If you'd asked me last week whether I'd heard this album, I'd probably have denied it. It was definitely a surprise to find I owned it. I mean, it's not like I didn't know it existed: it's just that, never having been a big fan of either Billy Bragg or Wilco, it had never featured on my wish list.
Records suggest that it was during one of my later Fopp binges (seven CDs bought one day in September 2003, including Made in Japan and Washing Machine) that I picked up Mermaid Avenue on a whim.
Perhaps if I was more of a fan of The Band, I'd enjoy this album. But I'm not much and I don't much. The success of Woody Guthrie's recordings was baked into the package as a whole: the combination of delivery, picking style and the boho hobo persona. The words on their own, in contemporary settings, don't capture the magic.
Still, that Billy Bragg's gone a long way with not much more than a train load of sincerity and integrity behind him, hasn't he?
MusicBrainz entry for this album
...We'll have to have the Billy Bragg argument at some point - he's an outstanding guitar player. No-one plays like him. Also responsible for some of London's finest indigenous poetry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5heTJ65bdhU :)
Posted by: Steve Lawson | 04 April 2010 at 12:35 PM
Oh, great - thanks, Steve - I look forward to that argument, and shall come armed with white flag at the ready. Always good -- if a bit embarrassing -- to find out you're wrong when you've been rude about someone.
Posted by: David | 04 April 2010 at 07:47 PM