In 1977, Bragg formed the punk rock/pub rock band Riff Raff, and toured London's pubs and clubs. The band released a series of singles, which did not receive wide exposure. He also worked in Guy Norris Records in Barking. Bragg became disillusioned with his music career, and in May 1981 joined the British Army as a recruit destined for the Queen's Royal Irish Hussars of the Royal Armoured Corps. After three months, he bought his way out of the army for £175 and returned home, having attended basic training but having never served in a regiment as a soldier.
Bragg began performing frequent concerts and busking around London, playing solo with an electric guitar. His roadie at the time was Andy Kershaw, who became a BBC DJ (Bragg and Kershaw later, in 1989, appeared in an episode of the BBC TV programme, Great Journeys, in which they travelled the Silver Road from Potosí, Bolivia, to the Pacific coast at Arica, Chile). Bragg performing at South by Southwest in 2008.
Bragg's demo tape initially got no response from the record industry, but by pretending to be a television repair man, he got into the office of Charisma Records' A&R man Peter Jenner. Jenner liked the tape, but the company was near bankruptcy and had no budget to sign new artists. Bragg got an offer to record more demos for a music publisher, so Jenner agreed to release them as a record. Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy was released in July 1983 by Charisma's new imprint, Utility. Hearing DJ John Peel mention on-air that he was hungry, Bragg rushed to the BBC with a mushroom biryani, so Peel played a song from Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy although at the wrong speed (since the 12" LP was, unconventionally, cut to play at 45rpm). Peel insisted he would have played the song even without the biryani and later played it at the correct speed.
Within months, Charisma had been taken over by Virgin Records and Jenner, who had been laid off, became Bragg's manager. Stiff Records' press officer Andy Macdonald – who was setting up his own record label, Go! Discs – received a copy of Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy. He made Virgin an offer and the album was re-released on Go! Discs in November 1983.[citation needed] In 1984, he released Brewing Up with Billy Bragg, a mixture of political songs (e.g., "It Says Here") and songs of unrequited love (e.g., "The Saturday Boy"). The following year he released Between the Wars, an EP of political songs that included a cover version of Leon Rosselson's "The World Turned Upside Down" – the EP made the top 20 of the UK Singles Chart and earned Bragg an appearance on Top of the Pops. Bragg later collaborated with Rosselson on the song, "Ballad of the Spycatcher". In 1985, his song "A New England", with an additional verse, became a Top 10 hit in the UK for Kirsty MacColl. After MacColl's early death, Bragg always sang the extra verse in her honour. In 1984–1985 he toured North America.
In 1986, Bragg released Talking with the Taxman about Poetry, which became his first Top 10 album. Its title is taken from a poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky and a translated version of the poem was printed on the record's inner sleeve. Back to Basics is a 1987 collection of his first three releases: Life's A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy, Brewing Up with Billy Bragg, and the Between The Wars EP. Bragg released his fourth album, Workers Playtime, in September 1988. With this album, Bragg added a backing band and accompaniment.
In May 1990, Bragg released the political mini-LP, The Internationale. The songs were, in part, a return to his solo guitar style, but some songs featured more complicated arrangements and included a brass band. The album paid tribute to one of Bragg's influences with the song, "I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night", which is an adapted version of Earl Robinson's song, "I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night", itself an adaptation of a poem by Alfred Hayes.
The album Don't Try This at Home was released in September 1991, and included the song, "Sexuality", which reached the UK Singles Chart. Bragg had been persuaded by Go! Discs' Andy and Juliet Macdonald to sign a four-album deal with a million pound advance, and a promise to promote the album with singles and videos.[citation needed] This gamble was not rewarded with extra sales, and the situation put the company in financial difficulty. In exchange for ending the contract early and repaying a large amount of the advance, Bragg regained all rights to his back catalogue.[citation needed] Bragg continued to promote the album with his backing band, The Red Stars, which included his Riff Raff colleague and long-time roadie, Wiggy.
Bragg released the album William Bloke in 1996 after taking time off to help raise his son. Around that time, Nora Guthrie (daughter of American folk artist Woody Guthrie) asked Bragg to set some of her father's unrecorded lyrics to music. The result was a collaboration with the band Wilco and Natalie Merchant (with whom Bragg had worked previously). They released the album Mermaid Avenue in 1998, and Mermaid Avenue Vol. II in 2000. A rift with Wilco over mixing and sequencing the album led to Bragg recruiting his own band, The Blokes, to promote the album. The Blokes included keyboardist Ian McLagan, who had been a member of Bragg's boyhood heroes The Faces. The documentary film Man in the Sand depicts the roles of Nora Guthrie, Bragg, and Wilco in the creation of the Mermaid Avenue albums.
In 2004, Bragg joined Florida ska-punk band Less Than Jake to perform a version of 'The Brightest Bulb Has Burned Out' for the Rock Against Bush compilation.
At the 2005 Beautiful Days Festival in Devon, Bragg teamed up with the Levellers to perform a short set of songs by or associated with The Clash in celebration of Joe Strummer's birthday. Bragg performed guitar and lead vocals on "Police and Thieves", and performed guitar and backing vocals on "English Civil War", and "Police on my Back".
In 2007, Bragg moved closer to his English folk music roots by joining the WOMAD-inspired collective The Imagined Village, who recorded an album of updated versions of traditional English songs and dances and toured through that autumn. Bragg released his album Mr. Love & Justice in March 2008. This was the second Bragg album to be named after a book by Colin MacInnes. In 2008, during the NME Awards ceremony, Bragg sang a duet with British solo act Kate Nash. They mixed up their two greatest hits, Nash playing "Foundations", and Bragg redoing his "A New England". Bragg also collaborated with the poet and playwright, Patrick Jones, who supported Bragg's Tour.
In 2008, Bragg played a small role in Stuart Bamforth's film "A13: Road Movie". Bragg is featured alongside union reps, vicars, burger van chefs and Members of Parliament in a film that explored "the overlooked, the hidden and the disregarded."
He was involved in the play Pressure Drop at the Wellcome Collection in London in April and May 2010. The production, written by Mick Gorden, and billed as "part play, part gig, part installation", featured new songs by Bragg. He performed during the play with his band, and acted as compere.
Bragg curated the Leftfield stage at Glastonbury Festival 2010.
He took part in the Bush Theatre's 2011 project Sixty Six where he has written a piece based upon a chapter of the King James Bible.
Bragg performed a set of the Guthrie songs that he had set to music for Mermaid Avenue during the Hay Literary Festival in June 2012. Mermaid Avenue Vol. III and Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions were also released in early 2012.
On 18 March 2013, Bragg released his latest studio album, five years since Mr. Love & Justice, titled Tooth And Nail. It featured 11 original songs, including one written for the Bush Theatre, and a Woody Guthrie cover. Stylistically, it continues to explore genres of Americana (music) and Alternative country, both of which he has said he has been playing and writing regularly since Mermaid Avenue (1998).
In November 2017, he released all six tracks from the mini-album Bridges Not Walls as downloads and CD through the Billy Bragg website and other sellers, followed by the single Full English Brexit through Cooking Vinyl.
Help Save the Youth of America
Billy Bragg Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Help save them from themselves
Help save the sun-tanned surfer boys
And the Californian girls
When the lights go out in the rest of the world
What do our cousins say?
They're playing in the sun and having fun, fun, fun
From the Big Church to the Big River
And out to the Shining Sea
This is the Land of Opportunity
And there's a monkey trial on TV
A nation with their freezers full
Are dancing in their seats
While outside another nation
Is sleeping in the streets
Don't tell me the old, old story
Tell me the truth this time
Is the Man in the Mask or the Indian
An enemy or a friend of mine?
Help save the youth of America
Help save the youth of the world
Help save the boys in uniform
Their mothers and their faithful girls
Listen to the voice of the soldier
Down in the killing zone
Talking about the cost of living
And the price of bringing him home
They're already shipping the body bags
Down below the Rio Grande
But you can fight for democracy at home
And not in some foreign land
And the fate of the great United States
Is entwined in the fate of us all
And the incident at Tschernobyl proves
The world we live in is very small
And the cities of Europe have burned before
And they may yet burn again
And if they do I hope you understand
That Washington will burn with them
Omaha will burn with them
Los Alamos will burn with them
Billy Bragg's "Help Save the Youth of America" is a song that addresses various issues plaguing American society in the 80s. Bragg calls for the salvation of American youth from the social ills that were taking over the country. The first verse talks about the carefree and wild nature of American young people, particularly the sun-tanned surfer boys and Californian girls. However, Bragg hints at the danger that lies in wait for these young people through the line "Til Daddy takes the gun away." The second verse addresses the glaring social and economic disparities that existed in America at the time. The contrast between a nation with full freezers, dancing in seats and another nation sleeping outside in the streets is stark.
Bragg makes a reference to the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925 in the third verse. This event was a legal battle that took place in Dayton, Tennessee, in which high school teacher John Scopes was accused of teaching evolution in violation of a Tennessee state law. The trial pitted science against religion and captured national attention. Bragg brings up this event to highlight the ongoing conflicts between science and religion in American society. In the fourth verse, Bragg sings about soldiers in the war zones, their mothers, and faithful girls that they left behind. He talks about the cost of living and the price of bringing them home. Ultimately, Bragg is calling for the end of wars and the prioritization of Americans' lives.
Line by Line Meaning
Help save the youth of America
Encourage actions that will improve the well-being of young Americans
Help save them from themselves
Protect young Americans from negative influences and self-destructive behavior
Help save the sun-tanned surfer boys
Help young Californians, who enjoy surfing, enjoy a fruitful life
And the Californian girls
Help young Californians, who enjoy the sunny lifestyle, enjoy a fruitful life; also to support young girls from California
When the lights go out in the rest of the world
When other countries are struggling and suffering
What do our cousins say?
What do our fellow Americans say when they see others suffering?
They're playing in the sun and having fun, fun, fun
Our fellow Americans are enjoying life as usual
'Til Daddy takes the gun away
Until an authority figure comes and takes their way of life or issues arise which they have to fight against
From the Big Church to the Big River
From everywhere in America
And out to the Shining Sea
To all the coasts of America
This is the Land of Opportunity
America provides opportunities for people to achieve their dreams
And there's a monkey trial on TV
People are watching a trial, which is creating a sensation across the country
A nation with their freezers full
Americans enjoy a high standard of living, including plenty of food and technology
Are dancing in their seats
They are content and happy
While outside another nation
Outside of America there are others struggling to survive
Is sleeping in the streets
People in other nations are homeless and living on the streets
Don't tell me the old, old story
Don't tell me the same tired cliches and half-truths
Tell me the truth this time
Tell me the honest, unvarnished truth about what's happening in the world
Is the Man in the Mask or the Indian
Is an anonymous person or an indigenous person the enemy or a friend of America?
An enemy or a friend of mine?
Are they an enemy or a friend of America?
Help save the youth of the world
Encourage actions that will improve the well-being of young people all over the world
Help save the boys in uniform
Help the young men who are serving in the military
Their mothers and their faithful girls
Support the families and girlfriends of young men who are serving in the military
Listen to the voice of the soldier
Pay attention to the experiences and hardships of those who are serving in the military
Down in the killing zone
Where they are serving in combat zones and risking their lives
Talking about the cost of living
Discussing the financial burden this puts on soldiers and their families
And the price of bringing him home
The monetary and emotional costs of bringing injured or deceased soldiers home
They're already shipping the body bags
Dead soldiers are already being sent back in body bags
Down below the Rio Grande
Back to America from Latin American countries
But you can fight for democracy at home
Americans can work to protect democracy right in their own country
And not in some foreign land
Instead of fighting someone else's war in some other part of the world
And the fate of the great United States
What happens to America will have an impact on the world
Is entwined in the fate of us all
We are all connected, and what happens in one part of the world affects another
And the incident at Tschernobyl proves
The Tschernobyl nuclear disaster showed that disasters can have a wide-reaching impact
The world we live in is very small
The world is interconnected and what happens in one place can quickly spread to others
And the cities of Europe have burned before
Many European cities have faced intense destruction and disasters in the past
And they may yet burn again
They could face more destruction in the future
And if they do I hope you understand
If those cities burn again, I hope people recognize their connection to those events
That Washington will burn with them
If people don't recognize their connection to these events, they risk suffering similar consequences in their own country
Omaha will burn with them
Even cities that seem far removed from these issues won't be immune to the consequences
Los Alamos will burn with them
Even a place like Los Alamos, which has a high concentration of scientific knowledge and protection, can still suffer when larger social systems fail
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Billy Bragg
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind