BILLLY BRAGG - TALKING ABOUT SINGING ABOUT FIXING THINGS

Billy Bragg has been an angry young man with one foot in the punk scene and the other in radical leftist politics, a Simon & Garfunkel fan, a support act for The Clash, a highly successful recording artist, an author, an anti-monarchist and a creator of new songs out of scraps from Woody Guthrie’s notebooks. He has been all these things and more.

It’s ironic that this champion of the working class, raised among the docks and factories of London’s east end has an aversion to the use of hammers, drills, saws and such things. Bragg is unashamedly adverse to the world of Do It Yourself and charmingly explores the perils and pitfalls of what he calls “screwdriver business” on Handyman Blues, a wickedly clever song from his latest album Tooth And Nail.

I'm never gonna be the handyman around the house my father was
So don't be asking me to hang a curtain rail for you because
Screwdriver business just gets me confused
It takes me half an hour to change a fuse
And when I flicked the switch the lights all blew
I'm not your handyman.

The album finds our favorite radical in a contented, somewhat mellow place, one he attributes to reaching a “genteel” middle age filled with love, children, rural calm and a realization that being angry all the time takes its toll on the spirit. The writer’s life sees the firebrand channeling his energies in a gentler, more contented manner.

I’m not any good at pottery

So let’s lose a T and just shift back the E

And I’ll find way to make my poetry

Build a roof over our heads.

And so he uses the wordsmith's skills to cleverly convert "pottery" into "poetry." The intricacies of putting up shelves or building garden sheds hold no attraction for the man who has chosen the writer’s life, and he has no hesitation in plumping for a leisurely perusal of the daily news over such foolishness. On that score I'm firmly in Billy's camp.

I know it looks like I’m just reading the paper

But these ideas I’ll turn to gold dust later

‘Cause I’m a writer not a decorator

I'm not your handyman.

Watch the official Handyman Blues video.  Fans of British stand up comedy might enjoy a little game of "pick the comic" as they watch. 

Michael D Hansen