Billy Bragg: Life's a Riot with Spy vs. Spy
Billy Bragg, once-described as a "one-man Clash," has spent the last two decades writing and performing passionate, witty, socially conscious music. On September 6, Yep Roc Records will re-issue Life's a Riot With Spy Vs. Spy, 1983's mini-LP that first introduced the world to Billy's style -- roughly strummed electric guitar and stark vocals belying a keen sense of melody and committed, deeply humane lyrics on topics ranging from life and love to social upheaval and the plight of the working class.
Recorded live to 2-track tape for free over the course of three afternoons in Chappell Music's tiny demo studio in the modest hope of selling the occasional copy at early gigs, Life's a Riot... had initial sales topping 50,000 (ultimately over 120,000) without the aid of advertising. It spent 12 weeks at #1 on the UK indie chart and reached #32 in the national LP chart and featured his first underground anthem -- "A New England." |
TRACK LISTING
| Disc 1: | |||
| 1 | The Milkman Of Human Kindness | (2:49) | |
| 2 | To Have And To Have Not | (2:33) | |
| 3 | Richard | (2:52) | |
| 4 | A New England | (2:14) | |
| 5 | Man In The Iron Mask | (2:14) | |
| 6 | The Busy Girl Buys Beauty | (1:59) | |
| 7 | Lovers Town Revisited | (1:20) | |
| Disc 2: | |||
| 1 | Strange Things Happen | (3:18) | |
| 2 | The Cloth ( I ) | (2:50) | |
| 3 | Love Lives Here | (1:41) | |
| 4 | Speedway Hero | (2:37) | |
| 5 | Loving You Too Long | (2:49) | |
| 6 | This Guitar Says Sorry | (2:13) | |
| 7 | Loves Gets Dangerous | (2:30) | |
| 8 | The Cloth ( 2 ) | (2:45) | |
| 9 | Man In The Iron Mask | (2:15) | |
| 10 | A13 | (2:25) | |
| 11 | Fear Is A Man's Best Friend | (2:32) | |
