Solid Blue Vinyl LP, Gatefold Sleeve

This solid blue pressing is part of the limited colored run that accompanies Cooking Vinyl's 2026 vinyl reissue of Talking With The Taxman About Poetry, presented in a gatefold sleeve. The audio is a new remaster by John Webber at Air Studios, made from high-resolution transfers of master tapes that Bragg kept in his own archive. The single LP holds the original twelve-song running order.

Bragg's third album was first issued on September 22, 1986, by Go! Discs in the UK and Elektra in the US. It was recorded between March and July of that year at Livingston Studios in Wood Green, London, with John Porter and Kenny Jones producing. The original sleeve carried the subtitle "The Difficult Third Album," and the title is shared with a Vladimir Mayakovsky poem that was reprinted in the liner notes.

The arrangements reach well beyond Bragg's voice and guitar. Johnny Marr plays electric guitar and Kirsty MacColl sings on "Greetings To The New Brunette" and "The Passion." Porter adds bass, slide guitar and mandolin, Bobby Valentino plays violin on "Train Train" and "Wishing The Days Away," Dave Woodhead brings trumpet and flugelhorn, and Ken Craddock plays piano and organ. Cooking Vinyl's notes describe "Levi Stubbs' Tears" as the story of a victim of domestic abuse who takes comfort in the music of the Four Tops.

The album reached No. 8 on the UK Albums Chart, Bragg's first top ten album, and No. 5 in New Zealand, and was certified Silver by the BPI. "Levi Stubbs' Tears" reached No. 29 in the UK and "Greetings To The New Brunette" No. 6 in New Zealand. Trouser Press's Ira Robbins called it "a great leap forward, the deft application of understated instrumental accompaniment on some of Bragg's best-ever songs," and it is included in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Tracklist

1. Greetings To The New Brunette
2. Train Train
3. The Marriage
4. Ideology
5. Levi Stubbs' Tears
6. Honey, I'm A Big Boy Now
7. There Is Power In A Union
8. Help Save The Youth Of America
9. Wishing The Days Away
10. The Passion
11. The Warmest Room
12. The Home Front

Complete the Collection (4)

• Brewing Up With Billy Bragg
• The Million Things That Never Happened
• Workers Playtime
• Talking With The Taxman About Poetry (this release)

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Last updated: 2/6/26

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Last updated: 2/6/26