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"Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers."

Billy Bragg, British Musician

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"Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers."

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"The problem is we moved to LA... The only way to be punk rock in L.A. is to be a Republican."

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"I was in a little punk band and we put out a few punk records that weren't very political, at all."

Billy Bragg, British Musician

"Were it not for the Clash, punk would have been just a sneer, a safety pin and a pair of bondage trousers."

Billy Bragg, British Musician

Explore more quotes by Billy Bragg

"It's not a very popular subject amongst my audience, who are by nature more internationalist, but I don't choose what to write about, I don't choose my subjects, they kind of choose me."

"I'm trying to make a case for those people who don't have a sense of belonging that they should have, that there is something really worthwhile in having a sense of belonging, and recasting and looking at our modern history."

"I came into this whole business by going to see Rock Against Racism gigs with the Clash."

"I'm still batting away on my politics for the Labour Party. I'm much further to the left of them than I used to be, but that's because they've moved, not me."

"That taught me one lesson which is that you're naive to believe that bands can change the world. Bands are very naive to think that just if their audience thinks that they can change the world, that they can. That was quite a lesson for my career, really."

"Most of the people that I went to school with - I went to secondary school - we were educated to go and work in the line at Ford's, and if we were lucky, technical skilled labor. I sort of rejected that, and thought I wanted to do something else."

"Being spokesman for a generation is the worst job I ever had."

"My upbringing was very straightforward suburban working class upbringing."

"But, in the end, even a song that's as politically bland as Blowin in the Wind, you probably wouldn't get up and sing that now, whereas some of Bob Dylan's love songs that were contemporary with that, like say Girl from the North Country, you can still get up an play now."

"All musicians start out with ideals but hanging on to them in the face of media scrutiny takes real integrity. Tougher still is to live up to the ideals of your dedicated fans."

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