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.
The Short Answer
Billy Bragg Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Between the Deep Blue Sea and the Devil that was me
If ever anyone could help me with my obsession with
The young Suzannah York
It was Mary
In my pink pajamas she asked me for something
I gave her the short answer
And I knew then that we should have gone sailing
But we stayed home instead
Fighting on the water bed
Like the honeymoon couple on drugs
Me and Mary
What happened in the past
Remained a mystery of natural history
She should have been the last
But she was just the latest
If she wanted to be a farmer's wife
I would endure that muddy life
I would dig for victory
And the sound of happy couples
Coupling happily in the dark
While you and I sat down to tea
I remember you said to me
That no amount of poetry
Would mend this broken heart
But you can put the Hoover round
If you want to make a start
All my friends from school
Introduce me to their spouses
While I'm left standing here
With my hands down the front of my trousers
I just don't know what's to be done
I wonder sometimes how did Dad meet Mum
And how did they conceive of me
Tell my Mary
The boys who came to the shop
Always made her laugh much more than I did
When I told her this must stop
She didn't bat an eyelid
She said you know honey it's such a shame
You'll never be any good at this game
You bruise too easily
So said Mary
Her two brothers took me out
Of circulation for the duration
So we went our separate ways but does she still love me
She still has my door key
Like a bully boy in a Benetton shop
You're never happy with what you've got
Till what you've got is gone
Sorry Mary
"The Short Answer" is a song by English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg from his 1986 album, "Talking with the Taxman about Poetry." The song is about a man who is obsessed with a woman he calls Mary. The opening lines, "Between Marx and marzipan in the dictionary there was Mary, between the Deep Blue Sea and the Devil that was me," are cryptic and intriguing. "Marx and marzipan" are two words that have little to do with each other, and the idea of someone being "between" them has no obvious meaning. It's unclear if the woman is actually named Mary or if she's simply a recurring character in the singer's fantasies.
The first verse sets the scene for the rest of the song. The singer is in his pajamas with Mary, who is reading their horoscope. They should have gone sailing, but instead, they're fighting on the waterbed "like the honeymoon couple on drugs." The song is filled with references to other pop culture artifacts, including actress Suzannah York and a line from the poem "This Lime Tree Bower My Prison" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge: "What happened in the past / remained a mystery of natural history." These references might seem random, but they add a layer of complexity to the narrative and invite the listener to decode their significance.
The song is ultimately about unrequited love and missed opportunities. The singer is stuck in the past, wondering what could have been. He tries to make sense of his unrequited love by looking back at his parents' relationship, but he never finds the answers he's looking for. The final line, "Sorry Mary," is a poignant admission that he regrets not being able to hold on to his connection with the woman he loves.
Line by Line Meaning
Between Marx and marzipan in the dictionary there was Mary
Mary was sandwiched between two unlikely things in the dictionary. This line illustrates that Mary is an unusual name placed between two unusual things.
Between the Deep Blue Sea and the Devil that was me
The singer is a flawed individual, and using figurative language, he places himself as the devil between two opposing forces.
If ever anyone could help me with my obsession with
The young Suzannah York
It was Mary
The singer has an obsession with Suzannah York and feels alone in this. He thinks Mary could help him because they share a close bond or friendship.
In my pink pajamas she asked me for something
The artist sets the mood and describes the setting when Mary interrupts him, asking for something.
I gave her the short answer
The artist didn't fulfill Mary's request and gives a short or unhelpful response, possibly annoyed or upset about being interrupted.
She read our stars out loud
And I knew then that we should have gone sailing
But we stayed home instead
Fighting on the water bed
Mary reads their astrology signs and indicates that they should go sailing. However, they stay home and end up fighting in bed. This conveys a feeling of regret and missed opportunities.
Like the honeymoon couple on drugs
Me and Mary
Their argument is described as being similar to a couple high on drugs. The singer values the relationship, relating it to a honeymoon.
What happened in the past
Remained a mystery of natural history
The artist reflects that the past is unchangeable and often only loosely understood, like natural history.
She should have been the last
But she was just the latest
The artist thought Mary would be his last romantic partner, but she wasn't.
If she wanted to be a farmer's wife
I would endure that muddy life
I would dig for victory
The artist would be willing to change his lifestyle and become a farmer's wife if it meant being with Mary. He would work hard and 'dig for victory' to achieve that.
And the sound of happy couples
Coupling happily in the dark
While you and I sat down to tea
Mary and the singer share a mundane moment of being ignored in a world of happy couples. They are unable to be as happy as the couples around them.
I remember you said to me
That no amount of poetry
Would mend this broken heart
But you can put the Hoover round
If you want to make a start
The artist's heart is broken, and Mary said that poetry couldn't fix it. Despite that, the artist encourages Mary to do something small, like vacuuming, to cheer him up.
All my friends from school
Introduce me to their spouses
While I'm left standing here
With my hands down the front of my trousers
The singer feels left out while his friends are happy in their relationships. He is without romantic companionship and feels lonely.
I just don't know what's to be done
I wonder sometimes how did Dad meet Mum
And how did they conceive of me
Tell my Mary
The singer is lost in thought, unsure of what to do. He ponders how his parents met and questions the future. He asks Mary for advice or guidance.
The boys who came to the shop
Always made her laugh much more than I did
When I told her this must stop
She didn't bat an eyelid
Mary laughs more with other men than with the singer. The singer asks Mary to stop laughing so much with other men, but she shows no reaction.
She said you know honey it's such a shame
You'll never be any good at this game
You bruise too easily
So said Mary
Mary tells the artist that he's not cut out for the dating game because he is too sensitive and gets hurt too easily.
Her two brothers took me out
Of circulation for the duration
So we went our separate ways but does she still love me
She still has my door key
Mary's brothers intimidated the artist and took him out of the relationship. Despite this, Mary still has the artist's door key, leading him to wonder if she still loves him.
Like a bully boy in a Benetton shop
You're never happy with what you've got
Till what you've got is gone
Sorry Mary
The singer realizes his mistake in breaking up with Mary and thinks that he was like a spoiled child, not satisfied until he lost what he had. He apologizes to Mary.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: BILLY BRAGG
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Adam Fowler
Hi Peter, I'm doing a report for ITV Calendar tonight on Billy Bragg supporting the Leadmill. If we give you an onscreen credit do you mind if use a quick clip of this video?
Peter Dunwell
So sorry I have only just seen this message, if you want to use it in retrospect and I xheck that billy is ok with it, then yes that would be fine.
Pete
John Gallagher
Between Marx and Marzipan..👍