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| photo: Andy Whale | |
Billy Bragg is an English singer-songwriter in the spirit of Woody Guthrie. His music blends elements of folk music and punk rock, with lyrics that take in the personal and the political. His new book, Roots, Radicals and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World (Faber & Faber, July 11, 2017), is the first in-depth look at skiffle--a do-it-yourself music craze that hit post-war Britain and takes its cues from American jazz, blues and folk--and how it inspired many of the bands of the British Invasion and shaped pop music as we have come to know it.
On your nightstand now:
I've been reading Naomi Alderman's The Power, a gripping story that inverts the physical power dynamic between the sexes. I've also been dipping into Small Town Talk, Barney Hoskyns's brilliant evocation of life in 1960s Woodstock, where Bob Dylan drew like-minded musicians.
Favorite book when you were a child:
The Moon of Gomrath--Alan Garner. Where Tolkien places his weird folk in a fantasy land, Garner puts them where they should be, in our midst, watching us from briar and bog, hidden in the hollow hills over which we tramp.
Your top five authors:
Nick Tosches, George Orwell, Rudyard Kipling, Claire Tomalin and Antony Beevor.
Book you've faked reading:
Hasn't every lefty faked reading Das Kapital?
Book you're an evangelist for:
The Lion & the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius by George Orwell--I give a copy of this book to anyone who tries to tell me that you can't be a socialist and a patriot.
Book you've bought for the cover:
Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem by Peter Ackroyd. Actually it was the title that drew me to this book, rather than the cover. Dan Leno was an English music hall comedian of the late 19th century, and Limehouse was a dark district of the old East End of London. I bought the paperback in Australia, intending to read it on the plane coming home, which I failed to do. A few years later, I took it on the flight to Australia again and still didn't manage to read the damn thing. It still resides unread on my bookshelf, I'm ashamed to say.
Book you hid from your parents:
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. In the wake of Kubrick's 1971 movie of the novel, there was a public outcry about the title, so every one of my 13-year-old school pals had a copy and we kept them hidden from parents and teachers alike.
Book that changed your life:
Diary of a Rock 'n' Roll Star by Ian Hunter. The lead singer of Mott the Hoople tells the story of the band's 1972 American tour. Enthralled by the prospect of travelling across the U.S. trying to win a different crowd every night, I started to think about how I might follow Hunter's path myself.
Favorite line from a book:
I've found that if you read Orwell's 1984 every decade or so, it throws up a new perspective on the times that we're living through. When I first read it, it was clearly about things that could only happen under a totalitarian regime. When I read it 10 years ago, it seemed to be about political spin. In the post-truth world of Brexit and Trump, every other chapter seems to have something to say about where we are today, such as this chilling declaration of intent by the inner party member O'Brien:
"The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy--everything."
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. I really enjoyed learning to understand the broken English used by the narrator.
Book you always keep at hand:
Who's Buried Where in England by Douglas Greenwood. I suffer from the autodidact's vice--I buy books for reference and this, along with Brewer's Phrase & Fable, is one of my favourites. Although it was first published in 1982, Greenwood seems untroubled by popular culture--almost all of his subjects were interred well before the advent of the Beatles. It's a wonderfully quirky book, ideal for keeping in the smallest room of the house, where many of us are wont to ponder our own mortality.