Thanks for everything!

Completing (for the time being) my journey across the output of The Bard Of Barking...

Compilation Albums

I wouldn't normally include compilation albums, but Billy's done some interestingly different things over the years with them so I've picked out some highlights from the ones listed on his Wikipedia discography

Back To Basics (1987)

This is more of a combination than a compilation - it's Life's A Riot, Brewing Up and The Between The Wars EP, which was released in '85 and got to #15 in the singles chart. And it's really rather good, so let's give it a track breakdown

1. Between The Wars
This is possibly his best political track - it was inspired by the miner's strike, but it's wider than that considering the role of the state in a working man's life. I like it a lot because of its simple tune and great lyrics - "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".

2. Which Side Are You On?
This is another decent political track - and much more relevant to the miner's strike. It's credited as written by Florence Reece (a US activist) in 1931, but it's fair to say Billy has done quite a bit of updating to it - and it's another one I like.

3. The World Turned Upside Down
Yet more politics but harking further back in time to the Diggers movement in 1649 (on St George's Hill!). This is a proper cover version - originally done by Leon Rosselson in '75 (and called The Diggers's Song), although apparently a lot of people know the Dick Gaughan version from '81 (some 4 years before Billy). But I knew it first from Billy and I like it - "You poor take courage, you rich take care - this earth was made a common treasury for everyone to share".

4. It Says Here (alternate version)
Interestingly, Billy does a good alternate version - both live where he always likes to fiddle with the words and on several recorded tracks. This, however, is not one of them - it's perfectly fine, but really not that alternate.

They're all decent tracks, but "Between The Wars" and "The World Turned Upside Down" are good enough to go on the playlist so we've got some late entries (and they're not going to be the last).

Victim Of Geography (1993)

This is the same idea as before, but this has got Talking With The Taxman About Poetry and Workers Playtime on it - and no additional EPs either.

Reaching To The Converted (1999)

This is a collection of singles, alternate versions, B-sides and cover versions - I'm not going to go through each of the tracks, but we do have a few in particular to discuss. 

Firstly there's "Days Like These" which was a single all the way back in '85 but never made it onto an album, For me this is another contender for his best political song with some absolutely fantastic lyrics which resonate today as much as ever - "The party that became so powerful by sinking foreign boat is dreaming up new promises because promises win votes". I really like this track so it's also going on the playllist - there's also an excellent US alternate version, but to find that on an album you'll have to wait a little bit longer...

Secondly, "The Boy Done Good" is another single from '97 which never made an album - it's got a nicely jaunty sound and some great lyrics which has another great set of lyrics comparing football and relationships, ending with "I'm happier how I am today, now I've put my boots away - guess I'll never get picked to play my song on Match Of the Day" - and I was made up when I heard them use if for the highlights section on MOTD. It's another one for the playlist!

And the final track of particular interest is his and Cara Tivey's cover version of The Beatles's "She's Leaving Home". And what's so special about this perfectly fine, but not really all that special version? It only went and got to #1, didn't it! It was a double A-side and I guess it's possible that more people might have bought it for Wet Wet Wet's "With A Little Help From My Friends", but I like to think it was the power of Billy that drew them in.

If you're a Billy fan and you've not heard this album, it's well worth tracking down.

Fight Songs (2011)

I didn't even know this existed until I saw it on Wikipedia, so I listened to it all. It's a selection of tracks that Billy released for free on tintenet between '02 and '11 and I don't think anyone needs a full track-by-track breakdown but I would say that if you didn't like the sort of things he was doing on his albums during this period (which I can quite understand) then this might offer up at least some redemption for the lad during this time period. 

I wouldn't say they're great songs - it's often the case that Billy has decided that a song needs to be written about <bad thing> and the lyrics then state "<bad thing> is bad", but there is a reasonable amount of musical variety across the album - this is another one that's worth checking out if you're a fan.

Best Of Billy Bragg At The BBC 1983-2019 (2019)

This is one I've heard and I like, but the title is somewhat misleading - 75% of the tracks are from the last century, so it's certainly not equally distributed over time. But, for me, this just makes it better and there's a reasonable amount of variety and growth on display - so if you're a fan of classic Billy then this is also another one worth checking out

Best-ofs

And FINALLY, we have some actual normal best-ofs which are worth checking out if you've never listened to any Billy ever and fancy understanding what I've been going on about for the past fifteen posts - although I'll be somewhat surprised if you've read them all and waited this long to listen to anything from the lad.

But, on the off chance, Must I Paint You A Picture (2003) is a pretty standard two CD best-of with an interesting bonus disc and The Roaring Forty (2023) is either a pretty inadequate 13 track CD, a more reasonable 40 track double CD (of which the first one is way better than the second one) or a completely nonsensical 14 CD boxset which would have set you back £120 and not even the most die-hard fan is ever going to need. Except that, with the exception of a rare US EP, this is the only place you can get the US version of "Days Like These". Unless you just head over to YouTube, of course!

And with that, we're done - at least until he releases another album! He's certainly slowing down but I suspect he's got one or two more in him - and if the extra time spent on things results in the step up in quality we've seen over the last couple of albums then that's only got to be a good thing, hasn't it?

And so, finally finally, I'm just going to say that whilst I've not loved everything Billy's done over the years, I've enjoyed watching him make his journey from a very fresh faced youth in the early 80s to the not so fresh faced man he is today and the thirteen studio albums, six live albums and the seven live albums we've considered have been an enjoyable reminder. I've also enjoyed seeing him live because he's always entertaining and engaging - there's loads of stuff on YouTube out there which is great to peruse. His outlook and approach may have changed over the years but he's still fighting the good fight (and he's still not a fan of Maggie) - so thanks for everything, Billy.

Live albums - An interesting mix, most of which I couldn't find
Secrets Of The I Ching (Natalie Merchant) - muddled and muddy, inconsistent and incoherent