Billy Bragg - Must I Paint You a Picture? The Essential Billy Bragg

Must I Paint You a Picture is a generous, two-disc, 40-track survey of Bragg's career to date. The tracklisting was apparently assembled with the help of Bragg's fans, who were asked to vote for their favourites on Bragg's website, but this democratic initiative has only been taken so far: while "Little Time Bomb", for example, was a more popular choice than, say, "The Boy Done Good", the latter is included and the former isn't. It would, of course, be uncharitable to suggest that this is reflective of the authoritarian instincts that lurk inside most socialists.

At any rate, though Bragg has always been chiefly characterised as a political songwriter, his best work has always been that which deals with the politics of the personal: there are few more acute summations of the eternal failure of the male and female to make sense to each other than his "How can you lie there and think of England when you don't even know who's in the team?" Bragg's superb love songs and love-gone-wrong songs are well represented here, from the angry, naive scratchings of "The Milkman of Human Kindness" to such older, if no wiser, musings as "Moving the Goalposts" and "Sulk". Curiously, his older, politically motivated songs now feel like they've reacquired an urgency they lacked during a 1990s largely devoid of stark ideological boundaries, when they sounded rather like quaint period pieces. The so-called war on terror and the increasing discomfort about global trade both have ready made soundtracks in "Between the Wars" and "There is Power in a Union". --Andrew Mueller From Amazon.co.uk

The best of Billy Bragg is pretty good!

I love Billy Bragg's lefty politics, his rough, un-taught voice and his tremendous guitar playing, but most I just love his courage. He's a good, at times clever song writer - "Walk Away Renee" was a nice surprise, and you just should have him in your catalog. August 23, 2006

A welcome mat for everyone

Now there's a way for people unfmailiar with Billy get an overview of his music from above. I've loved his lyrical abilities and evocative music that fuses both a folkie sensibility and a gritty modern edge for a long time. Very few other present day bands can do this well. Outgrabe is one of the most successful, and they've clearly been influenced by Billy, the grand old man of this genre. I wish Billy all the luck in the world, and I'm sure this CD will draw new fans into his musical space. June 19, 2006

A POOR MAN's WOODY GUTHRIE.

Billy Bragg thinks he's a modern day Woody Guthrie, championing the poor working class. Unfortunately he is not.Not only is he a hypocrite by writing for the right wing press when it suits him, but i find his 'right on' attitude rather nauseating. This is a man that supports a certain Mr Blair and is proud to do so. Therefore i fine his music rather patronising to people that (unlike him) are really struggling. Mr Bragg wouldn't know real suffering if it crawled up and bit him. At least Steve Earle walks it like he talks it! Beware of songwriters who claim to be working class they invariably aren't! April 17, 2006

Essential in deed - a truly great English songwriter

Listening to Billy Bragg is a very English thing to do. Perhaps British, but definitely English. His Essex consonants, largely unreconstructed by the passing years, his wonderfully vernacular use of the language (he even mentions Marmite, food of the gods, on "England, Half English"), songs about God-bothering footballers, unrequited boyhood lust at the school disco, and best of all, his withering political polemics laced with laugh out loud humour ("trapped in a hairstyle he no longer believes in").

Politics is what most people associate Billy with, and for sure he did his share in the eighties ("I was doing about 300 gigs a year and only got paid for half of them - why should I be nostalgic for the eighties?") and still cares now. He still backs fair unions against bad bosses, supports hospices and fair trade campaigns, and believes that a better world is actually possible - only some kind of idiot thinks that is a bad thing, surely.

But let's not forget that Billy has written some great songs about love and life as real people live it. "St Swithins" day is one of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard, aching in its sense of loss and grimy ordinariness. "Tank Park Salute" is a gorgeous and brave song about Billy's relationship with his father. There are many more in his canon. Like Dylan, like Guthrie, Bragg is not a "protest" singer to the exclusion of all else.

Perhaps "New England", written early in his career, still sums up a lot of what Billy is about. It's a cracking tune, with a great chorus, which cheerfully pokes gentle English fun at his own political interests ("I'm not looking for a new England, I'm just looking for another girl") whilst being ostensibly a break-up song, and still manages to deliver one of the funniest lines in rock music - "I saw two shooting stars last night / I wished on them, but they were only satellites / Is it wrong to wish on space hardware?".

A great English songwriter, who is increasingly a great contributor to modern debates on the nature of Englishness and the future of our nation. A national treasure in fact.

Long may he reign.

And another thing: in concert he is very good and very, very funny. He has an apparently bottomless fund of great stories and witty one-liners, fuelled by his ever present cup of tea, and even manages to make political discourses a laugh. December 5, 2005

An excellent compilation, as well as three excellent independent discs.

Based upon the fact that I only knew two songs ("New England" and "To Have and Have Not"), buying these CD's was a huge gamble. Not only did I find out upon purchasing it that I like Billy Bragg, but I discovered I LOVE Billy Bragg. This collection is not only a comprehensive and fairly complete sampling of his work, it is also a set of three albums, astounding unto themselves.
The first disc is more bare-bones than the other two (and my favorite) featuring Bragg's characteristically clever songwriting and sparse musical accompaniment. This is of course, not without exception, most notable the fuller sounding "Great Leap Forwards", among several others.
The second disc is a slight departure from the aforementioned sound, without deviating completely from Bragg's traditional style. More instruments, more production. My personal favorite from this one is "Way Over Yonder In the Minor Key", which features backing vocals from a woman who sounds uncannily like Natalie Merchant to me...however, I could easily be mistaken.
The third disc is the shortest, however, nonetheless amazing as well.
I constantly find myself reaching for this cd, and the only disappointment I have is that Billy Bragg is such an underrated artist here in America. November 7, 2005

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