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She Came Along To Me

Billy Bragg
Language: English


Billy Bragg

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Related Songs

Ludlow Massacre
(Woody Guthrie)
King Tide And The Sunny Day Flood
(Billy Bragg)
Saffiyah Smiles
(Billy Bragg)


Words/Parole: Woody Guthrie [1942]
Music/Musica: Bragg/Tweedy/Bennett
Album: Billy Bragg & Wilco, Mermaid Avenue [1998]

Tra i principali meriti di Billy Bragg, qui in "combutta" con Wilco, c'è quello di aver reso musica ad alcune canzoni di Woody Guthrie che non avevano fino a quel momento potuto trovarla. Così è stato, ad esempio, (ma non in questo album) per All You Fascists, che però in questo sito è ascritta "motu proprio" a Woody Guthrie, e per tutte le canzoni di questo album del 1998. Un segno del legame indissolubile tra Woody Guthrie e Billy Bragg; quel che Woody aveva lasciato, Billy lo ha continuato. [CCG/AWS Staff]

mermaidave"Mermaid Avenue is a 1998 album of previously unheard lyrics written by American folk singer Woody Guthrie, put to music written and performed by British singer Billy Bragg and the American band Wilco. The project was organized by Guthrie's daughter, Nora Guthrie. Mermaid Avenue was released on the Elektra Records label on June 23, 1998. A second volume of recordings, Mermaid Avenue Vol. II, followed in 2000. The projects are named after a song "Mermaid's Avenue" written by Guthrie. This was also the street in Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York on which Guthrie lived. During the spring of 1995, Woody Guthrie's daughter Nora had contacted English singer-songwriter Billy Bragg about writing music for a selection of completed Guthrie lyrics. Her father had left behind over a thousand sets of complete lyrics written between 1939 and 1967; none of these lyrics had any music other than a vague stylistic notation. According to Bob Dylan's autobiographical Chronicles, Woody Guthrie offered his unpublished songs to Dylan, but the young singer was unable to get them from Guthrie's family (he tells a story about a reluctant babysitter). Nora Guthrie's liner notes in Mermaid Avenue indicate that it was her intention that the songs be given to a new generation of musicians who would be able to make the songs relevant to a younger generation. Nora Guthrie contacted Bragg, who in turn approached Wilco and asked them to participate in the project as well. Wilco agreed, and in addition to recording with Bragg in Ireland, they were given their own share of songs to finish. Rather than recreating tunes in Guthrie's style, Bragg and Wilco created new, contemporary music for the lyrics. What seemed like a risky enterprise surprised everyone; released in 1998 as Mermaid Avenue, the results were met with universal acclaim. The album received a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album, and went on to place fourth on the Pazz & Jop Critics Poll for 1998 (right behind Bob Dylan's Live 1966)." - en.wikipedia.
Ten hundred books could I write you about her
Because I felt if I could know her
I would know all women
And they’ve not been any too well known
For brains and planning and organised thinking
But I’m sure the women are equal
And they may be ahead of the men

Yet I wouldn’t spread such a rumour around
Because one organises the other
And sometimes the most lost and wasted
Attract the most balanced and sane
And the wild and the reckless take up
With the clocked and the timed
And the mixture is all of us
And we’re still mixing

But never, never, never,
Never could have it been done
If the women hadn’t entered into the deal
Like she came along to me

And all creeds and kinds and colours
Of us are blending
Till I suppose ten million years from now
We’ll all be just alike
Same colour, same size, working together
And maybe we’ll have all of the fascists
Out of the way by then
Maybe so.

But never, never, never,
Never could have it been done
If the women hadn’t entered into the deal
Like she came along to me.

Contributed by giorgio - 2008/8/27 - 18:44



Language: Italian

Versione italiana di Riccardo Venturi
Piacenza, 28 agosto 2008
LEI È VENUTA DA ME

Mille libri potrei scrivere su di lei
Ché sentivo, avessi potuto conoscerla,
Che avrei conosciuto tutte le donne.
Non è che siano mai state troppo note
Per intelligenza, programmazione e pensiero strutturato
Ma sono certo che le donne sono uguali
E persino superiori agli uomini

Però non vorrei parlarne troppo in giro
Perché ci si organizza l'un l'altro
E talvolta i più inutili confusionari
Attraggono i più equilibrati e quadrati
E i più brutali e spietati hanno la meglio
Su chi è ben regolato;
E mescolando si ha tutti noi,
E stiamo ancora mescolando

Ma mai, mai, mai,
Mai sarebbe potuto accadere
Se le donne non ci si fossero messe in mezzo
Così come lei è venuta da me

E tutti i nostri credi, razze e colori
Si stanno mescolando
Finché, penso, tra dieci milioni di anni
Saremo tutti uguali
Stesso colore, stessa statura, a lavorare assieme
E forse, allora, ci saremo
Tolti di mezzo tutti i fascisti,
Forse.

Ma mai, mai, mai,
Mai sarebbe potuto accadere
Se le donne non ci si fossero messe in mezzo
Così come lei è venuta da me.

2008/8/28 - 08:56


Mermaid Avenue: Volume III

01. Bugeye Jim
02. When The Roses Bloom Again
03. Gotta Work
04. My Thirty Thousand
05. Ought To Be Satisfied Now
06. Listening To The Wind That Blows
07. Go Down To The Water
08. Chain Of Broken Hearts
09. Jailcell Blues
10. Don’t You Marry
11. Give Me A Nail
12. The Jolly Banker
13. Union Prayer
14. Be Kind To The Boy On The Road
15. Ain’ta Gonna Grieve
16. Tea Bag Blues
17. I’m Out To Get

2012/3/21 - 08:52




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