(C) BoingBoing
This story was originally published by BoingBoing and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



Billy Bragg writes "Rich Men Earning North of a Million" as an antidote to Oliver Anthony's "Rich Men North of Richmond" [1]

['Jennifer Sandlin']

Date: 2023-08-21

You might have seen the video that's been circulating in the last week or two of musician Oliver Anthony singing "Rich Men North of Richmond"—which Radio WV is calling the "Blue Collar Song of the Year." It's an earnest, haunting song that sounds like it's in the tradition of working-class songwriters like Woody Guthrie. It starts off that way, anyway, but, this promising working-class anthem unfortunately by the second verse turns into a fat-shaming screed against poor people.

Thankfully, Billy Bragg is here to help this poor misguided soul who came close to a helpful message of solidarity but lost his way. Today, Bragg posted a new song in response to "Rich Men North of Richmond" and it is, of course, the remedy we needed. Bragg introduced the song, "Rich Men Earning North of a Million" on his Facebook page:

I guess it's been a week since I first saw a clip of Oliver Anthony singing his song about "Rich Men North of Richmond." It's caused a few waves since then and every time I read about it, I hear the ghost of Woody Guthrie whispering in my ear, telling me to help the guy out. "You and me both know there's an obvious answer to those problems he's singing about" Woody keeps saying, so today I sat down and wrote this response to Oliver Anthony's song.

He adds on his YouTube that this song is "for people like him and people like you." Here are some of Bragg's lyrics:

If you're selling your soul, working all day, overtime hours for bullshit pay Well, nothing's gonna change if all you do is wish you could wake up and it not be true Join a union, fight for better pay You better join a union, brother Organize today You'll see where the problem really lies when the union comes around Rich men earning north of a million wanna keep the working folk down Wanna keep the working folk down If you form a union you'll soon find that working people are all of one kind So we ain't gonna punch down on those who need a bit of understanding and some solidarity That ain't right, friend If you're struggling with your health and you're putting on the pounds Doctor gives you opiates to help you get around Well, wouldn't it be better for folks like you and me if medicine was subsidized and healthcare was free Join a union, fight for better pay Come on a join a union, sister Organize today

For an actual working-class anthem, you can go ahead and skip Oliver Anthony's song and go straight to Billy Bragg's, in my opinion. Listen to the rest of the song here. Enjoy!

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2023/08/21/billy-bragg-writes-rich-men-earning-north-of-a-million-as-an-antidote-to-oliver-anthonys-rich-men-north-of-richmond.html

Published and (C) by BoingBoing
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/boingboing/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.