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Billy Bragg

Certain Songs #56: Billy Bragg – “Ingrid Bergman”

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Album: Mermaid Avenue

Year: 1998.

I know that the album is credited to “Billy Bragg & Wilco,” but “Ingrid Bergman” is pure Billy Bragg. Well, musically & vocally. Lyrically, of course, it’s pure Woody Guthrie.

And out of all of the myth-deconstructing that came out of the Mermaid Avenue albums, the absolute best of all was that this remote and legendary figure – the guy who inspired Bob Dylan, inscribed “This machine kills fascists” on his guitar like a proto punk, and wrote the best of our alternate national anthems – once wrote lyrics about how much he wanted to fuck a popular film star.

Ingrid Bergman, you’re so perty
You’d make any mountain quiver
You’d make fire fly from the crater
Ingrid Bergman
This old mountain it’s been waiting
All its life for you to work it
For your hand to touch its hard rock
Ingrid Bergman
Ingrid Bergman
The inspiration for this song (and the source of the double-entendres that fuel it) was the affair that Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rosselini had while making the film Stromboli on the island of Stromboli. And I guess when they got together, it was a scandal, but with the perspective of hindsight, how could anything that produced Isabella Rosselini possibly be bad?
Fan-made video for “Ingrid Bergman”

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every “Certain Song” Ever

Certain Songs #55: Billy Bragg – “Walk Away Renee (Version)”

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B-side, 1986.

One of the B-sides of the 12" of “Levi Stubbs’ Tears”  I bought in 1986, Billy Bragg’s version of “Walk Away Renee” is a basically a spoken-word-with-guitar piece about a short relationship. 

It begins with a great, sad joke:

She said, “It was just a figment of speech.”

And I said, “you mean ‘figure.’”

And she said, “no, ’:figment,’” because she could never imagine it happening.

But it did.

And the rest of the song is Billy describing the entire arc of the relationship while Johnny Marr plays an exquisite instrumental version of “Walk Away Renee” on acoustic guitar.

At one point, there’s a great pun on “eligible” & “illegible” that’s impossible to put into words, and at the end, Billy moves on.

It’s positioned as a b-side throwaway cover, but it completely resonated with me in 1986. In its own small way, I think it’s as moving and profound as anything he’s ever written, including the classic A-side.

Fan-made video for “Walk Away Renee" 

My Certain Songs Spotify Playlist:

Every "Certain Song” Ever

21 Musical Moments To Die For

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This seems to be way more fun than Linus' big speech. You can talk about genres, artists, albums, or even songs, but sometimes what keeps us coming back to music is the discovery of the transcendent musical moment. For me, “the moment” is the part of the song that fully and utterly engages me; the reason that I keep coming back to it.

I’m not necessarily talking about hooks here, because the purpose of a hook is the draw you into a song. I’m really talking more about traps: the part of a song that that keeps you there.

The is the fifth in a series. The first one had 25, the second one had 24, the third one had 23, the fourth one had 22.

Also: there is a slight — but not total – Christmas theme going on with this one. More of an arc, really. And a couple of mini-arcs, too!

Every single moment I’ve listed below kills me single every time I hear it.

Oh, and this isn’t in any kind of order, despite the numbering.

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