Billy Bragg - Talking With the Taxman About Poetry
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CD Details
Artist: Billy BraggEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-02-21
Music Label: Yep Roc Records
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- GREETINGS TO THE NEW BRUNETTE
- TRAIN TRAIN
- THE MARRIAGE
- IDEOLOGY
- LEVI STUBBS' TEARS
- HONEY I'M A BIG BOY NOW
- THERE IS POWER IN A UNION
- HELP SAVE THE YOUTH OF AMERICA
- WISHING THE DAYS AWAY
- THE PASSION
- THE WARMEST ROOM
- THE HOME FRONT
- SIN CITY
- DEPORTEES
- THERE IS POWER IN A UNION (inst.)
- TRACKS OF MY TEARS
- WISHING THE DAYS AWAY (alt.)
- THE CLASHING OF IDEOLOGIES
- GREETINGS TO THE NEW BRUNETTE (demo)
- A NURSE'S LIFE IS FULL OF WOE
- ONLY BAD SIGNS
- HOLD THE FORT
Music reviews of Talking With the Taxman About Poetry
Music Review: YepRoc reissue
Rating: 5 Stars
"The Difficult Third Album", Bragg tagged this album back in 1986. I always got a kick out of that honesty. Listening to the material inside I couldn't imagine what he was trying to warn his listeners about. Furthering his songs about the politics of love and living, Bragg once again penned some excellent songs on Talking With the Taxman about Poetry.
Joined by Johnny Marr on guitar and occasionally Kirsty MacColl he comes out swinging with "Greetings to the New Brunette", the reason I bought this album after seeing a grainy video on MTV. Billy shows his love of Motown in the sad tale of "Levi Stubbs' Tears" and also by referencing Motown in song and horn arrangements that one might not initially notice as being "Motown". The disc sees Bragg wrestling constantly with the idea of marriage vs. singledom and the myriad combinations in between.
Several excellent songs deal with politics in England and abroad: "Help Save the Youth of America", "Ideology" and the traditional "Power in a Union". Without the help of a pitch shifter Billy sings his heart out with passion and an electric guitar that is just as brash with reverb. Some may find this annoying, most find it honest. I found myself arguing the latter when trying to recruit my brother to his music, to no avail.
This review would be nothing without talking about the Bonus CD and packaging of the YepRoc Reissue. I'm not a singles-buyer so the extra tracks are new to me, and well worth it. "Sin City" by Gram Parsons, "Deportees" by Woody Guthrie, a traditional instrumental version of "There is Power in a Union", an endearing cover of "The Tracks of My Tears" (more Motown!), alternate takes of "Wishing the Days Away" and "The Clashing of Ideologies", a different version of "Greetings to the New Brunette", two B-side Bragg tunes "A Nurse's Life is Full of Woe" and "Only Bad Signs", and an a capella traditional song "Hold the Fort".
As I so loved this when I bought it on LP I was a little taken aback by the original cover mock-up, and the poem "Talking With the Taxman About Poetry" completely missing from the packaging. The poem really brought the whole album together as a statement. But I imagine with royalties and rights this had to be done. Still, an excellent Billy Bragg album, well-done.
More Talking With the Taxman About Poetry free music reviews:
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Description of Talking With the Taxman About Poetry
Billy Bragg, once-described as a "one-man Clash," has spent the last two decades writing and performing passionate, witty, socially conscious music. This is a reissue of Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, Billy's 1985 album, about which Rolling Stone glowed, "On this album, cheerfully subtitled 'The difficult Third Album,' Bragg expands his pared-down sound ever-so-slightly (violin here, piano and tambourine there). While purists might bitch, the result is a winning mesh, as clever as Elvis Costello, as melodic as Ray Davies and as rocking as Chuck Berry."Billy Bragg's third full-length album, 1986's Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, is an uncompromised refinement of his brash, anti-Thatcher, busking-bloke persona. Bragg's palette stretches beyond the jagged-rhythmic-guitar-plus-curious-voice approach of the first two albums: "Ideology" and "Marriage" see the addition of horns and piano, "Train Train" adds violin, and singer Kirsty MacColl and guitarist Johnny Marr make guest appearances. The slashing, lovely "Levi Stubbs' Tears," a sad slice-of-life number told from a woman's perspective, showcases the singer-songwriter's ability to write well beyond protest songs. And only Bragg could pen a love song such as "Greetings to the New Brunette" and pull it off. In an off-key yet warm warble, he almost croons, "Shirley, your sexual politics have left me all of a muddle / Shirley, we are joined in the ideological cuddle," one of pop's most delightfully awkward rhymes. And then of course there are the protest songs, such as bracing, simple, Woody Guthrie-ish "There Is Power in a Union." The record's title is taken from a 1926 poem by the poet of the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Mayakovsky. --Mike McGonigal
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