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Talking with the Taxman About Poetry
 
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Talking with the Taxman About Poetry [Import]

~ Billy Bragg
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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6 used from £5.10 2 collectible from £9.99

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Product details

  • Audio CD (25 Oct 1990)
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Format: Import
  • Label: Liberation
  • ASIN: B000002H40
  • Other Editions: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 252,218 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Greetings to the New Brunette
2. Train Train
3. Marriage
4. Ideology
5. Levi Stubbs' Tears
6. Honey I'm a Big Boy Now
7. There Is Power in a Union
8. Help Save the Youth of America
9. Wishing the Days Away
10. Passion
11. Warmest Room
12. Home Front

Product Description

From Amazon.com
Billy Bragg's third full-length album, 1986's Talking with the Taxman About Poetry, is an uncompromised refinement of his brash, anti-Thatcher, busking-bloke persona. Bragg's palette stretches beyond the jagged-rhythmic-guitar-plus-curious-voice approach of the first two albums: "Ideology" and "Marriage" see the addition of horns and piano, "Train Train" adds violin, and singer Kirsty MacColl and guitarist Johnny Marr make guest appearances. The slashing, lovely "Levi Stubbs' Tears," a sad slice-of-life number told from a woman's perspective, showcases the singer-songwriter's ability to write well beyond protest songs. And only Bragg could pen a love song such as "Greetings to the New Brunette" and pull it off. In an off-key yet warm warble, he almost croons, "Shirley, your sexual politics have left me all of a muddle / Shirley, we are joined in the ideological cuddle," one of pop's most delightfully awkward rhymes. And then of course there are the protest songs, such as bracing, simple, Woody Guthrie-ish "There Is Power in a Union." The record's title is taken from a 1926 poem by the poet of the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Mayakovsky. --Mike McGonigal

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Customer Reviews

2 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Mrs. Thatcher was Shaking in her Jackboots, 6 Mar 2002
Back in 1985 Billy Bragg shook off his monotonic, acoustic routine and jazzed himself up a bit. The result is this enjoyable and powerful album that fuses both melody and fine lyrics. The fiery passion of Socialism soars from this landmark record in an explosion of musical merriment.

'Talking to the Taxman' begins with 'Greetings to the New Brunette', a song imbued with guitar and feeling. Not sure what's it's all about, but you can't argue with lines such as 'I'm celebrating my love for you / With a pint of beer and a new tattoo' and 'how can you lie there and think of England / when you don't even know who'se in the team?' Track three - "Marriage" - was my favourite song for many years: 'Marriage is when we admit our parents were right'.

Track four, the brilliantly and simply entitled 'Ideology', is also fantastic. It gets you all worked up. After twenty years we're still asking the same question - "Is there more to a seat in Parliament / than sitting, on your arse?". The song / battle cry 'Power in a Union' needs no explanation.

The album, however, is not all hammers and sickles. Billy isn't just an angry leftie. 'Levi Stubbs Tears' is a melancholic exploration of a caged woman - an Eleanor Rigby for the 1980's. Anger also turns to thoughtfulness in such songs as 'The Warmest Room' and 'The Home Front'.

My advice is this: buy the album, re-live those halcyon days and sing along to the sound of good old-fashioned Socialism.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic from the '80s, 22 Feb 2002
This CD is the best of Billy Bragg for miles. Songs like Grettings to the new brunette, Ideology, There's power in a union, Levi stubb's tears are all classic that you can listen for years an always be shock with them. The lyrics of Billy are great and if you like the folk music you have to get this right now!!.
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Talking with the Taxman About Poetry 5.0 out of 5 stars (2)

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