Nov. 18, 2009 - Issue #735: Parkland Conference 2009

Billy Bragg: Something to Bragg about

Folk-punker is learning to share the stage and the songs

It seems fitting to mark the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall's destruction with a call to Billy Bragg. The folk-punk statesman's been making left-wing political anthems since before the iron curtain fell, and even today he infuses his melodies with messages about the world he sees around him. But like most of the left, the ideological focus he once championed had to alter once the wall came tumbling down.

"It's not political music [that changes], it's politics, innit?" he dryly muses, enjoying some pre-tour downtime at home in Dorset. "I mean, 20 years ago tonight, the world of ideological politics came to an end. The Berlin Wall was breached, and that was it: the politics that went before, that had shaped so much of the 20th century were two differing ideologies facing off with each other. And consequently the political language that we use to articulate our visions of a better society were really based on the language of Marx for the left—and, well, that's gone now.

"Things have changed so much, and for someone like me, I've changed as well. I don't articulate my songs ideologically anymore," he says. "I address issues that aren't necessarily left-wing or right-wing issues, like the politics of identity and stuff like that. The really good political songwriter doesn't choose the issues, the issues choose them. And that's certainly how I've been with politics over the years."

Still, Bragg's always possessed a socialist's eye for sharing the spotlight, working or appearing with scores of artists from pop-punkers Less than Jake to the Smith's Johnny Marr to new faces like Kate Nash. Any songwriting he did, however, he kept his own—it wasn't until Bragg made a pair of albums with alt-staple Wilco that he opened up his writing process to others.

"Before, it'd been very much sort of a solo effort, even if I had musicians with me. I always happened to make all of the decisions, y'know," he explains. "I was deciding what track we would do, how we would do it, when we would have a cup of tea, how many sugars we'd have."

For what became 1998's Mermaid Avenue (and 2000's Mermaid Avenue Vol. II) Bragg was contacted by Woody Guthrie's daughter to provide arrangements for some of her father's lyrics that had been finished but left without musical accompaniment. He brought Wilco onboard, but given that the source material really belonged to neither side, it led to an open, shared collaboration of musical ideas unlike what Bragg had ever done before.

"I think the thing about Mermaid Avenue was we were old equals. Instead of it being my record and I was telling Wilco what to do, we were all equal together ... their input was equally valued."

And that's why Bragg constructed a backing band of his own, the Blokes, with whom he's collaborated on the past two Bragg albums (2002's England, Half-English and last year's Mr. Love & Justice). Opening his process to a band's proven invaluable: when Bragg had to leave the recording of Half English for a few days, the Blokes revamped a pair of songs Bragg hadn't been satisfied with.

"They didn't ask me about it; they just did it. And when I came back, I thought the results were brilliant. Probably if I'd have been there, I'd have said, 'Oh no, don't bother with those songs, we'll just forget 'em.' But they actually went back and did something interesting with them, and breathed life into them.

"That's really helpful, to have people like that. Because I'm not really a studio person, I'm a road person. That's what I enjoy most." V

Tue, Nov 24 (7 pm)
Billy Bragg
with ron hawkins
Winspear Centre, $37

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