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.
To Have And Have Not
Billy Bragg Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Mother says there'll be no work next year
Qualifications, once the Golden Rule
Are now just pieces of paper
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
If you look the part you'll get the job
In last year's trousers and your old school shoes
The truth is, son, it's a buyer's market
They can afford to pick and choose
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because I dress like this
Doesn't mean I'm a communist
The factories are closing and the army's full
I don't know what I'm going to do
But I've come to see in the Land of the Free
There's only a future for the Chosen Few
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards
At twenty one you're on top of the scrapheap
At sixteen you were top of your class
All they taught you at school
Was how to be a good worker
The system has failed you, don't fail yourself
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards
The lyrics of Billy Bragg's "To Have and to Have Not" are a powerful commentary on the state of the working class in the UK in the 1980s, and their struggle to find employment amidst a society where qualifications no longer guarantee a future. The song begins with a bleak image of a mother telling her child there will be no work next year, effectively rendering the pursuit of education and qualifications pointless. He questions the notion that qualifications are the golden rule, as they are now just pieces of paper.
The second verse focuses on how people are judged based on their appearance, as if "looking the part" is more important than actual qualifications or skills. The chorus emphasizes that just because someone is better than another person, it doesn't mean the other person is lazy. Just because someone appears to be progressing forward, it doesn't mean that others are moving backward. The song seems to be questioning the myth of meritocracy that permeates Western society.
The third verse speaks to the fact that even once-secure industries such as factories are closing and there are limited options for people. The song suggests that in a country of supposed freedom and opportunity, there's only a future for the chosen few, and the system has failed the working-class. The final verse ends with a rallying cry, urging people not to fail themselves even if the system has failed them.
Overall, "To Have and to Have Not" is a scathing critique of neoliberalism and the impact of this economic and political ideology on ordinary people. It highlights the absurdity of a society that judges people based on their appearance rather than their actual abilities, and it exposes the reality of a society that is far from the "land of the free" for most.
Line by Line Meaning
Up in the morning and out to school
Starting the day early and attending school
Mother says there'll be no work next year
Predicting a lack of job opportunities
Qualifications, once the Golden Rule
Education was once the key to success
Are now just pieces of paper
Educational qualifications are now not valued in the job market
Just because you're better than me
Being superior doesn't make me inferior
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
My lack of success is not due to laziness
Just because you're going forwards
Your career advancement doesn't mean my career is going in reverse
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards
I can still progress in my career
If you look the part you'll get the job
Appearance is important in getting a job
In last year's trousers and your old school shoes
Outdated attire can affect job prospects
The truth is, son, it's a buyer's market
Employers have the upper hand in selecting candidates
They can afford to pick and choose
Employers have multiple qualified candidates to select from
The factories are closing and the army's full
The job market is limited with factory closures and army recruitment limitations
I don't know what I'm going to do
Unemployment uncertainty
But I've come to see in the Land of the Free
Realizing the lack of opportunities in the United States
There's only a future for the Chosen Few
Success is limited to a small number of individuals
At twenty one you're on top of the scrapheap
At 21, the best job opportunities may have already been taken
At sixteen you were top of your class
Academic success doesn't translate into job success
All they taught you at school
Limited preparation for the job market
Was how to be a good worker
Education focused on workplace obedience
The system has failed you, don't fail yourself
The education system has not provided proper job preparation, but individuals can still succeed
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Billy Bragg
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Cosmo K
Up in the morning and out to school
Mother says there'll be no work next year
Qualifications once the Golden Rule
Are now just pieces of paper
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards
If you look the part you'll get the job
In last year's trousers and your old school shoes
The truth is son, it's a buyer's market
They can afford to pick and choose
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because I dress like this
Doesn't mean I'm a communist
The factories are closing and the army's full
I don't know what I'm going to do
But I've come to see in the Land of the Free
There's only a future for the Chosen Few
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards
At twenty one you're on top of the scrapheap
At sixteen you were top of the class
All they taught you at school
Was how to be a good worker
The system has failed you, don't fail yourself
Just because you're better than me
Doesn't mean I'm lazy
Just because you're going forwards
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards
Tony Charles
Up in the morning and out to school -
Mother says, "There'll be no work next year."
Qualifications - once the golden rule -
Are now just pieces of paper.
Just because you're better than me,
Doesn't mean I'm lazy!
Just because you're going forwards,
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards.
If you look the part, you'll get the job
In last year's trousers and your old-school shoes!
The truth is, son, it's a buyer's market
They can afford to pick and choose..
Just because you're better than me,
Doesn't mean I'm lazy!
Just because I dress like this,
Doesn't mean I'm a communist..
The factories are closing and the army's full -
I don't know what I'm going to do.
But I've come to see in the Land of the Free -
There's only a future for the chosen few.
Just because you're better than me,
Doesn't mean I'm lazy!
Just because you're going forwards,
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards.
At twenty-one, you're on top of the scrapheap;
At sixteen, you were top of the class!
All they taught you at school was how to be a good worker;
The system has failed you, don't fail yourself.
Just because you're better than me,
Doesn't mean I'm lazy!
Just because you're going forwards,
Doesn't mean I'm going backwards.
Andrew Sullivan
I've been listening to Lars Frederiksen & The Bastards for almost 20 years and had no idea Billy Bragg wrote this! Definitely give their version a listen!
Ddasd Mdasd
"just because i dress like this, doesn't mean i'm a communist" is one of my all time favourite lyrics.
Candler
What does it mean exactly, context wise
DownUFO
Billy: “Just because I’m dressed like this doesn’t mean I’m a communist,”
Matthew McConnaughey: “Be a lot cooler if you were,”
ABevs
Just because I dress like this, doesn't mean I'm a communist. I'm a communist because communism is good and capitalism is bad.
John Gallagher
He did it a concert here in Toronto ..then quipped ..but it might . His hard core fans like yours truly absolutely popped at this moment. I went to go see it on a Sunday night in my second or third year in uni. Went alone because none of my other friends are into him . Just reminded me actually as I sit here by myself totally alone during quarantine how much fun I had one night by myself and how imma enjoy this even if I spent every minute by myself. Was definitely one of my top 5 moments of my university career .
Sailing oie sauvage
But he is a communist
tez price
leaving school 1985 this song felt so real and true seems to make even more sense now nearly 30 years later and nothings changed there can only be one answer BILLY BRAGG FOR PRIME MINISTER
Richard T
This is definitely the best song BB does at his gigs, usually doesn's sing much of it himself these days - he leaves it to the audience.
Nikolai Hasenhuetl
One of the best songs ever written