Billy Bragg - Levi Stubbs' Tears Lyrics

God bless Billy Bragg tongue in cheek Truth

This song just brings about memories of broken hearts and broken/unrealized dreams. Music has to come from these depths of the soul.

My vote for top performance of all time God bless Billy Bragg love love love

https://soundcloud.com/zarkojovanovski/levisstubbstears

33 years on and it still sounds so fresh yet so melancholy.
I wonder how many of today's 'artists' would release their first take of a song?
And 33 years later, he still hasn't sold out....

Incredible....

One of these days I'm going to listen to this song without it sending a shiver down my spine or putting a lump in my throat, but today wasn't that day.

It made me cry at work

I hope that never happens to any of us.

After personally viewing it countless times, I simply don't think it's possible.

I'm a total metalhead. But I can't listen to this without being reduced to tears. Best song ever written.

'Her husband was one of those blokes
The sort that only laugh at his own jokes
The sort a war takes away
And when there wasn't a war he left anyway.'


We know these men...

A brilliant, heartfelt, moving song. Some kind of genius, this bloke.

God sent me Billy Bragg....20th century Shakespeare.....Billy is an angel sent to remind us of what we might be if we could shove our judgements up our ass.

Wish I could say something profound but there just are no words to describe how much I love this tune

That was profound enough. Same feeling I have. This performance (and song) is amazing.

This man just doesn’t get enough credit

Thank's Billy

The best Pinko ever!

Absolutely beautiful. I was speechless when I first heard it.

wow, twink rights!

These are good lyrics for a pop song. Better than bob dylan

More than a song, it's visual art and a masterpiece...

Simply Brilliant!!!

I wonder how many thousnds n have sang mobile fone

Listened to it May 11th 2019.. still one of the best songs I know

Big in japan

Gavin Mcinnis brought me here from GOML 129 :)

Likewise!

Same here

Gavin sent me

I knew within 5 seconds of the song starting that I liked him.

Delilah!

Saw him in Japan another life time ago... introduced to his music through a friend. Every Saturday I’d walk to his house and he would play new music to me. Halcyon days. My love of music has never diminished ✌🏻

Love this...

been to see billy bragg at notts when it was red wedge concert special guest was neil kinnock it had everything but the girl yazoo etc pal weller one of fab concert ive been to except u2 nd linkin park

Out of this world

Beautiful

Beautiful ànd heartbreaking.

This is amazing

Caesar's nose, Peter's jaw. To be fair, Caesar shared the same jaw, but Peter never shared the same nose. I suppose Herodotus is to blame. Caesar always courting the people, though, always turning his nose away at the emotional part, the part he sneezes at, that part, so foreign of Peter, is what I recognize in Peter, Peter's nose. I don't know what this song is about, and I don't give a flying fuck.

i lov you bill

Why is Billy Bragg not world famous , what a song.

So much feels. He's cocky but he can back it up, true poetry.

oh, that trumpet.

What can u say the tears still linger

Brilliant

Fucking amazing.

With the money from her accident
She bought herself a mobile home
So at least she could get some enjoyment
Out of being alone
No one could say that she was left up on the shelf
It's you and me against the World kid she mumbled to herself
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears run down his face
She ran away from home on her mother's best coat
She was married before she was even entitled to vote
And her husband was one of those blokes
The sort that only laughs at his own jokes
The sort a war takes away
And when there wasn't a war he left anyway
Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong
Are here to make everything right that's wrong
Holland and Holland and Lamont Dozier too
Are here to make it all okay with you
One dark night he came home from the sea
And put a hole in her body where no hole should be
It hurt her more to see him walking out the door
And though they stitched her back together they left her heart in pieces on the floor
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
She takes off the Four Tops tape and puts it back in its case
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears

Like an old painting ...years from now “experts” will speculate that Billy played those acidic chords as a statement ....I think he just thought they sounded fuking epic :)

fuckin brilliant...

I love this guy

Is a beautiful Song...I am brazilian and like.

Her husband was one of those blokes
The sort that laughes at his own jokes
The sort that war takes away
Their wasn't a war, he left anyway
F##king genius

The real King Krule's Father

The real King Krule's Father

Excellent performance of this great artist

That horn tho... Godly.

You know, when I first heard this moving song, it was that fantastic horn by Dave Woodhead that just grabs me and haunts me still, no matter how many times I have listened to this song through the years. Beautiful.

Great artist!

levis stubbs tearsn x

As a white working class guy in his sixties with little education,, this more than anything enabled me to see the the world through a women's eyes,
At its very best this is what what music can do for us.
Peace to all my sisters and brothers. Billy x

Português

The man a genius...and it makes me laugh when tories try to get with it....even though they are not wanted ...please accept a refund and f off!

I can't stand this gobby tuneless vocalist who is only popular with people who think that all art is political, boring fucks with no sense of adventure walking around with eternal rain clouds over their heads. England sure has fucked up rock and roll, took a perfectly good black American art form and replaced it with this rinky dink music hall rubbish.

DJ Waterman opinions are like arseholes mate we all have one! And you are a fucking huge opinion x

Yes I dared to criticize the great tuneless git, and snared a giddy fanboy with my honesty.

Nice way of putting it, Keith.

Tuneless? I don't really understand your point at all.

_"With money from her accident she bought herself a mobile home; so at least she could get some enjoyment out of being alone..."_

>:8o

ShadeyBladey cute. you wrote the first phrase.

Bill , do you still tour , if in the north , would love to see yer do the business , lst time was in Blackpool , "red wedge" ! ! !

Thats a while ago , but not only the music , "there is power in an union" ! ! !

At age 58 Billy Bragg still tours. Find out if he is coming to your town here.
http://www.songkick.com/artists/489208-billy-bragg

richard courchene .

Amazing bard of barking

Brilliant.

In the 80's Billy Bragg really touched me with his lyrics. I never had a chance to see him in concert but now he is coming to Toronto so I plan on seeing him. looking forward to it !

Did you go?

I think he's coming again. I missed him last time but my sister got to meet him. She said he was really down-to-earth and friendly. :)

@Krantzstone I really hope you get the chance to see him. I hope I get the chance to see him again. He puts on a captivating performance.

I 've been just reading the comments and it's incredible how many lives have been touched by this song. This man has surely made many lives a little bit better, more joyful but also gave us things to think about. Don't you ever underestimate the power of music.

Been listening since talking with the taxman about poetry was brought to my attention by the most brilliant group I have ever known at the University of Rochester in the 80's... The more I listen the more I understand I have so much more to learn... fuck my top 10 Ph.D. Billy you are the true master and I bow down to you.

P. S I think I just made a a bit of a spack of myself. No weird things have ever occurred. So, confirmation, just for the lyrics and then the horn at the end. I have to go and listen again......

Back I the '80s I had a boyfriend who had an album of Billy Bragg. This was one of the last songs. I LOVED the sound, and the lyrics of this in particular.

I loved other songs, but over the years this one got lost, apart from the trombone? French horn? Sound, and the first line of lyrics, in my mind.

Just recently , the ending, and the beginning of this song have started a bit of a rumble in my head. So, Googled Billy Bragg...and found lots of cool songs, new songs that I like and, then, delving deeper I found THE SONG that I love as much as the one about.."I saw two shooting stars last night" which had stayed in my head for, obviously decades...

This is My song, not because of anything in the song, just a forgotten song that has been the music in the background sound of my life...the end note that I cannot remember where it came from.

Sssooooooooo happy to find this.

What a joy to read your recollection. I find myself practicing your experience almost every now with this time machine called youtube.

+MrDLOC11 I know! Youtube is amazing for finding lost treasures, or undiscovering new ones :)

+MrDLOC11 discovering not undiscovering!!

one of the 100 greatest songs of all time

Why doesn't he want to change world?

+rangoononline hes just looking for another girl

If you crossed Joe Strummer with Jackson Brown you get this man.

One beat up amp, one old guitar... and one astonishingly talented artist.

One camera, one take, no cuts, no lip-synching ...one amazing video, no doubt.

Don't forget that amazing trumpet solo at the end.

Billy Bragg....... an inspiration to a generation. His songs are still relevant now over 30 yrs later. Thanjs for giving us hope back in the day Billy

+DJ Ebony well said DJ, ebony...... class tune, great lyrics , ect, ect........cheers & a happy new year......2016.....peace......

Martin Groves .

breathtakingly brilliant.

classic tune. RIP Justin Feehan. Missing you big man

hauntingly pure. great song.

Such a beautiful song.

There are good soul singers. There are great soul singers. And then there's Levi Stubbs - out there on his own, in my opinion. That wonderful, pleading, yearning voice. If you don't know his early stuff with The Tops, you really should track it down. And the 6 minute extended mix by Mosogotam on Youtube of 'Ask the Lonely' is stunning. As for Billy Bragg's song - well, it's wonderful. When Levi died, Billy wrote a moving tribute to him, in The Observer (UK) newspaper, and talked of Levi's vocals on 'Still Waters' - in which he imagined his voice as the 'Voice of God.' Well, so do I. Thank you for Billy for this mighty song.

Very beautifull put...

Jim Beam your a Gentlekmen and a Scholar...

thumbs up if your name is Levi!

As far as I'm concerned you can take all the Bob Dylan songs and shove 'em up someone's ass. I'll gladly trade them in for just this one song. This.Is.Heartbreakingly.Brilliant. One guy with a guitar and he makes me emotional every time I hear this song.

"It's you and me against the world, she mumbled to herself"...

I am 100% in agreement with the Bob Dylan comment. I saw him live twice and both times he sucked a sack of dicks.

+David Bruce Never seen Dylan confront fascists km the streets or do anything politically relevant since the 60s. Bragg is awesome full stop.

Amen, sir!

👏👏👏

Amazing song - can't believe its been 30 years.

Great song fantastic album to can remember listening to it on my walkman back in the day

Great stuff!  
I agree with Jim Beam's comments when he says how Billy gets up there with just his guitar and amp and  bunch of his own songs and performed his heart out touching many people including myself when I first went to see him in the early 80's  He was my inspiration to learn the guitar and the best part of 30  years on I find myself still listening to his music and still playing his songs on my guitar, there are very few  artists i can say have held my interest for this long!  Go Billy, your a legend and my hero!

One of the bravest people on the planet. Dude simply cannot sing and yet he gets up on front of thousands of people with only his guitar, his amp and his nerve. Might be the greatest songwriter of my lifetime.  I'm not a Brit, I don't like folk, never liked punk and not really a big guitar fan, but once I saw this video I was a fan for life.

Delivery? Is it free if he can't do it in three minutes or less?

Thanks a lot for suggesting Courtney Barnett.

+Gus Simon In an interview Billy himself said he couldn't sing very well and originally he wrote songs for others to sing. He couldn't find anyone who wanted to record his music so he sang them himself and hoped for the best. I'm glad he did. They just wouldn't sound the same without the sincerity Billy puts into them because the vast majority of his songs draw on lived experience.

Like your honesty mate.

One of the few British singers who performs with his real accent, I think you mean.

saddest. song. ever. astonishing

Your moniker is so subtle and graceful. Much props. :-)
sorry, I laughed my ass off when I saw it.

Totally agree about the song. The sparsness of this song is gorgeous. That horn is just so good too.

mrwibbles1 . You took the words right out of my mouth mate.

One of the greatest pieces of song wiriting ever made in the history of music. Beyond belief .

Gordon Scarlett must've been an accident waiting to happen.

Up there with The best Kinks songs or even Eleanor Rigby.

Sean Stewart such a simple and direct video... one long continuous shot... I saw him first in ‘87... this always takes me back!

beautiful gentle songwriting

Without a doubt.

Heard this on the radio on way home from work today and had to youtube it. Can't believe it's been 28 years since I first heard this song and still love it. I also love how he can make a single guitar sound like there's multiple guitars playing when it's just him. It confounds me how he does it.  Billy Bragg is phenomenal.

buzzcity01 how does this sound like multiple guitars? It’s just chords

Won't talk about it!

Billy would never have been so popular without his dashing good looks.

still amazing <3

with the money from her accident she bought herself a mobile HOME. can you imagine how little her settlement would have been if all she could afford was a mobile PHONE?

In 1983, the Motorola DynaTAC was priced at $4000. That's close to $10,000 in today's dollars.

@Ron Inbar then that's a really great deal 

Excellent! BTW if any guitar players would put up a lesson of this song would be super-appreciated :)

Billy bragg's music is wonderful

incredible guitar work
incredible lyrics

My hat is off

Amazing singer/guitarist. I love his style. His guitar style attracts rock fans!

the trumpet is what truly makes this song great

nobody plays trumpet in songs anymore...

i never knew how awesome the trumpet was until I heard it on the braggsters songs. Same with the cello on The only one. amazing

Gives the song a haunting, melancholic echo.

Dave Woodhead is the trumpet player. What he does here is so perfect, the way we come out of one brilliant instrumentalist in Billy Bragg to the gorgeous naked trumpet of Mr. Woodhead. You could not finish this moving song in a better way.

when he looks at the camera on the line "takes off the four tops case and puts it back in it's case" - that's fucking high drama! legend. bless him.

what a song!!!! A really big,smooth and naked song of the eighties!

beyond solid, gutsy soul sound of Billy Bragg & the souls of his influences flying around him.... yeah !!!!!