Billy Bragg

Was chatting with a close friend over the weekend and the subject of Billy Bragg came up, I own his first four albums but had not given any of them a spin for some time so I spent a bit of time with them yesterday.

He first came to my attention in ‘83 (that man Peel again) and his style of performing (just his voice and his electric guitar) struck a chord in my ears. He has always been deeply political, very left wing but even his more political songs are lightened by his concern for the plight of the ordinary working man/woman - bit like a kind of post punk Woody Guthrie figure.

The first song is A New England from his first release, apologies for the cheesy eighties video but it was the best sounding version that I found which illustrates his pared down style. Kirsty MccColl had a hit with this one in ‘85 - her version was much poppier but Billy did write an extra verse or two for her.

Next one is The Milkman Of Human Kindness (also taken from his debut release).

Tried to find a clip of A13 (his tribute to Route 66 and other classic American road songs) but the only one I could find was dodgy in sound quality and the visuals were no great shakes.

Also known as the Big Nosed Bard Of Barking for very obvious reasons.