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.
BILLY BRAGGA patriot is someone who cares what happens in their country.
More Billy Bragg Quotes
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It would shine a torch into the dirty little corner where the BNP defecate on our democracy, and that would be much more powerful than duffing them up in the street – which Im also in favour of.
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If I can entertain people and get them to open up a little bit, then they’re much more conducive to any ideas I might have, whether they’re about relationships or politics. The most interesting songs, I think, are the ones where the two overlap.
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Don’t saddle me with your ideals, and spare me all your guilt. For a poet with all the answers, has never yet been built.
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Money maketh man a tory, don’t fire that assumption at me, I like toast as much as anyone but not for breakfast, dinner and tea
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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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Without accountability, there can be no freedom. I know it seems like a paradox.
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I’ve had songs written during the Falklands war, and during the first Gulf war I got letters from soldiers saying they were listening to these songs, like Island of no return.
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You have to recognise your responsibility to your community for your actions. Liberty doesn’t mean that you are not held accountable.
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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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If you’ve got a blacklist, I want to be on it.
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The evil lot who did that thing on September 11 did it because they wanted to create a war between America and Islam. And by invading Iraq, we gave them what they hoped for.
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What corporations fear most are consumers who ask questions. Naomi Klein offers us the arguments with which to take on the superbrands.
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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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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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All 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.
BILLY BRAGG