 | Tracklist:
CD: The Internationale/Live & Dubious
1 The Internationale
2 I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night
3 The Marching Song of the Covert Battalions
4 Blake's Jerusalem
5 Nicaragua, Nicaragüita
6 The Red Flag
7 My Youngest Son Came Home Today
8 Introduction [live]
9 Help Save the Youth of America [live]
10 Think Again [live]
11 Chile Your Waters Run Red Through Soweto [live]
12 Days Like These [DC Remix]
13 To Have and to Have Not [live]
14 There Is Power in a Union [with The Pattersons]
15 Joe Hill
16 This Land Is Your Land
17 Never Cross a Picket Line
18 A Change Is Gonna Come
19 A Miner's Life
DVD: Billy Bragg Here & There
There Is Power in a Union [live]
Between the Wars [live]
Nicaragua, Nicaragüita [live]
Heard It Through the Grapevine [live]
To Have and to Have Not [live]
The Milkman of Human Kindness [live]
Island of No Return [live]
Between the Wars [live]
The World Turned Upside Down [live]
Levi Stubbs' Tears [live]
Help Save the Youth of America [live]
A New England [live]
Wishing the Days Away [live]
People Get Ready [live]
Tupelo Honey [live]
Star [live]
A13, Trunk Road to the Sea [live]
Release Date: 1990 | |
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| Summary: Best described as a fans-only album and not worth looking into unless simply have a hankering to hear some re-workings of classic political anthems by a man from Essex. |
The Internationale was relesed in its original form in 1990, on an independent label, Utility Records. It consisted of the first seven tracks on this compilation. The Live and Dubious EP was a rareties compilation originally released in 1988. There are also five Bonus tracks, three of which were previously released on various compilations. So what exactly are you buying with this re-released version of The Internationale? Because it surely isn't a single coherent album. Well, what you are buying is an extended cut of Billy's oriiginal political conceptual album, which is stretched from its original line up of covers of famous political anthems into a longer album that is stretched in various directions by the tracks added to the disc. It was re-released in 2004 s part of his back catalogue reissue process with a Bonus DVD 'Here & There' of live performances in various political hotspots from the eighties. It is unlike anything else in his discography, and extremely intriguing for this.
Starting off with the title track, a cover of the famous socialist, anarchist, communist, and social-democratic anthem with altered lyrics to bring the focus to encompass harmony of a wider world, the first thing you notice is Billy's musical expansion. An orchestra compliments the song on this occasion, and further instrumentation is explored with the nelly-the-elephant refrain on 'The Marching Song Of The Covert Battalions' (the only Bragg original present) and the bouncing irish lilt of 'The Red Flag', complete with whistling pipes and acoustic guitars. He takes the pace down a notch at key moments as well, with both 'Nicaragua, Nicaraguita' and 'I Dreamed I Saw Phil Ochs Last Night' performed a capella. The latter is interesting as it is a cover of 'I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night' by Earl Robinson, which was changed by Bragg to pay tribute to Phil Ochs, whose song 'Joe Hill' he covers later on the disc. The standout of The Internationale tracks is undoubtedly Bragg's passionate and faithful reading of 'Blake's Jerusalem' by the great William Blake, a song he has camapigned to have as the British national anthem for some time now.
The 'Live & Dubious' EP was originally a budget-price stop gap released in 1988, consisting of some live songs along with a few covers and a country re-working of 'There Is Power In A Union' with The Pattersons. The songs featured are what youwould expect from a stop gap EP to be honest - decent live versions of 'Help Save The Youth Of America' and 'To Have And To Have Not' along with a couple of tracks not really good enough to make a final album. There is another a capella performance here - 'Chile Your Waters Run Red Through Soweto' which is sung with gusto but i can't seem to connect with at all. The bonus tracks that round out the CD are particularly nice, perhaps the single repeated banjo riff of Phil Ochs' 'Joe Hill' is a bit overlong at 8.30, but covers of Sam Cooke's 'A Change Is Gonna Come' and a anglicised re-working of Woody Guthrie's 'This Land Is Your Land' in a calypso style replete with steel drums are perfectly read. There is one other Bragg original - the unreleased 'Never Cross A Picket Line', a decent song that for some reason feels a bit like a nursery rhyme. The final track is probably the best song here, the wonderful cover of traditional song 'A Miner's Life Is Like A Sailor's', a lovely evocative tune to fade out to.
Of the DVD, there are TV performances of political tunes 'Between The Wars' and 'There Is Power In A Union', recorded in East Berlin, a trip which Billy recounted in his monthly podcast for an ill-advised comment he made about East Germany which resulted in an enforced tip to the museum in the Berlin wall to 'educate' him about why the wall was there. The most notable is an entire concert from Lithuania, featuring covers of songs like 'I Heard It On The Grapevine' alongside blasting versions of 'World Turned Upside Down' and 'Levi Stubbs Tears', and rounded of by great guest appearences by Cara Tivey on piano and Wiggy on guitar and bass for the little-heard 'ballad' version of 'Wishing The Days Away' and a supercharged 'A13, Trunk Road To The Sea'. Star moment on the DVD goes to his performance of 'Nicaragua, Nicaraguita' in Nicaragua, sans guitar, waving his fists around and trying to get the audience to join in. Problem is, juging by the looks on the audience members faces they have no idea who the bloke with he silly accent pumping his fists in front of them is. Made me laugh anyway.
The Internationale is by far the least essential Bragg album, but that by no way means it isn't any good. It is just extremely differnt to the rest of his material. It is nice to see romantics take a backseat for a little while (perhaps considering the album befoe this, Workers Playtime (1988) swung heavily towards love songs this is not surprising though). The Internationale is a bit of an anomaly, primarily because it is a compilation of two EP's and some rare/unreleased tracks, but there is a similar vein running through much of the material. Personally I think the bonus tracks would have been better placed after The Internationale's seven songs but that is hardly a quibble. However, this CD is best described as a fans-only album and not worth looking into unless you know the majority of Billy's material already, or simply have a hankering to hear some re-workings of classic political anthems by a man from Essex.
Joe
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