I enjoyed so much working with the guys from Wilco, and riffing off of them, and having someone come up to me with ideas, because normally in the studio it’s me who has to come up with all the ideas.
BILLY BRAGGAll musicians start out with ideals but hanging on to them in the face of media scrutiny takes real integrity. Tougher still is to live up to the ideals of your dedicated fans.
More Billy Bragg Quotes
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I never met a politician who didn’t want to be a guitar player in a rock band. I’ve got the opportunity to say what I believe in.
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You can experience a download, but you can’t download an experience.
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Without accountability, there can be no freedom. I know it seems like a paradox.
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I think if you’re going to make political art, you have to engage at some level. You can’t just write about politics, you have to try and be politics as well.
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Whether we like it or not, we live in a post-ideological world. That’s how a Donald Trump can get through. He has no ideology at all: in that sense, he’s a bit like Mussolini.
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Britain is a great country. We can more or less say what we like, and we can walk down the street without anyone trying to kill us. I know it’s tough for some people, but generally we live in a caring society. We live in a great country, but we’re no longer a great power.
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All the things about ‘the ugly American’ that we worry about and which the Americans see in themselves, it’s all of that. This is a politics of egotistical display.
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What happened on September 11 wasn’t the first act of war, it was the most unspeakable act of murder and terrorism. But it was construed by a very small group of people – there is no army out there in the dark waiting to take over America.
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At some point in your life you have to engage with the fact that you are part of a society.
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I think that ultimately Trump will lose the election and in the process destroy the Republican party – but then I’m an optimist, ha ha ha! So he might not lose. He might be in charge of the largest nuclear arsenal in the world!
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So, in some ways, the political songs tend to be a bit more like reportage, whereas the love songs tend to be like novels, you can pick them up off the shelf and go into them any time.
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I came into this whole business by going to see Rock Against Racism gigs with the Clash.
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There are quite a few honest songwriters out there writing about relationships and their own personality traits. But for some reason, once they step out of the bedroom, their honesty doesn’t seem to come with them.
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If you thought the army was here protecting people like yourself, I’ve some news for you, we’re here to defend wealth.
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You can be active with the activists or sleep in with the sleepers while you’re waiting for the Great Leap Forwards.
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