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.
North Sea Bubble
Billy Bragg Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
He said that all revolutions are not the same
They are as different as the cultures
That give them birth
For no one idea
Can solve every problem on earth
So don't expect it all to happen
For people are different
And so are nations
You can borrow ideas
But you can't borrow situations
In Leningrad the people say
Perestroika can be explained this way
The people who told us
That two and two is ten
Are now trying to tell us
That two and two is five
We're living in a north sea bubble
We're trying to spend our way out of trouble
You keep buying these things but you don't need them
But as long as you're comfortable it feels like freedom
My American friends don't know what to do
But they'll wait a long time for a Beverley hills coup
War! what is it good for
It's good for business
In Billy Bragg's song 'North Sea Bubble,' he sings about how all revolutions are not the same, and the idea of borrowing ideas but not situations. In his context, he uses the French and American Revolutions as examples that happened long before, and he explores what they meant in the fight for democracy. The lyrics suggest that a revolution cannot solve all of the problems of the world since nations and people are different, and so are their situations, so no idea can solve everything. He then goes to discuss the tries to find how perestroika can be explained, which is from a lens of people who once believed in the absurdity that two and two make ten, are now trying to convince people that they add up to five, which is not true.
The chorus explains how we are all living in a North Sea Bubble, which is a metaphorical term for the delusions that we are living in. He goes further to explain that people keep buying things, even when they're not needed, to feel comfortable, but this doesn't equate freedom. The last sentence of the song seems to direct the attention to war, suggesting that it's not worth fighting due to the awful consequences it has on humanity. Instead, he implies that it's good for business.
Line by Line Meaning
I went out drinking with Thomas Paine
I had a conversation with an influential historical figure known for advocating for democracy and individual rights.
He said that all revolutions are not the same
Thomas Paine argued that not all revolutionary actions and outcomes are equivalent.
They are as different as the cultures
Revolutionary actions and outcomes are diverse and depend on the cultures which cultivate them.
That give them birth
The origin of revolutionary actions and outcomes is the cultural backdrop in which they arise.
For no one idea
There is no one solution or concept that can remedy all societal issues.
Can solve every problem on earth
No single idea can provide a panacea for all of humanity's struggles.
So don't expect it all to happen
Societal change will not occur instantaneously.
In some prophesied political fashion
There is no specific, predetermined pattern in which change will take place.
For people are different
Individuals possess unique characteristics and disparate life experiences.
And so are nations
Countries exhibit divergent cultures, socio-economic systems, and political ideologies.
You can borrow ideas
It is possible to adopt and implement novel concepts and methods for societal improvement.
But you can't borrow situations
However, context and circumstances cannot be transferred or replicated entirely. Each situation is unique.
In Leningrad the people say
In the city of Leningrad, individuals hold a certain perspective regarding current political conditions.
Perestroika can be explained this way
The structural reform program initiated by the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, known as perestroika, is being judged by certain individuals in Leningrad.
The people who told us
Those who were once in power and spread certain falsehoods to maintain their authority.
That two and two is ten
Those who used to proclaim blatant falsehoods are now attempting to sell a similarly erroneous narrative.
Are now trying to tell us
These same individuals are attempting to convince us of their new version of events.
That two and two is five
Despite their previous lies, these individuals are promulgating a new fiction that is equally untrue.
We're living in a north sea bubble
We are currently in a period where economic expansion is concealing economic decline.
We're trying to spend our way out of trouble
We are attempting to mitigate economic hardships by utilizing consumerism and materialism.
You keep buying these things but you don't need them
Even though we have created a society that thrives on indulgence and extravagance, in reality we do not require much of what is being offered to us.
But as long as you're comfortable it feels like freedom
The illusion of choice and perceived benefits of consumerism create a false sense of security or liberty.
My American friends don't know what to do
Individuals within the United States are struggling to cope with the current political and social climate.
But they'll wait a long time for a Beverley hills coup
People who hope for a sudden and transformative revolution within the United States should not expect such a change to occur easily, particularly from the wealthy elites.
War! what is it good for
What is the value of war?
It's good for business
The driving factor behind many wars is economic and financial gain, rather than any sort of moral justification.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: BILLY BRAGG
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind