Stand up, all victims of oppression for the tyrants fear your might!

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

The Internationale (1990)

You know what? I've never heard this one - a whole album of political songs feels like it just might not be a bundle of laughs.  But, I could be wrong - let's find out, shall we?

A Side

1. The Internationale
I know this is a famous socialist anthem and I had previously heard Billy's version - and it's another reason I avoided the album. Billy is a man well aware of his vocal limits and when he writes songs he works within them, but when he's singing someone else's material then sometimes it doesn't work so well. Like here. Apparently the song was written in France in the 1870s/80s - there's a massive Wikipedia entry if you're interested (but I'm not!).

2. I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night
Fine, I guess - but nothing to write home about. The history of the song is quite interesting - the original version is "Joe Hill" (a US labour activist who wrote "There Is Power In A Union") aka "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night", which was originally a poem by Alfred Hayes and was set to music by Earl Robinson in 1936. Billy then updated it to refer to Phil Ochs, a US 60s protest singer - who knows why?!?

3. The Marching Song of the Covert Battalions
This is our first Billy original and what a peculiar song it is - it's like a cross between a "normal" Bragg song and a circus anthem. It's making some point about capitalism but I got a bit confused about it all because I was too busy scratching my head.

B Side

1. Blake's Jerusalem
This actually works OK, but it's somewhat inessential. It was nice to recognise Cara Tivey's voice on there as well, who's better known for another Billy track that we'll come on to later (provided I remember to write about it, because it's not on one of his albums). Wikipedia informs me that "Blake's Jerusalam" is a bit of a misnomer because Blake's original poem is actually called "And Did Those Feet In Ancient Time" and only became known as "Jerusalem" when set to music by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916.

2. Nicaragua Nicaraguita
Errr - OK. Some Spanish lyrics for us. All I can tell you about this is that it was written by Carlos Mejía Godoy, who is, unsurprisingly, Nicaraguan.

3. The Red Flag
I guess we weren't going to be allowed to escape without getting a version of this - I'd love to say it was worth the wait, but it most definitely was not. The lyrics to this were written by Jim Connell in 1889 - it's generally sung to the tune of "O Tannenbaum", but Connell wanted it sung to the tune of "The White Cockade", so that's what Billy has gone for here.

4. My Youngest Son Came Home Today
Finally, a decent track - it's not a Billy original (it was written by Eric Bogle, a Scot who emigrated to Australia), but it easily could be. I assumed it was about one of the world wars - apparently it's about the Troubles in Northern Ireland, but it's pretty relevant to any conflict.

So, as you can probably guess, whilst the completist within me enjoyed listening to it, I didn't have a lot of time for all this nonsense. "My Youngest Son Came Home Today" deserves its place on the playlist, but adding anything else would be doing everyone involved a disservice.

Wikipedia doesn't have a lot on the album - it notes the unusual lack of balance of social observation and love songs and it peaked at #34 in the charts, only charting for four weeks. It was remastered and reissued in 2006, combining it with the Live And Dubious EP from 1988 (which I'd never heard of before and will revisit later if I remember) and another five bonus tracks. The only other fact of interest I noted was that Cara Tivey plays a shakuhachi on one of the tracks, which we all know is a Japanese wind instrument made of bamboo.

I know Billy did this because it's important to him and I'm happy for him, I truly am - but it's safe to say I will not be listening to it again. I guess I can't complain he delivered more of the same this time though...

Worker's Playtime - Fine, but more of the same
Don't Try This At Home - A fine album