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Friday Listening Post: Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

Hey - this is the first celebratory “friday listening” post. Every friday I’m going to post a link to music that pumps me up, inspires me, or just works for a Friday, along with a blurb about the artist and how that particular song resonates with the 2.0 tech scene and the modern world we live in. Enjoy! Comments and suggestions always appreciated.

If you have your own Friday Listening to share, tag it “fridaylistening” and I’ll look forward to picking it up in Technorati!

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Billy Bragg is a legend among protest punk and alt-folk-rockers, having written and performed politically charged, soulful, resonant tunes since the seventies (solo since ~1983). More accessible than “punk,” Bragg’s fusion adds melody and harmony to make simple compositions into anthems for everyone - not just punk fans.

One of my favorites is “Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards” [iTunes Link] - a song from “Workers Playtime” (1984) that maintains relevance 23 years later.

Edit: It starts of mellow and introspective, and by the end is a shout out loud, footstomping, rabble-rousing, rock&roll anthem. If there’s anywhere legal that I can use to post a link to the full song, by all means let me know….

If no one seems to understand
Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman

So join the struggle while you may
The Revolution is just a T-shirt away
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

“Cutting out the middleman” and starting your own revolution is something that the web2.0 crowd strives towards every day, and with armies of Che-sporting ironic tee-shirts coloring the urban landscape, his last verse is near-prophetic.

So anyway - if you’re looking for great way to psych yourself up for the weekend, inspire your next bout of revolutionary functionality building, or just chill out the last part of the workday, fire up some Billy Bragg.

billy bragg, bragg, fridaylistening techfold

2 Responses to “Friday Listening Post: Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards”

Friday Listening Post: The killer mashups of Luke Enlow, downloadable MP3’s « TechFold | April 27th, 2007 at 2:53 pm

[…] and time for another Friday Listening post. The first was here (Billy Bragg) - basically, the spirit of this series of posts is that Friday is time to chill and check out some […]
Friday Listening Post: High Energy Sampler « TechFold | May 11th, 2007 at 3:08 pm

[…] I noted in my inaugural Friday Listening Post: Every friday I’m going to post a link to music that pumps me up, inspires me, or just works for […]