On a chilly Saturday night I ventured out to Seattle’s Tractor Tavern to see one of my all time favorites, Billy Bragg. This was the last of a three-night stint at the Tractor Tavern from this Brit. All three shows had been sold out for months. This amazed me as his songs are not played on radio any more. Not even the college or non-commercial stations play his songs.
A devout socialist, Billy combined political talk and relationship stories with his songs. The night was just Billy switching between an electric and an acoustic guitar. He opened his show by quipping that everyone came to hear him talk socialism, not to hear him sing.
Between songs, Billy told stories about relationships gone wrong and mentioned visiting the exhibition on the UW campus showcasing the Great Seattle Strike that occurred in the 20’s. He went on to mention the internment of Japanese citizens during WWII, most of whom were business people, and mentioned any form of government that was allowed to get out of control becomes corrupt. This was in reference to republicans blaming the fall of Venezuela on socialism. He stressed that socialism means compassion.
He talked of how musicians in the sixties thought music would end fascism, but didn’t. What he didn’t mention was that protest songs aren’t given a voice any more. In the United States the stations are all owned by the very corporations destroying democracy and they don’t want music played that might stir people into action and ultimately hurt their profits. He also made more than a few jabs at Trump and explained that Brexit was the most divisive issue to happen in England in his life time, but that we needed to find common ground, that we needed to listen to one another. He stressed that we shouldn’t accept the racism or the violence, but that we needed to come to a consensus. He used the recent legalization of abortion in Ireland as an example of what could happen.
Billy played some familiar and some not so familiar songs. When he played Sexuality there was barely a still body in the house and many sang along.
I’m so glad I had the opportunity to see Billy again and am equally happy he is able to sell out shows here even though his music is no longer played on radio. His return cannot happen soon enough. We need more music like his, more musicians coming out to protest the onset of fascism, not just here in the US, but all over the world.
– Photos property of Holly Homan, all rights reserved.
