Sweet!! A.America is playing Billy Bragg songs between segments!

[JanMichael]

"All you Fascists" as well as the lead in to another song that I can't remember the damned name of!

You know he's a damned dirty...You know, yes?

PS~ Maybe the songs are just for Majority Report but it's still sweet!

[rumguy]

1. yep, it's awesome

[asthmaticeog]

2. I'll be thrilled if they play

"There Is Power In A Union."

----------
There is power in a factory, power in the land
Power in the hands of a worker
But it all amounts to nothing if together we don't stand
There is power in a Union

Now the lessons of the past were all learned with workers' blood
The mistakes of the bosses we must pay for
From the cities and the farmlands to trenches full of mud
War has always been the bosses' way, sir

The Union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters from many far off lands
There is power in a Union

Now I long for the morning that they realise
Brutality and unjust laws can not defeat us
But who'll defend the workers who cannot organise
When the bosses send their lackies out to cheat us?

Money speaks for money, the Devil for his own
Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone
What a comfort to the widow, a light to the child
There is power in a Union

The Union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters together we will stand
There is power in a Union.
----------

If you haven't heard it, seek it out - when he sings it, it takes on tremendous force.

P.S. - anyone versed in British labor history wants to tell me what the hell "blackleg" means, I'm all ears.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. A blackleg is someone who works during a strike

I'm not sure if it's someone brought in specifically during the strike, or a worker who ignores the call to strike, or both.

What did the original post mean by a "damned dirty ..."? Bragg is quite respectable. He doesn't exactly call the people to man the barricades.

[AP]

6. damned dirty socialist

who is always campaigning for Labour.

[JanMichael]

9. I wasn't smearing Bragg.

I'm a huge fan. But he's a self labelled Socialist (which is the same with me) who doesn't get much airplay (meant to read "Not a sell out") in the US with his Pro-People/Worker music.

My "damned dirty" line was just teasing the pro-Imperialistic/anti-Left "centrists", and "moderates", on DU who were listening to AA and hopefully liking Bragg's rendition of Woody Guthrie's "All you Fascists". I doubt many of them got it though.

BTW there's nothing wrong with calling people to the barricades when barricading is called for:-)

[AP]

10. Wasn't Mermaid Ave Number 1 on the charts for a little while?

Bragg owns part of Apache Studios in Boston (right?).

In a perfect world, he'd be worth millions. But he isn't doing too bad.

[JanMichael]

12. Musta missed it? Either way when it comes to radio airplay...

...other that 88.5 WMNF/Tampa, I've never heard his music played.

But if MAve did well that's cool.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

3. Another Billy Bragg fan?

I am. I used to post alot at the forums at his website.

But glad to hear that. BTW, All You Facists is really a Woody Guthrie song

[JanMichael]

4. A big fan. I have Mermaid Avenue.

Saw him in Tampa at the Tell Us The Truth tour.

[DoYouEverWonder]

7. Someone send them a Steve Earle CD

What this revolution needs is a good soundtrack.

[AP]

8. You don't have to change too many words in this song from '90...

...to make it relevant today:

The Marching Song Of The Covert Battalions
Album Lyrics: The Internationale

Here we are, seeking out the Reds
Trying to keep the communists in order
Just remember when you're sleeping in your beds
They're only two days drive from the Texas border

How can a country large as ours
Be scared of such a threat
Well if they won't work for us
They're against us you can bet
They may be sovereign countries
But you folks at home forget
That they all want what we've got
But they don't know it yet

We're making the world safe for capitalism

Here we come with our candy and our guns
And our corporate muscle marches in behind us
For freedom's just another world for nothing left to sell
And if you want narcotics we can get you those as well

We help the multi-nationals
When they cry out protect us
The locals scream and shout a bit
But we don't let that affect us
We're here to lend a helping hand
In case they don't elect us
How dare they buy our products
Yet still they don't respect us

We're making the world safe for capitalism

If you thought the army
Was here protecting people like yourself
I've some news for you
We're here to defend wealth
Away with nuns and bishops (Romero!)
The Good Lord will help those that help themselves
I've some news for you
We're here to defend wealth

We're making the world safe for capitalism

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

11. Billy Bragg = Great

[smirkymonkey]

13. Listening to "I'm a Nazi" as we speak...

.."i'm a big republican sleazeball, with the face of a horse's ass..."

I don't know if it's Bragg, but it's pretty damn funny!