Comments on life and opinions of andrew rilstone: CHAINS OF THE SEA AWARD

I've heard enough of Billy Bragg's studio ...

2012-01-26T11:11:24.466Z

I've heard enough of Billy Bragg's studio recordings (including this very song) to know that this talk-show performance was pretty much representative.

It's not the lack of technique that bothers me so much as the affectation. I don't believe that he can't sing better than that. I just want to slap him and shout "come on, man, make an effort."

And actually, vocal affectation seems to be a recurring symptom of folk music. Even a song as beautiful as the Two Sisters that you posted last time is sung with an odd and characteristic vowel inflection that I suspect does not reflect how Emily Portman (if it is she) speaks.

So, not that this is a big problem. But it is an area where folk music is just as stylised and even ghettoised as, say, heavy metal, which also has its idiosyncratic standards for vocals.

I don't think that is entirely fair. I think t...

2012-01-26T10:52:53.656Z

I don't think that is entirely fair. I think that Billy is part of a venerable tradition of protest singers who are Not Vocally Sophisticated. And he may not sound his best on a youtube of an American talk show.

"It hardly matters if you agree with him: it&...

2012-01-26T10:19:05.469Z

"It hardly matters if you agree with him: it's enough that he uses words to to convey meaning, instead of to obscure it."

Yes.

But is it really asking too much that he make some effort to sing them?