Number 5 in this series (but number 1 in my heart)

Billy Bragg – Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards (1988)

The yellow of the cassette’s cover made it stand out on top of the pile. I picked it up to have a look. “Billy Bragg. Yeah, I’ve heard of that bloke. Worker’s Playtime. Any good?” It was Brisbane, 1990, and I was finally beginning to broaden my musical tastes away from the standard MMM Oz rock fare. JJJ was still a few months from starting and I had never really connected with ZZZ, so the street press and the recommendations of friends drove my musical explorations. The aforementioned pile of cassettes was in the home of a girl I worked with and had a crush on. As she was deeply smitten with someone else the love remained unrequited but she did lend me that tape. I remember it was a Friday night and as I got on the train for the trip back to Ipswich I popped it in my Walkman and pressed play. For a lovelorn young fella being given a tape that contains songs such as She’s Got A New Spell and Must I Paint You A Picture by a girl on whom you have a crush, well, it can lead to some moments of fantasy. “Maybe she does have feelings for me after all and this is her way of showing it.” I was driven to writing some bad poetry there and then. I still have it somewhere.

Somewhere towards the end of the train trip, and the end of the tape, an electric guitar starts up, that unmistakable Bragg sound, and is soon joined by piano. Billy’s lyrics are almost spoken as he starts discussing life, love and politics (again). Eventually a beat is added when someone starts tapping a drumstick on the edge of a snare. The playing steadily builds in volume and then what had seemed to be an introspective manifesto becomes a joyous celebration of the possibilities of life. The band, the backing singers, Billy shouting at us “that in a perfect world we’d all sing in tune but this is reality so give me some room!” I must have listened to Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards three or four times in a row before I got off the train that night and hundreds of times since. It never fails to make me smile. That girl never did fall in love with me but she is one of my best friends 20 years later and I wouldn't change that for the world. And she gave me Billy. “Baby I’m struttin’!”