Billy Bragg just recently recorded a new song and released it into the vastness of the internet...
"In 1938, Leadbelly recorded "Bourgeois Blues" to protest the racism he encountered in Washington, D.C. Seven decades later, England's premiere folk-punk-poet-bard Billy Bragg noticed a few things going on in the U.S. capital that rubbed him the wrong way. On his current sold-out American tour, Billy has been performing his own version of "Bourgeois Blues" with a modern twist.Read the rest HERE.
Being a man of action, Billy ducked into Big Sky Recordings in Ann Arbor, Mich., on March 22 and laid down "Bush War Blues," with lyrics adapted to express his condemnation of the war in Iraq. His voice husky from his hefty touring schedule, Billy originally attributed the song to a newly-created alter ego, Johnny Clash."
Listen:
"Bush War Blues"
The song was originally found HERE...thanks to Eric for pointing it out. Not too long ago I picked up the Billy Bragg boxset Vol. 1 and it's well worth owning if you're a fan...you can BUY it HERE.
Billy Bragg played the New York Society for Ethical Culture this past Friday and Newsday has a review. Check HERE to see future tour dates.
(attached photo taken by Bruce Gilbert and is from HERE)
5 comments:
Just like Billy to keep up the protest tradition! He can't hide who he is with that voice though can he?
Another Billy Bragg download is exclusively available at the Guardian Unlimited website:
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1741197,00.html
It's called 'The Lonesome Death of Rachel Corrie' and is based on Dylan's 'Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll'.
Sorry link didn't work, that should be:
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1741197,00.html
Billy spoke about Rachel Corrie and her story during the show. There is a one women play that has been showing in England that is about her and her writings. Rachel was the activist from Washington State that went to Palistine to nonviolently protest the destruction of Palistinians' homes and was killed when she was run over by an Israeli bulldozer that was knocking down homes. Billy was saying that an artistic director in New York had canceled the show there and that all Americans should be outraged by the cancellation of the show.
Thanks for the link! I know our blogs don't really have much to do with each other so I really appreciate the link.
Eric Durland
The Bottle Bill Blog
Rachel Corrie sadly died, in the effort which enables terrorism...
Ironically, the much vilified President of the USA, GW Bush, led the liberation of the Afghani and Iraqi People, some 50 Million.
Given their best opportunity in years, for freedom.
Music can be listened to again in Afghanistan...
Wonder if Bragg would have protested the D-DAY invasion to Normandy, or Grants march into the Confederacy in the USA's Civil War, or the lives lost to stop Napoleon Bonaparte...
Wonder if Bragg even knows the newly elected President of Liberia, the first elected African Female, made a big deal, to thank President Bush for his help in liberating her People, during her recent speech in front of the US Congress.
Something tells me, the more I look at it, so many on the alternative scene have it up-sides-down and all together backwards.
I ran into some fashionable pro-Castro t-shirts at a NYC Concert recently, and had to laugh, knowing what a prison Cuba truly is...
Very sad...
Bruiser
Brooklyn, NY
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