It’s like being stung by a bee and going out and smashing up a beehive, and thinking you’ve solved the problem. There are more beehives out there; more bees will come. But they’re bees. They’re not grizzly bears.
BILLY BRAGGIf we think we’re a nation with great ideas, and a nation that wants to make the world a better place, let’s commit ourselves and involve ourselves with our European partners.
More Billy Bragg Quotes
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We’ve heard so much about the American dream: well, Trump is the American nightmare made flesh.
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If you’ve got a blacklist, I want to be on it.
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Being spokesman for a generation is the worst job I ever had.
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Certainly, the international image of the United States today is a lot less positive than 10 years ago. And that really shouldn’t be, because you have been the victims of this awful terrorist attack, and I think America deserves the sympathy of the world.
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You can experience a download, but you can’t download an experience.
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I’m just saying that we need to find a better way to manifest the broader society’s aspirations, politically.
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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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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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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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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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Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers.
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Part of the problem with some elements of the European debate is that they hanker for the days when we were a great power. Those days are gone, and they went a long time ago.
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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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Mixing pop and politics he asks me what the use is / I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses.
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Peace, bread, work, and freedom is the best we can achieve.
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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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A patriot is someone who cares what happens in their country.
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War what is it good for? It’s good for business.
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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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Baptists burn more slowly.
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I’m still batting away on my politics for the Labour Party. I’m much further to the left of them than I used to be, but that’s because they’ve moved, not me.
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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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I came into this whole business by going to see Rock Against Racism gigs with the Clash.
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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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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.
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