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 PotosÃ, 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.
I Aint Got No Home
Billy Bragg Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Just a wandrin' worker, I go from town to town
And the police make it hard for me, no matter where go
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore
No, I ain't got no home in this world anymore
My brothers and my sisters are stranded on this road
A long and dusty road that a million feet have trod
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore
No, I ain't got no home in this world anymore
I was farmin' on the shares, and always I was poor
My crops I laid into the banker's store
And my wife took down and died all on the cabin floor
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore
No, I ain't got no home in this world anymore
I mined in your mines and I gathered in your corn
I been working, mister, since the day that I was born
Now I worry all the time like I never did before
And I ain't got no home in this world anymore
No, I ain't got no home in this world anymore
Now as I look around, it's mighty plain to see
This world is such a strange and funny place to be
Where the gamblin' man is rich an' the workin' man is poor
I ain't got no home in this world anymore
No, I ain't got no home in this world anymore
In Billy Bragg's song "Home," he reflects on the nostalgia and familiarity of his childhood town while walking through it. He mentions that he walked instead of taking a taxi because he wanted to fully immerse himself in his surroundings and notice the details that would be missed from a car. Bragg lists off specific places, such as the old wine bar where he threw up, the junk shop where he bought his first guitar, and the grass verge where he and friends would sit and rev their cars. He points out that these places hold significant meaning to him and, in a way, have made him who he is today. Bragg also touches on the communal pride of his hometown, even though the local team doesn't have any players from the area. He notes that people are content and proud of their town, despite its imperfections.
The chorus of the song emphasizes the comfortable repetition and lack of change within his hometown, which he finds comforting rather than stifling. The song concludes with him mentioning the specific sensory experiences that make this place home to him – the old wallpaper, a china doll brought back from the war, the smell of creosote, and a cup of tea. Overall, the song conveys a sense of belonging, appreciation for one's roots, and finding comfort in familiar surroundings.
Line by Line Meaning
I walked down from the station 'cause I wanted to see,
I chose to walk from the station instead of taking a taxi because I wanted to experience the sights and sounds that I may have missed confined in a taxi
The kind of things that you might miss from the back of a taxi,
When you are in a taxi, you may miss out on the beautiful things that are happening around you
There's just no way to tell you what these things mean to me
It's hard to express what these experiences mean to me as they hold a very special place in my heart
This is home.
All these experiences and familiar surroundings feel like home to me
The place I threw my guts up outside the old wine bar,
This is the spot where I was sick after drinking at the old wine bar
The junk shop on the corner where I bought my first guitar,
This is the spot where I purchased my first guitar from the junk shop on the corner
The grass verge by the pig flats where we sat and revved our cars,
This is the place where my friends and I used to sit on the grass by the pig flats and rev our cars
Home, nothing ever changes.
My hometown never changes, and that's okay with me
Home, and I wouldn't want it to.
I don't want my hometown to change as it means a lot to me just the way it is
Home, everything's the same as I left it when I went away to make myself anew.
Everything is still the same in my hometown from the time I left to reinvent myself, and that familiar feeling is comforting
The local team don't really have no local players now,
The local team does not have many local players anymore
The glory days are far away but we're getting by somehow,
The team might not be as good as they used to be, but they are still trying their best
You'd think we'd won the champions league if you listen to the crowd at home.
Despite the team not being great, the enthusiasm of the home crowd makes it feel like we won the champions league
This place always gets to me like an old familiar song,
My hometown always brings up old memories and emotions, much like a familiar old song
Stirring up old feelings that I thought were long gone,
Being back in my hometown brings up emotions that I thought I had long forgotten
I guess that you can move away but you cannot escape where you're from.
You may move away, but you can't escape where you're from and the effects it has on you
The old familiar wallpaper and a battered old settee,
Seeing the old familiar wallpaper and the old, worn-out settee brings back memories
The china doll that dad brought back from the war in Germany,
This china doll that my father brought back from Germany after the war holds a special place in my heart
The faintest smell of creosote and a cup of milky tea,
The smell of creosote and a cup of milky tea reminds me of home and brings back nostalgic feelings
This is home.
All these familiar sights, smells, and experiences are what make up my home
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Woody Guthrie
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
MaBelleone1
Have always loved hearing Billy Bragg sing. Thank you for posting this.
danceswithdirt
What a beautiful rendition.. Tears in my eyes.
SvendBosanvovski
He's sure worth more than a dozen rooms full of professional counsellors. Good healing music.
Teona
Wonderful ! Thank you again, KEXP :)
kayhaus1
Beautiful cover. Love ya, Billy! Solidarity, brother. <3
Yarin Swid
amazing cover. shows a different side of this beautiful song.
John DeGroot
I like this songs pass on what you know
Lyndanet
Endearing 🤟
matt coily
You comfort me Billy bragg. Your a comfort I like your music when you sing I am England's. My nationality I fought for generations for England. Gave everything in my life's for England. The machine it rolls on. And we consume this planet until we buy our air
matt coily
We keep going untill it's the air that's sold. You buy air and the rest is free