Billy Bragg - Why We Build The Wall Lyrics

I thought philosophytube made this song lol

Legend.

Is it strange this song reminds me of the building of the iron curtain/Berlin wall?

Judge not.....

Do any of you happen to have a match?

I'm so confused- isn't this song by Anaïs Mitchell???

Its is, this is like a cover or his own version

Erm... so our system that relies on welfare does not collapse? 😂

Didactics

Clever Pink Floyd imagery here in this lyric video

the only wall we need to build is between the church and the state.

Wow. Great song! This is turning out to be one of Bill's bet albums ever.

He didn't write this, it's from Hadestown.

Trump 👍❤. Biiitches!

This was written years before he was even in office

The enemy is not poverty, The enemy is nomadism

everyone should listen to the anais Mitchell version! she actually wrote the song

Didn't expect Hadestown and Billy Bragg to be connected in anyway, but I'm not complaining

we build a wall not because we hate the ones on the outside. it's because we love the ones on the inside. pc, Lefty madness confusing reality with idealism spouted by the likes of Billy bragg has got us in our current mess.

someone missed the point

Preach, brother.

A voice of sanity in a world of lies doublespeak and blame directed at the poor.

We build the wall because Trump told us to

Bigger countries using capitalism to rape smaller countries leaving them in poverty and no work to feed themselves on pay of pennies. Drug lord and violence move in to fill the void....they flee to be free...and others want to build walls to keep them out...it's not right.

Its interesting to compare this to the Anais Mitchell version. In that one the speaker is a demon, encouraging the crowd to recite their rhetoric.
In this one he sounds genuinely distraught about what the “children” are doing. Like Bragg himself watching a new generation make the same mistakes. Idk maybe its just me

Wow, I really like that reading.

Well, it's kinda true, we are repeating the same mistakes over and over again

We don't build walls
That is they
Who build walls
We
Should only apply
To building
Bridges ....

Would love to see you, Billy, play Hades when Hadestown comes to the UK. You would be so good in the role. Just a thought. Great song.

Y'all gotta listen to Hadestown or at least the version of this in it I stg

This just in foreign powers are supplying our enemy with ladders
Love your voice Billy plz never stop singing

Such a good question - no one answers of course

A wall is a structure that defines an area, carries a load, or provides shelter or security.

I like this. I like the version by Anais Mitchell better

Just discovered you three days ago when a five second snippet of "Help Save the Youth of America" ran on TV. I remembered just one line from that song, but i finally found you through this few words.

Amazing person and music! I'm runnig it up and down now half the day.

Greetings from Germany, comrades.

Welcome to Billy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjN-friCI2U

Great song, Billy

Just as good as it was live. Been waiting for a proper recording like this.

I wanna go over the wall. I wanna go under the wall. Please don't be waiting for me.

We build the wall to keep us safe from the titans

Ahahahaha

1st comment to recommend fighting capitalism by joining Industrial Workers of the World. Bragg rules.

Capitalism has a basic theme, one my parents and grandparents taught me. 'You don't work, you don't eat' it isn't until a bunch of people who don't want to work start shedding tears for compassion for their plight. Even when help comes, it doesn't change their attitude and they still expect without work.

We give BILLIONS to other nations to 'help' and they still haven't done anything to improve the lives of their people. That isn't America's fault, what IS America's fault is continuing to dish out 'aid' to nations that just take. Capitalism is a failure? Corporations sell their products overseas at prices cheaper than the cost to make the product. Those costs are added to Americans, so it isn't like the greedy corporations are stealing..

Capitalism also allows YOU the individual to take a cool idea you have and allows you to make, finance (a poor person today can post a video on 'go fund me, kickstarter, etc. to fund anything), and market your cool idea. If it is cool enough , you are free to set a price that others are willing to pay to get it. That is why the United States has so many advancements. Other nations strangle innovation (why make something the state is going to take away with no regard to the expense and labor you went through to create your cool idea) this is why most other nations have to wait for the U.S. to create something before they can do anything.

Cavalry Trooper wow, youre in a cult

@Cavalry Trooper _sniff_ Pure _sniff sniff_ ideology

Reece You are just vomiting the stuff they have indoctrinated you with.

@Cavalry Trooper maybe in 1830 but not under monopoly Imperialist capitalism. Foreign aid from America is just a tool used to keep other nations dependent which is whi socialist countries reject US aid, also putting a wrench through your idea that it's just communists leaching off of the hard work of Americans, it is only other capitalist countries that accept it.

Also companies only sell where they can make a profit, this is self evident, think for yourself logically for just 30 seconds Jesus.

Great song, but surely Anais Mitchell should be credited here as the writer?

I ended up here in the first place thanks to an Anais Mitchell post singing its praises :)

I've just seen a Facebook page where Billy acknowledges Anais' authorship. I'm sure this Youtube info is just an oversight. I hope it's corrected. By the way, if you don't know it, there's another great 'wall' song by Tom Russell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZkAoosVLkA

As much as I appreciate the extra attention Billy Bragg's version will bring to this excellent song AND Anais Mitchell's remarkable theater piece, I have to say I prefer the Greg Brown version from 2010. Chilling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sQ8R54C53o

Oh, and as a "point of reference", here's her clean and basic presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TUfxx2JrqY

I have been listening to Billy Bragg since some time in the early 80's (I have a signed copy of Spy vs Spy on vinyl from the Red Wedge tour when I got to share a bag of chips with him), and I swear he sounds even better now than he did then. A true artist.

billy is more important now than ever

No one else like him either. !

good, very good.






best song!!!!!!!