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Rating: A unique musician, Billy Bragg.
Just think that the most evident and unexpected recognition he received came from Rancid, a group that didn't (and doesn't) have much in common with him. I quote the first verse of «The Wars End», a track from their album «... And Out Come The Wolves»: «Little Sam was a punk / His mother didn't understand him / She sneaked into his room and destroyed Billy Bragg's records / She didn't want him to listen to that communist ranter ...». And then, there's Lars Frederiksen, who in his debut with the Bastards, covers the anthem-like «To Have And To Have Not» from our artist.
And again, what about the fact that his best work is a classic transitional album? When has it ever happened that a transitional album is also an artist's best? It's as if «Give'em Enough Rope» was the best Clash album!
«Talking With The Taxman About Poetry», released in 1986, is indeed a transitional album, an ideal bridge between the Billy Bragg who was and who he would become later.
Originally, Billy Bragg was a one man band, an angry grandson of Woody Guthrie, someone who wanted to sound like the Clash but didn't have a guitarist, bassist, or drummer to accompany him, so he did it all by himself and roamed around with his electric guitar and amplifier on his shoulder, discovering a better England and world, even though, ironically, in one of his most famous songs (so to speak), «A New England», he claimed he didn't want to change the world, just find another girl.
All his original work is collected in a double LP titled «Back To Basics», a record to be listened to in small doses (one side at a time, at most) to ensure the validity of the proposal is not overwhelmed by the inevitable stylistic monotony: try, dear DeBaser reader, to listen for two hours to someone who abuses an electric guitar and sings in incomprehensible slang, and then you'll tell me!
But Billy Bragg, besides being listened to, must above all be read, having one of his strengths in the lyrics: more than with the guitar, he killed fascists with words.
Of the «all guitar and commitment» Billy Bragg, there are some remarkable examples in this album, especially «Ideology» and «There's Power In A Union», as well as the homage to Vladimir Mayakovsky, from whose work the album is titled (it has little to do with it, but my most amusing memory related to this work is that of a "show-off" critic who, to impress, translated the title as «Talking About Poetry With The Taxi Driver»).
But above all, what arouses interest is the anticipation of what Billy Bragg would become: the deepening of more introspective themes and a more complex and airy musicality give the songs a depth previously unknown. And so, the lively «Greetings To The New Brunette», the ironic «The Marriage», and the cabaret-like «Honey I'm A Big Boy Now», those very songs you wouldn't expect from Billy Bragg, are admired. But how can we not also mention «Wishing The Days Away», or the poignant «Levi Stubbs' Tears», until you realize that this album is a treasure chest containing twelve gems.
Billy Bragg would release other excellent records - at least «Don't Try This At Home» and the Woody Guthrie tribute of «Mermaid Avenue» together with Wilco should be remembered - but unfortunately, he would never reach the heights of «Talking With The Taxman About Poetry» again.
Of Billy Bragg, someone wrote that «... his music is a shield erected against human pettiness and the greed of the powerful ...»: for this reason alone, «Talking With The Taxman About Poetry» should be listened to at least once and never forgotten.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 The Marriage (02:31)
I understand you needing
And wanting is no crime
But I can't help feeling
That you and your mother are just wasting your time
Choosing Saturdays in Summer
I dare you to wear white
Love is just a moment of giving
And marriage is when we admit our parents were right
I just don't understand it
What makes our love a sin
How can it make that difference
If you and I are wearing that bloody, bloody ring
If I share my bed with you
Must I also share my life
Love is just a moment of giving
And marriage is when we admit our parents were right
You just don't understnd it
This tender trap we're in
Those glossy catalogues of couples
Are cashing in on happiness again and again
So drag me to the altar
And I'll make my sacrifice
Love is just a moment of giving
And marriage is when we admit our parents were right
And marriage is when we admit our parents were probably right
04 Ideology (03:27)
When one voice rules the nation
Just because they're top of the pile
Doesn't mean their vision is the clearest
The voices of the people
Are falling on deaf ears
Our politicians all become careerists
They must declare their interests
But not their company cars
Is there more to a seat in parliament
Than sitting on your arse
And the best of all this bad bunch
Is shouting to be heard
Above the sound of ideologies clashing
Outside the patient millions
Who put them into power
Expect a little more back for their taxes
Like school books, beds in hospitals
And peace in our bloody time
All they get is old men grinding axes
Who've built their private fortunes
On the things they can rely
The courts, the secret handshake
The Stock Exchange and the old school tie
For God and Queen and Country
All things they justify
Above the sound of ideologies clashing
God bless the civil service
The nations saving grace
While we expect democracy
They're laughing in our face
And although our cries get louder
The laughter gets louder still
Above the sound of ideologies clashing
Above the sound of ideologies,
Above the sound of ideologies,
Above the sound of ideologies clashing
05 Levi Stubbs' Tears (03:31)
With the money from her accident
She bought herself a mobile home
So at least she could get some enjoyment
Out of being alone
No one could say that she was left up on the shelf
It's you and me against the World kid she mumbled to herself
''Chorus:''
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears run down his face
She ran away from home on her mother's best coat
She was married before she was even entitled to vote
And her husband was one of those blokes
The sort that only laughs at his own jokes
The sort a war takes away
And when there wasn't a war he left anyway
Norman Whitfield and Barratt Strong
Are here to make everything right that's wrong
Holland and Holland and Lamont Dozier too
Are here to make it all okay with you
One dark night he came home from the sea
And put a hole in her body where no hole should be
It hurt her more to see him walking out the door
And though they stitched her back together they left her heart in pieces on the floor
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
She takes off the Four Tops tape and puts it back in its case
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears...
07 There Is Power in a Union (02:48)
There is power in a factory, power in the land
Power in the hands of a worker
But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand
There is power in a Union
Now the lessons of the past were all learned with workers' blood
The mistakes of the bosses we must pay for
From the cities and the farmlands to trenches full of mud
War has always been the bosses' way, sir
The Union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters from many far off lands
There is power in a Union
Now I long for the morning that they realise
Brutality and unjust laws can not defeat us
But who'll defend the workers who cannot organise
When the bosses send their lackies out to cheat us?
Money speaks for money, the Devil for his own
Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone
What a comfort to the widow, a light to the child
There is power in a Union
The Union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters together we will stand
There is power in a Union.
10 The Passion (02:54)
The fear of a daughter can run high
In the mind of a father to be
For something is growing inside
But we don't talk about it, do we
In the long empty passionless night
Many times to herself she had prayed
That the baby will love her much more
Than the big boy who stole her away
CHORUS:
And sometimes it takes a grown man a long time to learn
Just what it would take a child a night to learn
It pains her to learn that some things will never be right
If the baby is just someone else to take sides in a fight
Harsh words between bride and groom
The distance is greater each day
He smokes alone in the next room
And she knits her life away
A long time ago she saw visions on the stairs
And when she felt dizzy her mother was always there
The home help is no help at all I have not committed a crime
Angels gaze down from the wall
Is there a God, Is there a next time
11 The Warmest Room (03:57)
A rainy afternoon
Spent in the warmest room
She lay before me and said
Yes it's true that I have seen some naked men
As she made for the door
Leaving me on the floor
I wish I'd done biology
For an urge within me wanted to do it then
Chorus:
And here she comes again
And I'm sitting on my hands
And she sings to me that siren song
Here she comes again and I'm biting my lip
But it won't be long
As Brother Barry said
As he married Marion
The wife has three great attributes
Intelligence, a Swiss army knife and charmBut that's not enough sometimes
And she did speak her mind
And told them all that she believed
The only way to disarm is to disarm
I know people whose idea of fun
Is throwing stones in the river in the afternoon sun
Oh let me be as free as them
Don't let her pass this way again
Though you cannot be blamed
But I've become inflamed
With thoughts of lust and thoughts of power
Thoughts of love and thoughts of Chairman Mao
We have such little time
At your place or mine
I can't wait till we take our blood tests
Oh baby let's take our blood tests now
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