The Internationale/Live and Dubious
August 8, 2009 by admin
Filed under British Cooking
£7.48
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Billy Bragg became disappointed with Go Discs when they edited his rousing call to arms `Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards’ for radio play and as a reaction re-launched Utility to put out this seven track collection of political songs using the template produced by his own `Life’s a Riot with Spy vs. Spy’. This collection should be rubbish yet it is one of my favourite Billy Bragg albums. It opens with `The International’ which was the national anthem of the old soviet union which Billy had often sang, despite claims that the English translation was unsingable, at various folk festivals. Billy has rewritten the lyric for this collection using the collapse of the soviet system and most poignantly that of the Berlin wall to create his own national anthem, fantastic. The album then continues with a vocal refrain `I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs last night’. Normally I cringe at a Bragg vocal only refrain but this song is so well written that I have to say I love it, I loved it so much that I went out and bought `American troubadour: The Best of Phil Ochs’ the following week. `The Marching Song of the Covert Battalions’ is more standard Bragg fare but with a overdubbed harmony vocal which had them rolling in the aisles when Bragg played it on `The International’ tour in Leeds at the Irish Centre. William Blake’s `Jerusalem’ is played straight with brass band to great effect and the nicest thing I can say about `Nicaragua Nicaragua’ is that it is very short. `The Red Flag’ played to the original tune highlights, to me, why it was changed. The final song of the original album, Eric Bogle’s `My Youngest Son Came Home Today’, is definitely the high point of this album and is a suitable coda. Also included is the `Live and Dubious EP’ which was originally only available on import in England. The highlights of which are Dick Gaughan’s `Think Again’ and Bragg’s own `Days Like These’ re-written with a lyric bout America rather than Great Britain. Most telling amongst the bonus tracks are the songs that were recorded but not included in `The International’ including Phil Ochs’ `Joe Hill’, Woody Guthrie’s `This Land is your Land’ and Sam Cooke’s `A Change is Gonna Come’. I loved the original album and love the expanded album even more. Beware the squanderbug.
Legendary political singer songwriter takes time out from penning songs of broken hearts and socialism of his own to re-recording traditional songs and hymns. The result is better heard as a historical document rather than musical entertainment as the material is challenging and difficult. It was adventurous of Billy to consider releasing something like this when it was definitely going against the grain of pop, but making people sit up and take notice of history and its effects is what he does best. However, listening to it more than once is almost impossible but the introduction of a bonus disc makes this a valuable purchase for Bragg-ites everywhere.
This is a wonderful album that I listen to all the time (having bought it first on vinyl many years ago). The songs are powerful and moving and this is Blake’s Jerusalem as it was meant to be sung. Well worth buying (especially with the extra disc).