Sorprende questa bella retrospettiva su Billy Bragg per chi lo conosce solo per il folk elettrico di "New England" o per gli inni politici. Sorprende perché il quadro che emerge è di un Billy Bragg tutt'altro che limitato a pochi seppur magistrali trucchi del mestiere. Emerge anzi un songwriter a tutto tondo, capace di spaziare con successo nei generi più disparati e di mantenersi vitale e efficace nel corso degli anni.
E' certo che Billy Bragg è sempre stato un tipo scomodo, coraggioso e per questo ammirevole. Ce ne vuole di coraggio per interpretare il punk buttando a mare la band e presentandosi solo soletto con una chitarra elettrica. Ci vuole coraggio e talento, bisogna saper costruire canzoni dalle strutture melodiche semplici e potenti, capaci di sorreggersi quasi da sole, senza l'aiuto di arrangiamenti che solitamente facilitano il compito del compositore. E le melodie restano infatti scolpite tutt'uno con le parole : "I dont want to change the world Im not looking for a new England, im just looking for another girl...", recita la paradossalemente antipolitica "New England". Numerosi sono i brani da segnalare in questa prima parte della carriera dominata dall'essenzialità, da strutture melodiche disadorne e ben scolpite ma in particolare ricordiamo la bella "Levi Stubbs Tears" e "Greetings to the New Brunette".
Verso la fine del primo cd della raccola appare evidente la volontà di arricchire progressivamente gli arrangiamenti delle canzoni come nella title-track "Must I Paint you a Picture" e nel magistrale crescendo di "Waiting For The Great Leap Forward".
Il secondo cd si apre con uno dei brani più pop :"Sexuality", prodotto da Johnny Marr, seguono le bellissime ballate "Moving The Goalposts" e "Tank Park Salute", quest'ultima dedicata alla morte del padre in cui Bragg dimostra di essere un autore di testi delicato e efficace nonché totalmente privo di retorica.
Non manca nemmeno la collaborazione con i Wilco nella reinterpretazione di alcuni brani di Woody Guthrie. Verso la fine del cd, i brani tratti dall'ultimo cd ufficiale di Billy England Half English mostrano un po' di stanchezza ma l'ultimo pezzo della raccolta, uscito solo come singolo, "Take Down The Union Jack" conferma che Bragg non ha perso la verve polemica e la capacità di testi pungenti e ironici.
E' vero che probabilmente reggono meglio le canzoni personali di quelle politiche (scontata la melodia di "There is Power in the Union", ancora efficace invece "Between the War"). Tutto sommato si tratta di una ottima compilation, che da un lato offre una panoramica a 360 gradi dell'autore, dall'altro può stimolare ad approfondire un aspetto o l'altro della sua carriera.
PS poiché credo sia difficilemente rintracciabile, almeno a buon prezzo, in Italia consiglio gli interessati di prenderlo qui a 12.99 euro: http://www.play.com/play247.asp?pa=srmr&page=title&r=CD&title=153318
Elenco tracce e testi
04 To Have and to Have Not (02:33)
Up in the morning and out to school
Mother says there'll be no work next year
Qualifications once the Golden Rule
Are now just pieces of paper
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards
If you look the part you'll get the job
In last year's trousers and your old school shoes
The truth is son, it's a buyer's market
They can afford to pick and choose
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because I dress like this
Doesn't mean I'm a communist
The factories are closing and the army's full
I don't know what I'm going to do
But I've come to see in the Land of the Free
There's only a future for the Chosen Few
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards
At twenty one you're on top of the scrapheap
At sixteen you were top of the class
All they taught you at school
Was how to be a good worker
The system has failed you, don't fail yourself
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards
07 The Saturday Boy (03:32)
I'll never forget the first day I met her
That September morning was clear and fresh
The way she spoke and laughed at my jokes
And the way she rubbed herself
Against the edge of my desk
She became a magic mystery to me
And we'd sit together in double
History twice a week
And some days we'd walk the same way home
And it's surprising how quick
A little rain can clear the streets
We dreamed of her and compared our dreams
But that was all that I ever tasted
She lied to me with her body you see
I lied to myself 'bout the chances I'd wasted
The times we were close
Were far and few between
In the darkness at the dances in the school canteen
Did she close her eyes like I did
As we held each other tight
And la la la la la la la la means I love you
She danced with me and I still hold that memory
Soft and sweet
And I stare up at her window
As I walk down her street
But I never made the first team,
I just made the first team laugh
And she never came to the phone
She was always in the bath
In the end, it took me a dictionary
To find out the meaning of unrequited
While she was giving herself for free
At a party to which I was never invited
I never understood my failings then
And I hide my humble hopes now
Thinking back she made us want her
A girl not old enough to shave her legs
08 Between the Wars (02:29)
I was a miner
I was a docker
I was a railway man
Between the wars
I raised a family
In times of austerity
With sweat at the foundry
Between the wars
I paid the union and as times got harder
I looked to the government to help the working man
And they brought prosperity down at the armoury
Between the wars
I kept the faith and I kept voting
Not for the iron fist but for the helping hand
For theirs is a land with a wall around it
And mine is a faith in my fellow man
Theirs is a land of hope and glory
Mine is the green field and the factory floor
Theirs are the skies all dark with bombers
And mine is the peace we knew
Between the wars
Call up the craftsmen
Bring me the draughtsmen
Build me a path from cradle to grave
And I'll give my consent
To any government
That does not deny a man a living wage
Go find the young men never to fight again
Bring up the banners from the days gone by
Sweet moderation
Heart of this nation
Desert us not, we are
Between the wars
10 Levi Stubbs' Tears (03:32)
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...
13 There Is Power in a Union (02:50)
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.
15 The Warmest Room (03:59)
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
16 Must I Paint You a Picture (05:32)
It's bad timing and me
We find a lot of things out this way
And there's you
A little black cloud in a dress
The temptation
To take the precious things we have apart
To see how they work
Must be resisted for they never fit together again
If this is rain let it fall on me and drown me
If these are tears let them fall
Chorus:
Must I paint you a picture
About the way that I feel
You know my love for you is strong, girl
You know my love for you is real
It took a short walk and a talk
To change the rules of engagement
While you searched frantically for reverse and them claiming
That virtue never tested is no virtue at all
And so I lost my ignorance
And now the bells across the river chime out your name
I look across to them again
All your friends said come down
It will never fly
And on that imperfect day
We threw it all away
Crisis after crisis, with such intensity
This would never happen if we lived by the sea
Most important decisions in life
Are made between two people in bed
I found that out at my expense
And when I see you
You just turn around and walk away like we never met
Oh we used to be so brave
I dreamt the world stopped turning as we climbed the hill
I dreamt impossible dreams that we were lovers still
18 The Price I Pay (03:34)
My friend said she could see no way ahead
And I was probably better off without you
She said to face up to the fact that you weren't coming back
And she could make me happy like you used to
But I'm sorry to say I turned her away
Knowing everything she said was true
And that's the price I pay for loving you the way that I do
There's something inside that hurts my foolish pride
To visit the places we used to go together
Not a day goes by that I don't sit and wonder why
Your feelings for me didn't last forever
Girl I love you so much that sometimes it's such
I'd walk a mile with a stone in my shoe
And that's the price I pay for loving you the way that I do
That's the price I pay for loving you the way that I do
So keep that phone out of my way for the things I must say
Are empty if you don't believe they're true
And that's the price I pay for loving you the way that I do
That's the price I pay for loving you the way that I do
I love you so much that baby it's such
I'd walk a mile with a stone in my shoe
And that's the price I pay for loving you the way that I do
20 Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards (04:36)
It may have been Camelot for Jack and Jacqueline
But on the Che Guevara highway filling up with gasoline
Fidel Castro's brother spies a rich lady who's crying
Over luxury's disappointment
So he walks over and he's trying
To sympathise with her but he thinks that he should warn her
That the Third World is just around the corner.
In the Soviet Union a scientist is blinded
By the resumption of nuclear testing and he is reminded
That Dr Robert Oppenheimer's optimism fell
At the first hurdle.
In the Cheese Pavilion and the only noise I hear
Is the sound of someone stacking chairs
And mopping up spilt beer
And someone asking questions and basking in the light
Of the fifteen fame-filled minutes of the fanzine writer.
Mixing pop and politics he asks me what the use is
I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses
While looking down the corridor
Out to where the van is waiting
I'm looking for the Great Leap Forwards.
Jumble sales are organised and pamphlets have been posted
Even after closing time there's still parties to be hosted
You can be active with the activists
Or sleep in with the sleepers
While you're waiting for the Great Leap Forwards.
One leap forward, two leaps back
Will politics get me the sack?
Here comes the future and you can't run from it
If you've got a blacklist I want to be on it.
It's a mighty long way down rock 'n roll
From Top of the Pops to drawing the dole.
If no one seems to understand
Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman.
In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room.
So join the struggle while you may
The Revolution is just a T-shirt away.
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards
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