Billy Bragg
Billy Bragg
Stephen William "Billy" Braggis an English singer, songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His music is heavily centered on bringing about change and getting the younger generation involved in activist causes...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionFolk Singer
Date of Birth20 December 1957
honesty writing personality
There are quite a few honest songwriters out there writing about relationships and their own personality traits. But for some reason, once they step out of the bedroom, their honesty doesn't seem to come with them.
writing trying honestly
I try and write honestly about what I see around me now.
believe bring change elsewhere job news offer people singing trying
A part of my job is to bring the news from elsewhere to here and to take back some news from here. . . . You can't change the world singing songs, believe me, but you can offer people an alternative perspective, even on their own situations. So that's what I'm trying to do.
true
They were the true inheritors of the mantle of The Clash.
capable carrying number song songwriter
A song is like a newspaper. It's capable of carrying a number of different messages. Some of them are advertisers, some of them are editorial, some of them are reportage, some of them are sport. So, as a songwriter you can use any of those.
cop face public talked walked
The thing about Strummer was he walked it like he talked it, ... He didn't cop out. He didn't show one face to the public and have a different face in himself.
music protest
Protest music was prematurely declared to be unfashionable,
british-musician defeat defining looking next opportunity strike
By the end of the miner's strike I was defining myself as a socialist, clued in and looking for the next opportunity to defeat the Tories.
bobby calling welcome
Welcome to what we're calling 'I'll Be Your Bobby Tonight'.
amongst british-musician choose nature popular subject
It's not a very popular subject amongst my audience, who are by nature more internationalist, but I don't choose what to write about, I don't choose my subjects, they kind of choose me.
british-musician
My upbringing was very straightforward suburban working class upbringing.
british-musician line people rejected school secondary skilled sort technical work
Most of the people that I went to school with - I went to secondary school - we were educated to go and work in the line at Ford's, and if we were lucky, technical skilled labor. I sort of rejected that, and thought I wanted to do something else.
accepted content political
We read our own political content into The Clash, and they accepted it.
british-musician case modern people trying worthwhile
I'm trying to make a case for those people who don't have a sense of belonging that they should have, that there is something really worthwhile in having a sense of belonging, and recasting and looking at our modern history.