| Billy Bragg – Must I Paint You A Picture? Lyrics | 5 years ago |
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Also an interesting note to add to this is how much Raglan Road seems to inspire this song. Note the lines from Raglan Road: "On a quiet street where old ghosts meet I see her walking now Away from me so hurriedly" and Bragg's line: "And when I see you You just turn around and walk away like we never met" And this bit about Kavanaugh who wrote Raglan Road: "Kavanagh was besotted with Hilda, he even acquired a painting of the Kerry beauty which he had propped on top of the mantle piece in his dwelling on Dublin’s Pembroke Road."...which could be where Billy Bragg got the title. There is a documentary on Patrick Kavanaugh called Gentle Tiger that aired right around the time Billy Bragg was writing this album. Found in an old review of one of his concerts on Oct. 15, 1988: "Bragg left the stage after "Help Save the Youth," and returned to sing three of the new record's most painful love songs. "Must I Paint You a Picture," with Cara Tivey sharing the lead vocal, was particularly pretty, but all three were sung with enormous feeling by Bragg. He told us why. "Part of performing," he began, "is not just coming out onstage and talking. A lot of these 'confessional' songs are important, because the feelings, after I sing the songs, come back to me as well." It wasn't precisely clear what he was saying, but he pressed on. "When I sing them, I feel a lot less of an asshole. I want to thank you for letting me feel this way. "The woman I wrote the last three songs about got married today," Bragg said, and suddenly the room was respectful and quiet. He continued, with an absurd exactness, "She got married at 3 PM England time, 9 AM your time. Generally when we come out for encores we're supposed to leave everyone cheering for more, but I'd like to sing an Irish folk song by Patrick Cavanaugh. Thank you," he said again, "for letting me feel a little closer to you tonight." The song he sang I don't know the name of; it had a line about "Loving too much, and such, and such," and a recurring chorus of "At the dawn of the day," which could be the title, but I was too moved, and too interested in watching Bragg's face as he sang, to take competent notes. With that song, whatever it was, Bragg concluded one of the rock 'n' roll events of the year." |
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| Jeff Buckley – Jewel Box Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| There is a cluster of stars called Jewel Box, which is where I think the line, "You left some stars in my belly" ties in with the rest of the song. | |
| Billy Bragg – Must I Paint You A Picture? Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| This song is about Mary and the destructive relationship Billy had with her. In the song Life With Lions he's singing about how he doesn't like who he is when he's with her which I think goes with the line, "And there's you A little black cloud in a dress". The relationship brought people around them down. She was a black cloud around him, made him depressed. At one point Billy bought Mary a ring and Mary thought or assumed he was asking her to marry him, they became engaged very quickly in a kind of accidental crazy way. "And now the bells across the river chime out your name I look across to them again." I think this song is very much about their quick engagement. "And on that imperfect day We threw it all away Crisis after crisis With such intensity." Calling off the engagement after all the drama and arguing. "And when I see you You just turn around and walk away like we never met" It was said that Mary threw the Workers Playtime album off the Hammerstein bridge after she heard it when it was released. | |
| Billy Bragg – You Woke Up My Neighbourhood Lyrics | 6 years ago |
| Billy Bragg was inspired by a drawing by Woody Guthrie which is where he got the song title. | |
| Billy Bragg – Valentine's Day Is Over Lyrics | 6 years ago |
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This song is definitely about domestic abuse. With these lines of the song: "Poetry and flowers pretty words and threats You've gone to the dogs again and i'm not placing bets On you coming home tonight anything but blind If you take me for granted then you must expect to find Surprise, surprise Valentine's day is over, it's over" I don't take Valentine's day to be literal here. To me, this refers more to the cycle of the abuse. "Poetry and flowers" referring more to the "honeymoon phase" of abuse, when after mentally, emotionally, and physically abusing her, he comes home with the flowers and cards and fake apologies. "Poetry and flowers pretty words and threats" This is the phase where the abuser makes promises to change, but change never comes and the cycle begins again, the poetry and pretty words turn into threats again. She no longer believes in the apologies or promises to change. "If you take me for granted then you must expect to find Surprise, surprise Valentine's day is over" Again, I don't take this to be Valentine's Day literally. He's taking her for granted again because it's the cycle and he doesn't expect he actually needs to change, "Valentine's Day is over" I think is more like, it's NOT Valentine's Day at all, she likely doesn't get flowers for Valentine's Day, only when he's trying to "make it up to her" for all his abusive behaviors: "Thank you for the things you bought me thank you for the card Thank you for the things you taught me when you hit me hard." So she's saying to him, why are you bringing me flowers? Valentine's Day is over. It's just his lame apologies to make his abuse okay again. |
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