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The idea that musicians should be talking about politics is, in some ways, quite a sixties' idea. Music no longer has a vanguard role in youth culture.

Billy Bragg

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Billy Bragg
Age: 67
Born: 1957
Born: December 20
Guitarist
Musician
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Songwriter
Writer
Stephen William Bragg
Bard of Barking
Conrad
William Bragg
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Quite
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Politics
Sixties
Talking
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We've heard so much about the American dream: well, Trump is the American nightmare made flesh. All the things about 'the ugly American' that we worry about and which the Americans see in themselves, it's all of that. This is a politics of egotistical display.
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So, in some ways, the political songs tend to be a bit more like reportage, whereas the love songs tend to be like novels, you can pick them up off the shelf and go into them any time.
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I was in a little punk band and we put out a few punk records that weren't very political, at all.
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What corporations fear most are consumers who ask questions. Naomi Klein offers us the arguments with which to take on the superbrands.
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It would shine a torch into the dirty little corner where the BNP defecate on our democracy, and that would be much more powerful than duffing them up in the street - which Im also in favour of.
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Being spokesman for a generation is the worst job I ever had.
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Even with politics, stuff comes around again. Woody Guthrie would recognize America today.
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War what is it good for? It's good for business.
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The evil lot who did that thing on September 11 did it because they wanted to create a war between America and Islam. And by invading Iraq, we gave them what they hoped for.
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Money maketh man a tory, don't fire that assumption at me, I like toast as much as anyone but not for breakfast, dinner and tea
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By the time I was 19, punk had occurred. It had a completely different cultural dynamic to it which rejected everything and started again from the year zero.
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A nation with their freezers full are dancing in their seats, while outside another nation is sleeping in the streets.
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All musicians start out with ideals but hanging on to them in the face of media scrutiny takes real integrity. Tougher still is to live up to the ideals of your dedicated fans.
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If you thought the army was here protecting people like yourself, I've some news for you, we're here to defend wealth.
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Don't saddle me with your ideals, and spare me all your guilt. For a poet with all the answers, has never yet been built.
Billy Bragg
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An isolationist America is no bloody use to anyone.
Billy Bragg
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If we accuse Trump of being a liar, he won't just say 'I never said that' or just ignore it and go on to the next thing.
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But, in the end, even a song that's as politically bland as Blowin in the Wind, you probably wouldn't get up and sing that now, whereas some of Bob Dylan's love songs that were contemporary with that, like say Girl from the North Country, you can still get up an play now.
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I'm still batting away on my politics for the Labour Party. I'm much further to the left of them than I used to be, but that's because they've moved, not me.
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I never met a politician who didn't want to be a guitar player in a rock band. I've got the opportunity to say what I believe in.
Billy Bragg