If my inbox bulged a little with enquiries as to where my Brexit song was, I can only imagine what Billy Bragg’s looked like as he headed out on the Shine A Light tour with Joe Henry. We know his answer now, it’s Full English Brexit, addressing not his own feelings about the outcome of the EU referendum but attempting to deal with the increasing polarisation of British society that the result has brought. In his own words:
“Brexit and Trump are manifestations of the failure to build a society that works for everyone. Both offer answers, but only to their own supporters. I believe that if we are to overcome the mistrust and disdain that has divided us, to take the first steps towards building that inclusive society that reflects both the traditions and diversity of our country, we need to have some understanding about where our opponents are coming from.
My new song “Full English Brexit” was written in that spirit.”
And that’s the thing. I have no intention of re-hashing the longest essay that I ever wrote on social media, my reasons for voting how I did, or your reasons for voting how you did, but the polls suggest that we’re becoming entrenched, people’s opinions are unchanged and unchanging, and how do we progress as a society when the 48% are writing the 52% off as racists and the 52% are complaining that the 48% are just bad losers? So I’m with Billy here, our response as artists needs to be about building bridges and understanding, and re-discovering our common cause.
To be honest, the whole of the next album was written in the shadow of Brexit. That is to say the shadow of the outcome of the referendum, not the shadow of leaving the EU, which we haven’t even done yet, and it’s presence is felt obliquely in several of the new songs. To deal with what I wanted to deal with meant more of a departure for my songwriting though. The funny-but-true lampooning of people with power, staying true to the axiom of always punching up, wasn’t going to work here.
Writing characters happened almost accidentally. Having written a verse and most of a chorus sketching out her life (inspired in part by something that Paul Mason says in PostCapitalism about how “a single mum on benefits, forced into the world of payday loans and buying household goods on credit, can be generating a much higher profit rate for capital than an auto industry worker with a steady job”), I spent a sleepless night wondering where the father of her children had got to. Getting up with the second verse already written in my head, I got it down on paper and thought about where I wanted to go next.
My intention was to make some more general points about debt and the EU which made Greece the obvious setting, but the characters weren’t letting go, and the third verse became her memories of a family holiday in better times. The fourth wrote itself moments later and wrapped up the tale, such as it is, in one line.
They don’t have names yet, this couple. I don’t know if they ever will, but I do know a great deal about them: their looks, attitudes, character, and some of their past. I feel as though I’ve got to know them as they’ve written themselves, with a little help from me.
I have no tune to share with you at the moment. There is one, but I’ll let The Protest Family work their magic on it before setting it free. I can, however, let you have a read of the lyrics:
She drops her eldest at school
Old enough to remember when her dad still lived at home
Sticks the younger in her buggy
In no kind of hurry as she wheels her into town
Looking for another payday loan
A bit of credit for her phone
Looking for a stay of execution
While she finds a solution
For the payments on the washing machine
Before the money’s all gone
But she’s the engine of the economy
She’s the grease in the machine
Every fiver that she borrows
Is a tenner on a banker’s screen
Forget about productivity
In a greed-based society
From the euro to the pound
It’s debt that makes the wheels go round
It was a decent enough job
Until redundancy came his and his mates way
It’s easy to blame the migrant worker
When you’re called a shirker by the paper that you buy every day
Looking for someone else to blame
Drinking away his pain
But when the words won’t come
But the punches will
It’s the ones you love
Who are standing in the way
Now he’s the engine of the economy
He’s the grease in the machine
Every fiver that he borrows
Is a tenner on a banker’s screen
Forget about productivity
In a greed-based society
From the euro to the pound
It’s debt that makes the wheels go round
There was that holiday in Greece
They had a bit of money for a place in the sun, if only for two weeks
They were better times
She wonders about the people that they met in foreign climes
Looking for some happy memories
But the pictures on the TV
Say they’re struggling
And just as broken
As she feels on days
On days like these
They’re the engine of the economy
They’re the grease in the machine
Every fiver that they borrow
Is a tenner on a banker’s screen
Forget about productivity
In a greed-based society
From the euro to the pound
It’s debt that makes the wheels go round
There was that holiday in Greece
He had a bit of money to take the family to the beach
They were happy times
And the people that they met all seemed fine
Looking for the reason it all changed
Still looking for someone to blame
In all the wrong places
In all the wrong faces
And wondering
Is she still the same?
They’re the engine of the economy
They’re the grease in the machine
Every fiver that they borrow
Is a tenner on a banker’s screen
Forget about productivity
In a greed-based society
From the euro to the pound
It’s debt that makes the wheels go round
Steve White & The Protest Family 