Billy Bragg
August 22, 2008
That Billy Bragg is good value for money. Only the other day I put the old “Life’s a Riot with Spy vs Spy” on the turntable (yes I still have one) and was transported back to the days when an EP only cost £2.99. It says it’s an album on the cover, but it plays at 45rpm and only has about six tracks on, so I call it a 12-inch EP. I can do that can’t I?
Anyway, quite apart from sounding just brilliant, Billy gives a stream of great lyrics, of which my favourites must be:
“I am the milkman of human kindness/I will leave an extra pint.”
And
“I saw three shooting stars last night/I wished on them/But they were only satellites/It’s wrong to wish on space hardware/I wish, I wish, I wish you cared.”
Now you can’t argue about the quality of those lines. The man is a genius, and if I wore a hat I’d take it off to him.
Those were the days!
September 6, 2008 at 9:57 pm
saw billy bragg in 1986, i think (?), at the agora ballroom in west hartford, ct usa. he opened for big country, i believe. he played a blue guitar.
there might have been 100 people in the room. we bought him a beer and apologised about the turnout. lovely man.