The Bard Of Barking
The Bard, Lyrically Speaking...
This bloke still is (and was at the time) very mature and could see the world around him, what was going on....and better still, write songs about it...
I kind of feel I grew up with him, (we are not related by the way!) 😀 I remember buying his first release 'Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy' on the Utility Record Label released in 1983 and was quite blown away with how different it sounded to just about everything else about at the time, the songs were certainly not pop and most definitely resonated with me in terms of lyrics, they were political, observational, meaningful and very socially aware. Songs from that album like 'To Have & To Have Not' made me feel at least not alone. You have to kind of look back historically at the UK at the time, Britain was not necessarily in a good place (at least for some), what felt like a deeply 'uncaring' government, many, many job losses, high unemployment (over 3 Million at the time I left school) and there was me, soon to start the world of work.
It wasn't the best time to be looking for a job to be honest regardless of how well you did at school the song 'To Have & To Have Not' clicked with me it's lyrics meant something 'qualifications once the golden rule, now just pieces of paper' and lines like 'it's a buyers market, they can pick and choose' and the resonating line 'Just because you are better than me doesn't mean I'm lazy'. The song was a side-swipe at the education system and its inequalities and also a big dig at the government of the day....quite revolutionary stuff and still pretty much applicable today.
The album was a revelation, I still love all tracks from it and it also gave his mate Kirsty MacColl a #7 hit with her version of 'A New England'.
The album track-listing:
- "The Milkman of Human Kindness"
- "To Have and to Have Not"
- "Richard"
- "A New England"
- "The Man in the Iron Mask"
- "The Busy Girl Buys Beauty"
- "Lovers Town Revisited"
You can catch the album in all its glory at the link 'Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy'
The thing that made his sound and style even more appealing was it was just one guy, an amp and a very basic looking guitar with an Essex/East London accent and coming up with Bob Dylan style lyrics and I was really quite taken with it.
Early Days
It was a bit different from his original band set up in the late 70's called Riff Raff, check out below:
In his early days with his first band Riff Raff, this track being one of four on the E.P. 'I Wanna Be A Cosmonaut' released on the Independent Chiswick Label in 1978.
The band were:
- Billy Bragg (vocals, guitar)
- Phillip Wigg aka Wiggy (guitar)
- Robert Handley (drums)
- S.D.R. Gol'fish (keyboards)
- Ruan O'Lochlainn (bass)
- John Waugh - (bass)
Interestingly on further reading Ruan O'Lochlainn was once a member of a 'pub rock' band called 'Bees Make Honey' a hugely influential band on the scene back is the 70's catch their track 'Don't Roll Those Bloodshot Eyes At Me' from way back in 1973 and this brilliant slice of 'pub rock' heaven from way back when with this old track 'Caldonia'.
I must admit the whole pub rock scene looked fantastic fun. Both tracks were cover versions, but they did a fine job. Catch the originals here: Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five with 'Caldonia' and 'Don't Roll Those Bloodshot Eyes At Me' originally recorded by Country artist Hank Penney all the way back in 1949 and jazzed up by Wynonie Harris in 1951.
...Anyway, history lesson aside, another track from the same E.P. 'Romford Girls', you can hear Billy's vocal style more clearly on this.
I suspect as he was a Barking lad, would know quite a bit about nearby Romford and it's ladies too.
Fast Forwarding To The Difficult Third
From his album 'Talking With The Taxman About Poetry', subtitled 'The Difficult Third Album' possibly because it broadened it's instrumental base to incorporate other musicians including Johnny Marr, Kirsty MacColl, Kenny Jones and Hank Wangford into the mix making it much less of a 'one man and his guitar production', anyway the track is 'Levi Stubbs Tears', lyrically a sad song highlighting the issue of domestic violence, done in such a way that you can almost feel the pain of the person involved. So cleverly written and based around a young woman leaving home and marrying someone 'before she was entitled to vote', how her husband was a monster, 'the sort of man who only laughed at his own jokes' and how she was recovering from that trauma with a 'crutch', a musical lifeline, a support of Motown legends The Four Tops. Listen to it on the youtube video below:
The album also featured songs such as 'Train Train' which was an old garage rock song for UK band The Count Bishops back in the 1970's as well as 'Ideology' a Bob Dylan track
It was released in 1986 on the Go! Discs label set up by an ex-Stiff records employee.
With the late Kirsty McColl
Challenging the laws and society views again with the song 'Sexuality' covering acceptance of gay relationships and also trying to get people to better understand. 'Safe sex doesn't mean no sex' being an indication of the awareness of HIV/AIDS at the time. The lyrics 'Sexuality, your laws do not apply to me' a swipe at the government's horrendous 'Section 28 bill'. All this wrapped up in a fantastic video, done with humour and some brilliant support. It was written by Bragg with Johnny Marr (who also plays guitar on the track), the video was conceived by Essex comedian Phil Jupitus. The song lyrics were updated only this year to support Trans-Gender Rights.
Video Sources & Thanks
Photo by Pierre Bamin on Unsplash