060)
September 1988
Workers Playtime (Go! Discs, AGOLP 15)
Tracklisting:
She’s Got A New Spell/Must I Paint You A Picture?/Tender Comrade/The Price I Pay/Little Time Bomb/Rotting On Remand/Valentine’s Day Is Over/Life With The Lions/The Only One/The Short Answer/Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards
October 2006
Re-released as Expanded Edition (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 306B)
Bonus disc tracklisting:
The Only One (Demo)/The Price I Pay (Demo)/Love Has No Pride/That’s Entertainment/She’s Got A New Spell (Demo)/The Short Answer (Demo)/Little Time Bomb (Demo)/Bad Penny (Demo)/Reason To Believe (Live)/Must I Paint You A Picture? (Extended version)/Raglan Road (Live)
May 1990
The Internationale (Utility, UTIL 11)
Tracklisting:
The Internationale/I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night/The Marching Song Of The Covert Battalions/Blake’s Jerusalem/Nicaragua Nicaraguita/The Red Flag/My Youngest Son Came Home Today
March 2006
Re-released as Expanded Edition (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 305B)
Bonus disc tracklisting:
Introduction (Live)/Help Save The Youth Of America (Live)/Think again (Live)/Chile Your Waters Run Red Through Soweto (Live)/Days Like These (DC Remix)/To Have And Have Not (Live)/There Is Power In A Union (With the Patersons)/Joe Hill/This Land Is Your Land/Never Cross A Picket Line/A Change Is Gonna Come/A Miner’s Life
September 1991
Don’t Try This At Home (Go! Discs, 828 279-1)
Tracklisting:
Accident Waiting To Happen/Moving The Goalposts/Everywhere/Cindy Of A Thousand Lives/You Woke Up My Neighbourhood/Trust/God’s Footballer/The Few/Sexuality/Mother Of The Bride/Tank Park Salute/Dolphins/North Sea Bubble/Rumours Of War/Wish You Were Her/Body Of Water
(Re-released November 1993 (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 000B)
October 2006
Re-released as Expanded Edition (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 307B)
Bonus disc tracklisting:
North Sea Bubble (Demo)/Sexuality (Demo)/Just One Victory (Alternative mix)/Everywhere (Alternative version)/Trust (Demo)/Bread And Circuses/Cindy Of A Thousand Lives (Demo)/The Few (Demo)/Revolution/Tighten Up Your Wig (with The Athenians & DJ Woody Dee)/MBH/This Gulf Between Us/Piccadilly Rambler
November 1993
Victim Of Geography (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 061)
Tracklisting:
Greetings To The New Brunette/The Marriage/Ideology/Levi Stubbs’ Tears/Honey I’m A Big Boy Now/There Is A Power In A Union/Help Save The Youth Of America/Wishing The Days Away/The Passion/The Warmest Room/The Home Front/She’s Got A New Spell/Must I Paint You A Picture?/Tender Comrade/The Price I Pay/Little Time Bomb/Rotting On Remand/Valentine’s Day Is Over/Life With The Lions/The Only Ones/The Short Answer/Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards
September 1996
William Bloke (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 100)
Tracklisting:
From Red To Blue/Upfield/Everybody Loves You Babe/Sugardaddy/A Pict Song/Brickbat/The Space Race Is Over/Northern Industrial Town/The Fourteenth Of February/King James Version/Goalhanger
October 2006
Re-released as Expanded Edition (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 308B)
Bonus disc tracklisting:
As Long As You Hold Me (Demo)/Who’s Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet? (Demo)/Sugar Daddy (Demo)/The Space Race Is Over (Demo)/Goalhanger (Demo)/Upfield (Demo)/The Fourteenth Of February (Demo)/Qualifications/Never Had No One Ever/Thatcherites/All Fall Down
April 1997
Bloke On Bloke (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 127)
Tracklisting:
The Boy Done Good/Qualifications/Sugardaddy (Smokey Gets In Your Ears mix)/Never Had No One Ever/Sugardubby/Rule Nor Reason/Thatcherites
(Mini-album subtitled More From The William Bloke Sessions)
August 1999
Reaching To The Converted (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 186)
Tracklisting:
Shirley/Sulk/Accident Waiting To Happen (Red Star version)/The Boy Done Good/Heart Like A Wheel/Bad Penny/Ontario, Quebec And Me/Walk Away Renee (version)/Rule Nor Reason/Days Like These (UK version)/Think Again/Scholarship Is The Enemy Of Romance/Wishing The Days Away (Ballad version)/The Tatler/She’s Leaving Home/I Don’t Need This Pressure Ron
October 2003
Must I Paint You A Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg (Cooking Vinyl, COOK CD 266X, limited edition triple CD including bonus rarities; COOK CD 266, double CD)
Tracklisting:
A New England/The Man In The Iron Mask/The Milkman Of Human Kindness/To Have And To Have Not/A Lover Sings/St Swithin’s Day/The Saturday Boy/Between The Wars/The World Turned Upside Down/Levi Stubbs’ Tears/Walk Away Renee/Greetings To The New Brunette/There Is Power In A Union/Help Save The Youth Of America/The Warmest Room/Must I Paint You A Picture?/She’s Got A New Spell/The Price I Pay/Valentine’s Day Is Over/Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards/Sexuality/Cindy Of A Thousand Lives/Moving The Goalposts/Tank Park Salute/You Woke Up My Neighbourhood/Accident Waiting To Happen (Red Stars)/Sulk/Upfield/The Fourteenth Of February/Brickbat/The Space Race Is Over/The Boy Done Good/Ingrid Bergman/Way Over Yonder In The Minor Key/My Flying Saucer/All You Fascists Bound To Lose (Blokes)/NPWA/St Monday/Some Days I See The Point/Take Down The Union Jack (Band version)
Bonus disc:
A13, Trunk Road To The Sea/Fear Is A Man’s Best Friend/Cold And Bitter Tears/Seven And Seven Is/When Will I See You Again?/Rule Nor Reason/Debris/Dry Bed (Solo demo)/She Smiled Sweetly/Take Down The Union Jack (King Normal and The Rug remix)
March 2006
Billy Bragg Volume 1 (Cooking Vinyl, BRAGGBOX001)
Box set contains Expanded Editions (tracklisting above) of: Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs Spy, Brewing Up With Billy Bragg, Talking With The Taxman About Poetry, The Internationale, plus bonus DVDs:
Here And There, containing footage from three live concerts
From The West Down To The East, containing The South Bank Show, March 1985, and live concert, East Berlin DDR, April 1986
Tracklisting:
Lovers Town Revisited/Levi Stubbs’ Tears/The World Turned Upside Down/It Says Here/Island Of No Return/Which Side Are You On?/Love Gets Dangerous/Richard/Train Train/A New England
October 2006
Billy Bragg Volume 2 (Cooking Vinyl, BRAGGBOX002)
Box set contains Expanded Editions (tracklisting above and below) of: Workers Playtime, Don’t Try This At Home, William Bloke and England, Half English, plus bonus DVDs:
If You’ve Got A Guest List
Billy Bragg & The Red Stars at the Town & Country Club, London, November 1991
Tracklisting:
You Woke Up My Neighbourhood/The Saturday Boy/The Marching Song Of The Covert Battalions/The World Turned Upside Down/Dolphins/Valentine’s Day Is Over/North Sea Bubble/Body Of Water/Levi Stubbs’ Tears/A Lover Sings/She’s Got A New Spell/Cindy Of A Thousand Lives/Accident Waiting To Happen/Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards/Tender Comrade/Tank Park Salute/The Warmest Room/Sexuality
Billy Bragg live at The Broadway, Barking, May 2006
Tracklisting:
A Lover Sings/The Price I Pay/Debris/Tank Park Salute/All You Fascists/Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards/A13, Trunk Road To The Sea
March 2008
Mr Love & Justice (Cooking Vinyl COOK CD 452)
Tracklisting:
I Keep Faith/I Almost Killed You/Me For Me/The Beach Is Free/Sing Their Souls Back Home/You Make me Brave/Something Happened/Mr Love & Justice/If You Ever Leave/O Freedom/The Johnny Carcinogenic Show/Farm Boy/I Keep Faith (Solo version)/I Almost Killed You (Solo Version)/Me For Me (Solo Version)
Billy Bragg Page 41
