BILLY BRAGG: THE INTERNATIONALE (1990)
1) The Internationale; 2) I
Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night; 3) The Marching Song Of The Covert
Battalions; 4) Blake's Jerusalem; 5) Nicaragua Nicaraguita; 6) The Red Flag; 7)
My Youngest Son Came Home Today.
I am afraid there is very little to be said
about this album, and what little there is
to be said is nearly all bad. Perhaps the best thing is Billy's new lyrics to
ʽThe Internationaleʼ, which deemphasize the violence of the original and
focus on "being inspired by like and love". Not that this really
matters any more — who has really given a damn about the anthem ever since the
Soviet Union abandoned it in favor of something even more pompous and
imperialistic? — but sort of a nice idea, all the same. Couldn't say the same
for Billy's vocal delivery or for the mariachi-style arrangement, though: looks
like he's still buskin' out there, despite the increased number of players,
and if I happened to pass by, I doubt I would have spared a penny. Might even
have to go and report them — not for communist propaganda, but just for
offending good taste.
I guess somebody must have told Billy one day,
«you know, for a guy who's supposed to use music for political purposes, you
sure have a lot of songs about chicks on each of your albums», so Billy
eventually decided to show his true colors and record at least a small album
(an EP, in fact) that would be nothing but
political: anthems and workers-rights-ballads all the way, with traditional
melodies, but largely new lyrics to, like, bring them more up to date in a
world still largely ruled by Thatchers and Reagan-Bushes — whether you're a fan
of these rulers (not highly likely if you're an avid rock music listener) or
whether you hate them as much as Billy does, it is sort of a logical fact that
the most blatant way to stand out
against them is sing a Marxist anthem, even if you're no Marxist yourself.
You do not have to do much, really, except just
take a glance at the titles — I mean, ʽI Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Nightʼ,
indeed? Sung accappella? At least when Joan Baez did this at Woodstock with
the original, this could make sense to fans of Joan Baez' voice, period. Are there
any fans of Billy Bragg's voice out there? (As in — real fans, people who think of him as a unique, outstanding singer, that
is, not just people who have no problems with his voice, like myself). If not,
well, okay, this is a tolerable, but derivative memento to Phil Ochs. "And
did those feet in ancient time"... — in between Greg Lake and Eric Idle,
my pop-style associations of ʽJerusalemʼ find themselves exhausted already.
ʽNicaragua Nicaraguitaʼ? I sympathize with the people of Nicaragua, but not
necessarily with the Sandinistas, and even then, I'm sure they can get along
well enough without Billy's support. ʽThe Red Flagʼ? Oh no...
Had this album remained as just an EP, it would
have quickly been forgotten in LP-centric discographies, and we would all have
been better off. Unfortunately, it was re-released in 2006 as part of a 2-CD
edition that also contained the 1988 EP Live
& Dubious — a mix of live performances from Berlin and somewhere in the
Soviet Union (Lithuania, I believe), where he must have been invited as a
Representative of the People, although some of his comments must have rubbed
off unpleasantly on the shoulders of Party officials (for instance, having
explained why the song is called "Help Save The Youth Of America", he
then states that the song might just as well have been called "Help Save
The Youth Of The Soviet Union").
So now this thing is very much a regular part
of his musical career, and it is probably the weakest link in that career —
think John Lennon's Sometime In New York
City, but even that album was a groundbreaking, earth-shattering
masterpiece in comparison, since Lennon at least composed his own political
songs, and came up with all sorts of ideas about how to maximize their effect
with various instrumentation and production tricks. The Internationale is as barebones as it gets, and for all of
Billy's undisputed sincerity and enthusiasm, he should have probably just
released the title track as a collaboration with Pet Shop Boys — I can easily
imagine a synth-pop version and a revolutionary (in both senses of the word)
video, bringing the man all the way up to the top of the charts and effectively
ending Conservative rule for eternity. As it is, the album just gets a thumbs down
— I don't even see it having a rallying effect, much less any musical value.
I just want to say here that "The Internationale" is still in use by many different organisations around the world, including social democratic ones, in the context of which I myself have sung it many times, albeit in rather less violent versions than the classic Soviet one.
ReplyDeleteAlso Billy Bragg is not very good.