A Short History of Billy Bragg

"In a perfect world we all sing in tune but this is reality so give me some room". So sang Billy Bragg in his song "Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards". Billy Bragg considered himself a "One-man Clash". He began his musical life with a shambolic punk band called "Riff-Raff" before, amazingly, briefly joining the British Army and then working for a while in a record store. His solo career was initially inspired by Phil Ochs and Woody Guthrie and their honest protest songs. The young Bragg toured relentlessly, weaving a path across Britain using a mix of Public Transport and the car of DJ friend and part-time driver Andy Kershaw. It was just him, his guitar and his small amp, so he was able to travel light and get to places well off the beaten track.

The music publishers "Chappell" saw something they liked and paid for studio time where he recorded his first album, the excellent "Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy". There was no backing band. It was just his electric guitar and his gruff Barking bark. This stark debut album, yet not overtly political, dealt with the tiny details of every day human relationships which were set against the context of social conditions. Social conditions which were also stark and, for many, desperate.

The album's opening track sets the tone for the rest of his recording career, "If you are lonely, I will call, if you're poorly I will send poetry. I love you. I am the milkman of human kindness and I need an extra pint". A number of John Peel radio sessions and performances followed and there was a time when Bragg almost seemed liked Peel's in-house band.

Ever since this first record Billy Bragg has continued to write, record and perform his own songs of how the individual fits into a working class social context, and more importantly, how love, love and modern living mould the relationships between "normal" people.

In 1985 Bragg appeared on the popular BBC TV music show "Top Of The Pops". He sang a spine tingling version of his unlikely hit, a protest song called "Between The Wars". This performance, though wonderfully uncompromising and honest, seemed to alienate many would-be listeners and her would just be remembered as "that bloke that can't sing" doing his noisy protest songs.

He was not just protesting about the plight of the then striking miners however. In truth Bragg is firstly a fine writer of contemporary folk songs. He sings of the struggle that faces people trying to live in a stable loving environment when confronted by a harsh social reality. Yet he has always aligned himself with socialism and has actively tried to promote socialism in a social and political context. This can be seen in the price of his albums. The have usually been a little cheaper than others and he was an advocate of the "pay no more than" stickers in the 1980s.

Also, he didn't merely pay lip-service to socialism. In 1984 Bragg played several free concerts on behalf of the striking coal miners, he has toured for "Jobs For Youth", and he helped set up the "Red Wedge" movement in 1986 which set out to promote and raise funds for the British Labour Party.

Having recorded most of his work with just an electric guitar, Billy Bragg recorded the "Worker's Playtime" album in 1988 with a full backing band. The songs dealt with the usual issues yet there seemed to be a new self-awareness and feeling of futility. He began questioning whether the protest song could really change anything. In the album's last track called "Waiting For The Great Leap Forward" he sings, "Mixing pop and politics, he asks me what the use is? I offer him embarrassment and the usual excuses". This may have been the beginning of a shift in his songs. A shift away from politics and protest towards the struggle for a free and kind human spirit. The milkman of human kindness struggling to deliver an extra pint.