[lbo-talk] Billy Bragg: How the Queen charmed the pants off me

John Thornton jthorn65 at sbcglobal.net
Thu Oct 18 12:22:49 PDT 2007


Why all the Bragg bashing over this?

John Thornton

The re-writing of the words to the Ninth Symphony's chorus was the result of Bragg's offer to help 1,500 children who were scheduled to perform it at the re-opening of the Royal Festival Hall in London.

"The kids were having trouble with literal translation from the German and so when I was at a meeting about the re-opening, I just happened to say that if they liked, I would write a couple of new English verses," he said. "They liked what I did so much that they asked me to write lyrics to the entire fourth movement."

Bragg noted that his lyrics aren't simply a new translation of the original lyric by Friedrich Schiller, but a whole new set of words. He kept the sentiment behind one of Schiller's lines as the theme, however.

"A bit of it is inspired by one line of Schiller's: 'All men become brothers,' which I think is the most important line anyway," Bragg said.

There are those who will doubtless seek to portray my actions as some kind of a betrayal, but that sort tend to be narrow-minded people from both sides of the political spectrum who would prefer me to be a stereotypical Leftie. I guess they'd find that easier to deal with.

The fact is, you won't see me standing outside Buck House waving a flag at the Trooping the Colour any time soon; nor will you find me accepting any honours that might be dangled my way.

However, that doesn't mean I can't show some respect for a woman who clearly means a great deal to many of my fellow citizens. Surely that's what living in our multicultural society entails, isn't it - showing due respect for beliefs that you don't necessarily adhere to?

I could have been sniffy, I suppose, and refused to shake her hand, but she was good enough to come to my gig and follow my lyrics while they were sung. She even asked for my autograph.

Last Tuesday night was very special. I sat with my mother, my missus and my son while we listened to a great orchestra and a massive choir passionately sing my words to one of the greatest pieces of music ever written.

And afterwards, I got to shake hands with the woman who gave the World Cup to Bobby Moore. For a boy from Barking, it just doesn't get much better than that.



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