Billy Bragg - Still Suitable for Miners

Andrew Collins on kirjoittanut elämäkerran englantilaisesta muusikosta, josta en tiennyt paljon mitään ennen tämän kirjan lukemista: Billy Bragg - Still Suitable for Miners (Ebury Publishing, 2013; ISBN 9780753549230).



Joskus käy niin, että kirjaan tarttuu sen kansikuvan takia, ja niin tapahtui tämän kirjan kanssa. Ja koska teos on julkaistu erinäköisinä versioina joissa on hyvinkin erilaiset kansikuvat, olisi teos saattanut jäädä kokonaan huomaamattakin.

Kirjaan kirjoittamassaan esipuheessa Bragg antaa eräänlaisen kautta rantain kehun elämäkerran kirjoittaneelle Collinsille:

I had been approached by a few would-be biographers in the past but they were mostly earnest young men who I feared would portray me as some working-class hero whose life had been one long hard struggle. These were the same kind of people who described my friends as being 'a bit lumpen'. Andrew at least knew enough about me to realise that the personal was at least as important as the political, and that my life was a mess of contradictions [...]

Ja Collins puolestaan tiivistää Bragging elämän lähestulkoon yhteen tekstikappaleeseen:

But it's not about politics. It's about this bloke.

Ex-punk, ex-soldier, ex-member of the Labour Party; one or two people and institutions have been left behind in 40 years, but it's the names and places that stayed with Billy Bragg that maketh the man. He failed his eleven-plus and never went to college. Punk failed him and he joined the army. He passed basic training with flying colours and left after 90 days with a two-fingered salute. In 1982, he chose his weapon - the guitar - travelled the world, met interesting people and knocked them dead.

Vuonna 1983 Braggin ura lähti nousuun, sitä voi pitää käänteentekevänä kaikessa siinä mitä hän myöhemmin tuli tehneeksi:

A pop career is like a damp pile of twigs - it sits there for ages, unloved and pathetic, and then suddenly it catches light, turning into a blazing, acrid-smelling bonfire within seconds, spreading warmth and orange light all around. It takes only one bright spark to set it off.

At the beginning of the year, Billy hadn't even recorded his debut album. At the end of it, Life's A Riot was Number One in the indie charts, Number 44 in the real charts and rising, and Number Three in NME's esteemed Vinyl Finals, the writers' albums of the year. How did that happen?

Ja mainittakoon vielä Mermaid Avenue, Braggin ja Wilco-yhtyeen yhteistyönä tehty albumi Woody Guthrien lauluista. Noloa sanoa, mutta tämä albumi oli ainoa Braggin musiikkiin liittyvä teos, josta olin edes jotain kuullut. No, nyt tiedän edes jotain enemmän.