The Album Review Club - Week #147 - (page 1942) - Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan

Talking with the Taxman about Poetry



I’ve always quite liked Billy Bragg but not enough to listen to a whole album.
Even though I own ‘Workers Playtime’ which I bought on the strength of ‘The Great Leap Forward’ one of my favourite BB songs, but I hardly listened to the rest of it.
So here lies the problem with this pick.He’s a great lyricist, musically the album was as I expected sparse ,buts that ok and there’s some great familiar songs on it ,GTTNB, Ideology and LST being three plus a number of others I liked. I particularly liked the Honky tonk piano on ‘Honey ,I’m a Big Boy Now.My problem with Billy and it’s the same on the ‘Mermaid Avenue’ albums which I really like. Its his voice that’s the problem, it’s ok for a few songs but after a bit it really starts to grate and make repeated listens difficult, which is why i much prefer the Wilco collaboration as his vocals are interspersed with Jeff Tweedy’s.

I listened as far as the cover of Sin City, which didn’t impress me Uncle Tupelo do the nest version IMHO apart from the original of course.

A good pick which has got me listening to BB songs again but not albums.

7/10
 
It's with a slightly heavy heart that I have to say that this isn't for me. I like what billy Bragg represents and I have no problems with music having a political message and if it's going to have one then Billy's politics sit just fine with me. Mostly lyrically he is good but as others have mentioned it's a bit clunky at times and a bit too "in your face" which I realise is me contradicting myself to a degree.

Mostly though it's the sound. The discussions about his guitar are interesting. I found the guitar sound to be harsh, overly so and while I've no real problem with his distinctive accent as a combination I don't take to it. Some songs are better than others but there also seems to be a variety of styles and for example Train Train is a turn off.

Musically I'd struggle to rate this above a 5 but for the lyrics it gets another point for a 6 but I'm afraid Billy Bragg won't be getting added to my roster of favoured artists.
 
GornikDaze said:
Long time since I listened to BB. I have fond memories seeing play on a Red Wedge tour back in my youth. After all these years, it was great to catch up with his fantastic lyrical abilities. Solid 8/10 - and a great choice!!
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The Red Wedge tour was chaotic but good fun with a fantastic roster of artists Weller, Dammers, Paddy Mcaloon and Costello amongst others. At one of them I remember them introducing one of the Kemps (Gary, I think) and everyone looking a bit sceptical as to why the new romantic tosser with the fancy hair was being given stage time. He proceeded to sit down with his accoustic and play a really nice song (which I have a feeling might have subsequently turned into the overwrought Spandau ballet song 'through the barricades') and got a really good reception. Happy days.
 
journolud said:
It's with a slightly heavy heart that I have to say that this isn't for me. I like what billy Bragg represents and I have no problems with music having a political message and if it's going to have one then Billy's politics sit just fine with me. Mostly lyrically he is good but as others have mentioned it's a bit clunky at times and a bit too "in your face" which I realise is me contradicting myself to a degree.

Mostly though it's the sound. The discussions about his guitar are interesting. I found the guitar sound to be harsh, overly so and while I've no real problem with his distinctive accent as a combination I don't take to it. Some songs are better than others but there also seems to be a variety of styles and for example Train Train is a turn off.

Musically I'd struggle to rate this above a 5 but for the lyrics it gets another point for a 6 but I'm afraid Billy Bragg won't be getting added to my roster of favoured artists.
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I do agree/have sympathy with some of your sentiments. There's no denying the guitar is very percussive, think he describes it as clanging, and it's not for everyone. I like it partly because it often suits his subject matter, even when he dials it back for some of the love songs it's not that refined but then the rough and ready nature still fits for me as the songs are often tales of imperfect and rough and ready love and relationships. The sound definitely becomes more sophisticated on later albums. Agree Train Train should be somewhere else rather than this album. As for the lyrics whilst I've mostly enjoyed his protest songs there are some clunky ones too and I've always thought his greatest strength is in his broader tales of life and love.
 
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Found a 5-minute window to update the scores. 10 votes for Billy Bragg's Talking With The Taxman About Poetry at an average of 7.6 gives us our third top 10 entry in the last few weeks!

What's going on? Higher quality choices? Less regular voters? Less low-ballers? Anyway, another good choice from @threespires and plenty of good discussion.
 
RobMCFC said:
Found a 5-minute window to update the scores. 10 votes for Billy Bragg's Talking With The Taxman About Poetry at an average of 7.6 gives us our third top 10 entry in the last
few weeks!

What's going on? Higher quality choices? Less regular voters? Less low-ballers? Anyway, another good choice from @threespires and plenty of good discussion.
Click to expand...

Ignoring the undignified vote grubbing on my part, I'm happy that this selection has nudged Billy back into a couple of people's minds and also maybe in the odd case introduced him as someone different to the common perception of him.

I've particularly enjoyed other people's enjoyment of his lyrics. We often talk about the likes of Ray Davies, L&M and he who shall not be named (the M word) as some of this country's great lyricists and I think Bill deserves his place in that group too. So to me that's been a good nomination irrespective of where he sits in our fun table; thanks for taking the time to listen folks.
 
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