Brewing Up with Billy Bragg
Encyclopedia
Brewing Up with Billy Bragg is the second album by Billy Bragg
, released in 1984.
While his debut album
Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy
(1983) was performed by Bragg accompanied only by his guitar
, Brewing Up with Billy Bragg began to use subtle overdubs, such as backing vocals
on "Love Gets Dangerous", trumpet
on "The Saturday Boy" and organ
on "A Lover Sings".
The album also continued Bragg's legacy of political songs. "It Says Here" is a bitingly satirical attack on the British
tabloid press and "Island of No Return" is a concise anti-war
anthem.
In 2000 Q magazine placed Brewing Up with Billy Bragg at number 87 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
The album reached number 16 in the UK albums chart
.
The cover of the original album has the subtitle "A Puckish Satire On Contemporary Mores".
in 1984 with 11 tracks. In 1987 the album was again released along with the album Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy (1983) and the EP
Between the Wars
(1985) and titled Back to Basics. Back to Basics was reissue
d in 1990. Brewing Up with Billy Bragg was reissued on its own in 1997.http://www.billybragg.co.uk/releases/albums/index.html
In 2006, as part of a planned series of reissues of albums in his back catalogue, Brewing Up with Billy Bragg was remaster
ed and reissued for the first time on CD with a number of bonus tracks. These tracks included covers of "Back to the Old House" by The Smiths
(with Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr
playing guitar) and "The Last Time" by The Rolling Stones
. The bonus tracks also include the Between the Wars EP.
Billy Bragg
Stephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
, released in 1984.
While his debut album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy
Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy
Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy is Billy Bragg's first studio album, released in 1983.The original album played at 45 rpm rather than the more usual 33.3 rpm, contained only seven songs and lasted for only 15 minutes and 57 seconds...
(1983) was performed by Bragg accompanied only by his guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, Brewing Up with Billy Bragg began to use subtle overdubs, such as backing vocals
Backing vocalist
A backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
on "Love Gets Dangerous", trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
on "The Saturday Boy" and organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
on "A Lover Sings".
The album also continued Bragg's legacy of political songs. "It Says Here" is a bitingly satirical attack on the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
tabloid press and "Island of No Return" is a concise anti-war
Anti-war
An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...
anthem.
In 2000 Q magazine placed Brewing Up with Billy Bragg at number 87 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
The album reached number 16 in the UK albums chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
.
The cover of the original album has the subtitle "A Puckish Satire On Contemporary Mores".
Versions
The album was originally released on vinylGramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
in 1984 with 11 tracks. In 1987 the album was again released along with the album Life's a Riot with Spy Vs Spy (1983) and the EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
Between the Wars
Between the Wars EP
Between the Wars was an extended play released by Billy Bragg in 1985. It reached #15 on the UK Singles Chart.The title track was inspired by the UK miners' strike...
(1985) and titled Back to Basics. Back to Basics was reissue
Reissue
A reissue is the repeated issue of a published work. In common usage, it refers to an album which has been released at least once before and is released again, sometimes with alterations or additions....
d in 1990. Brewing Up with Billy Bragg was reissued on its own in 1997.http://www.billybragg.co.uk/releases/albums/index.html
In 2006, as part of a planned series of reissues of albums in his back catalogue, Brewing Up with Billy Bragg was remaster
Remaster
Remaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
ed and reissued for the first time on CD with a number of bonus tracks. These tracks included covers of "Back to the Old House" by The Smiths
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
(with Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr is an English musician and songwriter. Marr rose to fame in the 1980s as the guitarist in The Smiths, with whom he formed a prolific songwriting partnership with Morrissey. Marr has been a member of Electronic, The The, and Modest Mouse...
playing guitar) and "The Last Time" by The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English rock band, formed in London in April 1962 by Brian Jones , Ian Stewart , Mick Jagger , and Keith Richards . Bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts completed the early line-up...
. The bonus tracks also include the Between the Wars EP.
Disc one
- "It Says Here" – 4:18
- "Love Gets Dangerous" – 2:23
- "The Myth of Trust" – 2:54
- "From a Vauxhall Velox" – 2:31
- "The Saturday Boy" – 3:30
- "Island of No Return" – 3:37
- "St Swithin's Day" – 3:54
- "Like Soldiers Do" – 2:39
- "This Guitar Says Sorry" – 2:31
- "Strange Things Happen" – 2:38
- "A Lover Sings" – 3:54
Disc two (2006 reissue)
- "It Must Be a River" – 2:19
- "I Won't Talk About It" – 5:06
- "Talking Wag Club Blues" – 2:59
- "You Got the Power" (James BrownJames BrownJames Joseph Brown was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and recording artist. He is the originator of Funk and is recognized as a major figure in the 20th century popular music for both his vocals and dancing. He has been referred to as "The Godfather of Soul," "Mr...
, George Terry) – 3:10 - "The Last TimeThe Last Time (song)In 1967, after the imprisonment of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, on drugs charges, The Who recorded covers of "The Last Time" and "Under My Thumb" as a single. The intention was to help Jagger and Richards make bail, but by the time the single was made available, they had been released. The...
" (Mick JaggerMick JaggerSir Michael Philip "Mick" Jagger is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist and a founding member of The Rolling Stones....
, Keith RichardsKeith RichardsKeith Richards is an English musician, songwriter, and founding member of the Rolling Stones. Rolling Stone magazine said Richards had created "rock's greatest single body of riffs", and placed him as the "10th greatest guitarist of all time." Fourteen songs written by Richards and songwriting...
) – 2:55 - "Back to the Old House" (MorrisseyMorrisseySteven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
, Johnny MarrJohnny MarrJohnny Marr is an English musician and songwriter. Marr rose to fame in the 1980s as the guitarist in The Smiths, with whom he formed a prolific songwriting partnership with Morrissey. Marr has been a member of Electronic, The The, and Modest Mouse...
) – 2:53 - "A Lover Sings" (alternative version) – 3:58
- "Which Side are You On?" (Florence ReeceFlorence ReeceFlorence Reece was an American social activist, poet, and folksong writer. Born in Sharps Chapel, Tennessee, the daughter and wife of coal miners, she is best known for the song, "Which Side Are You On?" written in 1931 during a strike by the United Mine Workers of America in which her husband,...
, Bragg) – 2:34 - "It Says Here" (alternate version) – 2:36
- "Between the Wars" – 2:30
- "The World Turned Upside Down" (Leon RosselsonLeon RosselsonLeon Rosselson is an English songwriter and writer of children's books. After his early involvement in the folk music revival in Britain, he came to prominence, singing his own satirical songs, in the BBC's topical TV programme of the early 1960s, That Was The Week That Was...
) – 2:35
Musicians
- Billy BraggBilly BraggStephen William Bragg , better known as Billy Bragg, is an English alternative rock musician and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, and his lyrics mostly deal with political or romantic themes...
– vocals, guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with... - Dave Woodhead – trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
- Kenny CraddockKenny CraddockKenny Craddock was an instrumentalist, composer and producer. Throughout his career he worked with artists including Ringo Starr, Ginger Baker, Billy Bragg, Gerry Rafferty and Alan White...
– organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with... - Johnny MarrJohnny MarrJohnny Marr is an English musician and songwriter. Marr rose to fame in the 1980s as the guitarist in The Smiths, with whom he formed a prolific songwriting partnership with Morrissey. Marr has been a member of Electronic, The The, and Modest Mouse...
– guitar, vocals, tambourineTambourineThe tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
Production
- Edward de Bono – producerRecord producerA record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
- Kenny Jones – engineerAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
- Tim Young – digitally remasterRemasterRemaster is a word marketed mostly in the digital audio age, although the remastering process has existed since recording began...
ed by - Duncan Cowell – digitally remastered by