Wilco last Monday and Billy Bragg & Wilco on Friday. So logically (or perhaps lazily) I thought it time for a solo outing from the Bard of Barking.
When writing the Protest Song post I had in my head lyrics from a Billy Bragg song which mentions Woody Guthrie and old Joe Hill. However, I can't for the life of me remember which one. Feel free to put my out my agony.(A Steve Earle song as it turns out - see FBCB's comment below)
This led to me scouring the Bragg section and thinking that it was a long time since I had played 1991's Don't Try This at Home.
I put it on the car on the way to work and was immediately stuck by Everywhere his version of a song by Sid Griffin and the recently departed Greg Trooper I've obviously heard it a number of times before but this is the first time it has grabbed me.
On the other hand Tank Park Salute, his tribute to his late father, gets me every time.
Billy Bragg - Everywhere
Billy Bragg - Tank Park Salute
Like you, every time. I have something in my eye again!
ReplyDeleteSuperb. His best album IMO.
ReplyDeleteIt may not be a Billy Bragg song which mentions Woody Guthrie and old Joe Hill but "Christmas In Washington" by Steve Earle which features the last verse and chorus
ReplyDelete"So come back, Emma Goldman
Rise up, old Joe Hill
The barricades are goin' up
They cannot break our will
Come back to us, Malcolm X
And Martin Luther King
We're marching into Selma
As the bells of freedom ring
So come back Woody Guthrie
Come back to us now
Tear your eyes from paradise
And rise again somehow..."
Remember him singing at Glasgow's Barrowlands and the audience joined in on the chorus with most of us in tears at the end.
That's the one! Thanks
DeleteI've posted it before but for some reason in my head I was associating the lyrics with Mr Bragg
'Tank Park Salute' gets me every time too.
ReplyDeleteI love the big hits from this album, but the two tracks you mention just... just... I'm sorry... I have to go have a little weep.
ReplyDeleteI recall playing this CD for the first time back in the day and being genuinely stunned and move by first exposure to 'Everywhere'. Still gets me to this day.
ReplyDelete