It doesn't matter the colour of the car - but what goes on beneath the bonnet

Continuing my journey across the output of The Bard Of Barking...

Brewing Up With Billy Bragg (1984)

His second album was the first one I bought - I don't really know what made me do so and I remember not particularly enjoying it when I first listened to it.  However, back in those days you stuck with albums you'd paid money for and I soon grew to like most of it and love some of it - particularly lyrically there's an argument there's some of his best work on this.  It also has considerably more tracks on it than his previous effort, but also cost more that £2.99 - with £3.99 being his suggested limit here

A Side

1. It Says Here
A sharp look at the right-wing press that's as accurate today as it was back then - "They'd rather you believe in Coronation Street capers - in the war of circulation, it sells newspapers".  And it's got a simple but decent tune as well.

2. Love Gets Dangerous
We're more back to the basic style of his previous album here, although there's a bit more production involved - we've even got backing vocals!  The result is fine, but nothing more for me.

3. The Myth Of Trust
Whereas the previous track is about the uncertain beginning of a relationship, this is about the uncertain end - I prefer this one despite its less happy tone.

4. From A Vauxhall Velox
I like the lyrics to this, but he doesn't half rush them out.  As a sidenote, I always assumed a Velox was a real Vauxhall model, but it had never occurred to me to check until now - and it is!

5. The Saturday Boy
One of my favourite Billy tracks across all his albums, mostly because of the excellent lyrics that hark back to teenage years for (I suspect) quite a few people - "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".  It's even also got another instrument on it - a very mournful trumpet.

6. Island Of No Return
We're back with politics again with some wry comments on the Falklands War - "I can take the killing, I can take the slaughter - but I don't talk to Sun reporters".

B Side

1. St Swithin's Day
Another poetic song about a doomed relationship - I like this one too.

2. Like Soldiers Do
Here he mixes love and war - I'm not entirely sure who wins but it's all a bit too frenetic for me, I'm afraid.

3. This Guitar Says Sorry
This is quite a clever song - in nine lines (of which three are the same), a mixed-race couple meet and have a baby despite general disapproval and you think it's all going well.  But then the kid gets put into care and you're left thinking "what?!?" - I want to know more!

4. Strange Things Happen
I don't really know what this is about, but I quite it anyway!

5. A Lover Sings
And we end by heading back to the uncertainty of love with some more top-notch lyrics (along with a fine tune as well). "There is no real substitute for a ball struck squarely and firmly - and you're the kind of girl who wants to open up the bottle of pop too early in the journey.  Our love went flat - just like that".  A fine way to end the album - and we get an organ on this one as well.

It's quite an easy selection for the playlist - "It Says Here", "The Saturday Boy", "St Swithin's Day" and "A Lover Sings".  Two from each side and pretty much one from each end gives us some pleasing symmetry.

Wikipedia doesn't have an awful lot on the album - the critics liked it and it got to #16 (and has managed 21 weeks on the chart so far).  And that's about it except for one fact of interest - "The cover of the original album has the subtitle "A Puckish Satire on Contemporary Mores," a quote from the Woody Allen film Love and Death, in which Allen's character reviews an army play presented to Russian soldiers to prevent them from becoming infected with venereal diseases while at war".  You didn't know that now, did you?

I've not heard Billy play too many of these songs live with "It Says Here", "The Saturday Boy" and "A Lover Sings" being the only ones I remember hearing, but that's possibly because I like them more than the others.  But, although I don't like all the tracks, I think the album hangs together pretty well and it's got some very mature lyrics on it for a guy in his mid twenties.

Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy - where it all began
Talking With The Taxman About Poetry - even more instruments!