Billy Bloke

I was twenty one years when I wrote this song
I’m twenty two now, but I won’t be for long
People ask when will you grow up to be a man
But all the girls I loved at school
are already pushing prams

Billy Bragg is, of course, has always been a romantic. It explains his union choruses as exactly as it explains his many, many forlorn love songs.

I love you
I am the milkman of human kindness
I will leave an extra pint

He carried the tradition of political folk almost single-handed through the eighties in Britain. As such, it was no surprise that he was chosen by the estate of Woody Guthrie to set some of Guthrie’s many surviving lyrics to music:

And all creeds and kinds and colors
of us are blending
Till I suppose ten million years from now
we’ll all be just alike
Same color, same size, working together
And maybe we’ll have all of the fascists
out of the way by then
Maybe so.

Many people seem to have trouble with Bragg’s foghorn voice. As if singing were a prerequisite for songs. Besides, who else could have carried off this Woody Guthrie lyric so perfectly?:

She said it’s hard for me to see
how one little boy got so ugly
Yes, my little girly, that might be,
But there ain’t nobody that can sing like me

More than anything else, Billy Bragg carries with him a certain version of England that doesn’t get much of a shout most of the time, and a certain English vision of life:

The Polaroids that hold us together
Will surely fade away
Like the love that we spoke of forever
On St Swithin’s Day

Billy is finally planning an ‘Essential Bragg’ compilation, and your suggestions for his five or so finest tracks are being requested. As the man has spent years trying to get people to vote, it’s only fair to return the favour this once. My votes will be as above.