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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: 66
Born: 1957
Born: December 20
Guitarist
Musician
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Songwriter
Writer
Stephen William Bragg
Bard of Barking
Conrad
William Bragg
Longer
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Quite
Vanguard
Politics
Sixties
Talking
Musicians
Idea
Musician
Culture
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Music
Youth

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I've had songs written during the Falklands war, and during the first Gulf war I got letters from soldiers saying they were listening to these songs, like Island of no return.
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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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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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Being spokesman for a generation is the worst job I ever had.
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There are quite a few honest songwriters out there writing about relationships and their own personality traits. But for some reason, once they step out of the bedroom, their honesty doesn't seem to come with them.
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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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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.
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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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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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I'm celebrating my love for you with a pint of beer and a new tattoo
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I'd like to think that in a generation or two we'll have politicians whose life experience reflects that of the people who are voting for them.
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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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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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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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Freedom is merely privilege extended, unless enjoyed by one and all.
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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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Even with politics, stuff comes around again. Woody Guthrie would recognize America today.
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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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War what is it good for? It's good for business.
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I enjoyed so much working with the guys from Wilco, and riffing off of them, and having someone come up to me with ideas, because normally in the studio it's me who has to come up with all the ideas.
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