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Talking with the Taxman About Poetry
The title of Billy Bragg’s third album neatly incapsulates the two sides of the Bard Of Barking.
Yes, there’s the staunchly left-wing politics comedian Bill Bailey lampooned on “Unisex Chip Shop” (here proudly waving a flag on “There Is Power In Union” and the rockabilly crash of “Help Save The Youth Of America”), but there’s the also the wry romanticism that makes Bragg one of the finest writers of love songs England had ever produced. Expanding his one bloke and his guitar palette, “Greetings To The New Brunette” featured both Kirsty MacColl and Johnny Marr and some of Bragg’s finest couplets (“I’m celebrating my love for you with a pint of beer and new tattoo”), while “The Warmest Room” places him closer to Squeeze than firebrands like The Clash. “Levi Stubb’s Tears,” meanwhile, is a heartbreaking story of domestic abuse and the emotional importance of pop music observed as masterfully and powerfully as any novel or film.