Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. New England
2. Man in the Iron Mask
3. Milkman of Human Kindness
4. To Have and to Have Not
5. Lover Sings
6. St. Swithin's Day
7. Saturday Boy
8. Between the Wars
9. World Turned Upside Down
10. Levi Stubbs' Tears
11. Walk Away Renee
12. Greetings to the New Brunette
13. There Is Power in a Union
14. Help Save the Youth of America
15. Warmest Room
16. Must I Paint You a Picture?
17. She's Got a New Spell
18. Price I Pay
19. Valentine's Day Is Over
20. Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

Disc 2:

1. Sexuality
2. Cindy of a Thousand Lives
3. Moving the Goalposts
4. Tank Park Salute
5. You Woke Up My Neighbourhood
6. Accident Waiting to Happen (Red Stars Version)
7. Sulk
8. Upfield
9. Fourteenth of February
10. Brickbat
11. Space Race Is Over
12. Boy Done Good
13. Ingrid Bergman - Billy Bragg, Wilco
14. Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key - Billy Bragg, Wilco
15. My Flying Saucer - Billy Bragg, Wilco
16. All You Fascists Bound to Lose (Blokes Version) - Billy Bragg & the Blokes
17. NPWA - Billy Bragg & the Blokes
18. St. Monday - Billy Bragg & the Blokes
19. Some Days I See the Point - Billy Bragg & the Blokes
20. Take Down the Union Jack (Band Version) - Billy Bragg & the Blokes

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30373 in Music
• Released on: 2003-10-28
• Number of discs: 2

From Amazon.co.uk
Must I Paint You a Picture is a generous, two-disc, 40-track survey of Bragg's career to date. The tracklisting was apparently assembled with the help of Bragg's fans, who were asked to vote for their favourites on Bragg's website, but this democratic initiative has only been taken so far: while "Little Time Bomb", for example, was a more popular choice than, say, "The Boy Done Good", the latter is included and the former isn't. It would, of course, be uncharitable to suggest that this is reflective of the authoritarian instincts that lurk inside most socialists.

At any rate, though Bragg has always been chiefly characterised as a political songwriter, his best work has always been that which deals with the politics of the personal: there are few more acute summations of the eternal failure of the male and female to make sense to each other than his "How can you lie there and think of England when you don't even know who's in the team?" Bragg's superb love songs and love-gone-wrong songs are well represented here, from the angry, naive scratchings of "The Milkman of Human Kindness" to such older, if no wiser, musings as "Moving the Goalposts" and "Sulk". Curiously, his older, politically motivated songs now feel like they've reacquired an urgency they lacked during a 1990s largely devoid of stark ideological boundaries, when they sounded rather like quaint period pieces. The so-called war on terror and the increasing discomfort about global trade both have ready made soundtracks in "Between the Wars" and "There is Power in a Union". --Andrew Mueller

Customer Reviews

This is what a Greatest Hits album should be!
I have every Billy Bragg album except this one, and the rare stuff on the third disc is tempting me to correct that oversight. Record companies take note - that's how a Greatest Hits album is supposed to work!

For those unfamiliar with Billy Bragg, his music may be best summarized as "acoustic punk", but he has experimented with numerous styles over the course of his twenty year career. This three CD set collects them all, in a rough chronological order. Disc one begins in Thatcherite Britain: you can picture Billy sitting in a smoke-filled pub belting out coarse folk tunes and love songs with tender quirky lyrics; we then follow him outside into the middle of the poll tax riots, with socialist anthems and rich ballads that tell stories of heartache and broken dreams. Disc two starts at a time in Bragg's career I'd rather forget, the Britpop period, but thankfully the salvation of the later 1990s soon follows. Here he returns to familiar themes - disillusionment with the state of the world, left wing Utopianism, and, of course, love - but the music is more sophisticated and polished. There's even a few Woody Guthrie covers thrown in for fun (and to remind us of his politics). Disc three is made up of remixes and rarities I've only ever heard live or bootleg, which is why I'm going to break down and buy the album!

Regardless of your politics, it's hard not to be moved by songs like "Levi Stubbs' Tears" or "The Space Race Is Over", or to reminisce about relationships gone sour over tracks like "The Price I Pay". Billy Bragg is truly a prolific artist, with a poet's soul and a bleeding heart, and this collection of his work is, as the title says, ESSENTIAL.

NPWA!
Bragg's tune, "No Power Without Accountability" sums up his political perspective absolutely accurately, and in this collection, his career is summed up just perfectly. This is a writer who puts his head and his heart on the line. Art as politics blazes through his skewering of the western world. While his neo-socialist underpinnings seem at times dated ("Great Leap Forward"), you need to keep in mind that it was no accident that he should turn to Woody Guthrie and in partnership with WILCO essay some of America's heartland-poet's unfinished songs in so compelling a manner. Like Ireland's Andy Irvine, Bragg has taken to the road for the common man. Fatcats of either white or blue collar are pilloried, their efforts at exploiting those who have entrusted them with power are stripped of the rhetoric designed to feed people what they want and laid open as lies meant to enrich the prevaricators. For all the vitriol, there is an incredibly human voice that touches the heart as well as fires the mind.
Besides all that, Bragg can write a damn fetching tune. For all the rhetoric, he can turn around and write something as emotionally honest as "Somedays I See The Point," one of the greatest songs ever written. His early resetting of "Just Walk Away Renee" is shear (you'll get it) genius. There is a lot to consider here and it is all worth the investment of your time. WILCO, The Blokes, his solo stuff: all are delivered with a sense of commitment. The third disc presents some rarities, including a cut from a radio show in Philadelphia that misrepresents its xenophilic title by content. Nonetheless, Bragg is just brilliant with his "Rhyme or Reason." It's irrelevant whether you embrace his politics. What counts is you have before you the works of a man who has considered thoughtfully the human condition and has found cause to say that the least of us should never be trampled upon. His is a noble soul. Fripp says, "With commitment, everything changes." Bragg clearly lives that commitment.

It is, and he is
All "best ofs" should be this good. Top-notch material in chronological order, with a better flow than any of his proper albums. There simply are no bad songs here. Some won't like his voice, some find him too sentimental - I give him points for sincerity and doing exactly what he wants for over 20 years. Intelligent pop music? Yes, it's possible. A great collection.