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Billy Bragg
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About Billy Bragg
As a guitar-strumming folkie singing about the lives and loves of the working class, Billy Bragg was bound to seem like a throwback amid the flash of the ā80s. Yet, thanks to its wit and warmth, his musicās always been keenly attuned to his own times. Born in 1957 in the London borough that later inspired his nickname, the Bard of Barking, Bragg developed a unique sensibility that was shaped as much by The Clash and Elvis Costello as it was by Bob Dylan and Phil Ochs. On albums such as 1984ās Brewing up With and 1986ās Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, he balanced the political and the personal by mixing his acerbic takes on life in modern Britain with ballads like the wrenching āLevi Stubbsā Tears.ā And for all the earnestness he exuded as an activist who often campaigned and performed on behalf of leftist causes, he also enjoyed subverting that image with songs like 1991ās āSexuality,ā a sex-positive pop hit cowritten by Johnny Marr. Equally fruitful was Braggās collaboration with Wilco and Natalie Merchant on 1998ās Mermaid Avenue, the first of Braggās three volumes of songs based on unrecorded lyrics by Woody Guthrie. On 2021ās The Million Things That Never Happened, Bragg responded to the fear and confusion of modern times with the intelligence, humor, and compassion that has long filled his songs.
Musical InfluencesBilly Bragg's musical influences include Bob Dylan, The Clash, The Jam and more.
Influenced by Billy BraggBilly Bragg has influenced the music of George Ezra, Beck, The Proclaimers and more.
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