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Today's Obsession: Billy Bragg


bradm

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I remember back in the mid-1980s, when I saw the video for Billy Bragg's song, "Levi Stubbs' Tears". The stark nature of it, with one guy, singing fervently, backed up by an electric guitar plugged straight into an amp*, mesmerized me.

I recently discovered that there are a bunch of Bragg shows on the Live Music Archive. So far, I've downloaded two different shows, both from BC, but 10 years apart: 1986-12-05, and 1996-11-05, and they're great. It's so refreshing to hear someone be angry, and be angry about something, with conviction behind it, and the ability write intelligent and meaningful lyrics.

Coincidentally, he's playing in Toronto on March 11 at the Opera House, a show I can't make. :(

Aloha,

Brad

* A Roland Cube 60. I had a Cube 20 at the time. :)

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"flac" stands for "Free Lossless Audio Codec", and it's an alternative to "shn" (or "shorten"). For all your FLAC needs, head to

http://flac.sourceforge.net/

To convert to MP3, my guess is that you'll have to convert the .flac files to .wav, and then convert the .wav to .mp3.

However, if you go to

http://www.archive.org/audio/etreelisting-browse.php?collection=etree&mode=mp3&cat=Billy%20Bragg

you can get the Billy Bragg shows that are available in MP3 form.

Aloha,

Brad

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No worries. I've got it going now, and it's great Bragg (I've never heard him, assuming it's him, play piano before). I'm becoming more and more convinced that it would be impossible for someone (like me) to sing Billy Bragg tunes without adopting his London accent. It's almost as if the accent (and the inflexions he uses on the words) was part of the lyrics.

Aloha,

Brad

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