''Workers Playtime'' is a 1988

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Billy Bragg Stephen William Bragg (born 20 December 1957) is an English singer-songwriter and left-wing activist. His music blends elements of folk music, punk rock and protest songs, with lyrics that mostly span political or romantic themes. His music is ...

. Originally released on the

Go! Discs Go! Discs was a London-based record label, launched in 1983 from offices in Wendell Road, Shepherd's Bush, by Andy Macdonald and Lesley Symons. The pair founded the label after Macdonald left his job as press officer at Stiff Records, and Sym ...

label, it is his fourth release but third full-length album. It was

reissue In the music industry, a reissue (also re-release, repackage or re-edition) is the release of an album or Single (music), single which has been released at least once before, sometimes with alterations or additions. Reasons for reissue New aud ...

d on

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

in September 1996 on the

Cooking Vinyl Cooking Vinyl is a British independent record label, based in Acton, London, England, founded in 1986 by former manager and booking agent Martin Goldschmidt and business partner Pete Lawrence. Goldschmidt remains the current owner and chairman ...

label before being

remaster Remaster refers to changing the quality of the sound or of the image, or both, of previously created recordings, either audiophonic, cinematic, or videographic. The terms digital remastering and digitally remastered are also used. Mastering A ...

ed, expanded and reissued in 2006 on Cooking Vinyl in the UK and on the

Yep Roc Yep Roc Records is an American independent record label based in Hillsborough, North Carolina, and owned by Redeye Distribution. Since 1997, the label has released albums from North Carolina and international artists, including Nick Lowe, Paul W ...

label in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. The album reached number 18 in the

UK albums chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

. It was voted number 499 in the third edition of

Colin Larkin Colin Larkin (born 1949) is a British writer and entrepreneur. He founded, and was the editor-in-chief of, the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music'', described by ''The Times'' as "the standard against which all others must be judged". Along wit ...

's ''

All Time Top 1000 Albums ''All Time Top 1000 Albums'' is a book by Colin Larkin, creator and editor of the ''Encyclopedia of Popular Music''. The book was first published by Guinness Publishing in 1994. The list presented is the result of over 200,000 votes cast by the ...

'' (2000). The original album cover has the subtitle "Capitalism Is Killing Music", referring to the

British Phonographic Industry British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with th ...

's then-current campaign that "

Home Taping Is Killing Music "Home Taping Is Killing Music" was the slogan of a 1980s anti-copyright infringement propaganda campaign by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), a British music industry trade group. With the rise in cassette recorder popularity, the BPI fea ...

". The album originally had a region- and format-specific price printed on the artwork, signifying the maximum price the album should be sold for (as "Pay no more than"), similar to Bragg's previous albums. For example, in the UK, no more than £4.99 should have been paid for the LP or cassette and £7.99 for the compact disc. Other prices included $15.99 for the LP or cassette in the US and AUD$23.99 for the Compact Disc in Australia. This particular aspect of the album was referenced in the TV series ''

John Safran's Music Jamboree ''John Safran's Music Jamboree'' (or just ''Music Jamboree'') was a light-hearted Australian music documentary television series, hosted by John Safran for SBS television. The program was produced by Richard Lowenstein, Selin Yaman and Ghost P ...

''. The prices were removed on subsequent re-releases.

Track listing

All tracks written by Billy Bragg except where noted. Disc one #"She's Got a New Spell" – 3:26 #"Must I Paint You a Picture?" (Extended Version 7:08 Minutes) – 5:32 #"Tender Comrade" – 2:50 #"The Price I Pay" – 3:34 #"Little Time Bomb" – 2:17 #"Rotting on Remand" – 3:37 #"Valentine's Day is Over" – 4:53 #"Life With the Lions" – 3:06 #"The Only One" – 3:26 #"The Short Answer" – 4:59 #" Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards" – 4:35 Disc two (2006 reissue) #"The Only One" (demo version) – 3:36 #"The Price I Pay" (demo version) – 4:01 #"Love Has No Pride" (

Eric Kaz Eric Justin Kaz (born January 21, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter born in Brooklyn, New York. Besides his solo work, Kaz was a member of Blues Magoos for their fourth and fifth albums, ''Never Goin' Back to Georgia'' and ''Gulf Coast Bound ...

, Libby Titus) – 3:35 #" That's Entertainment" (

Paul Weller Paul John Weller (born John William Weller; 25 May 1958) is an English singer-songwriter and musician. Weller achieved fame with the punk rock/ new wave/mod revival band the Jam (1972–1982). He had further success with the blue-eyed soul m ...

) – 3:53 #"She's Got a New Spell" (demo version) – 2:44 #"The Short Answer" (demo version) – 5:21 #"Little Time Bomb" (demo version) – 2:21 #"Bad Penny" (demo version) – 3:05 #"

Reason to Believe "Reason to Believe" is a song written, composed, and first recorded by American folk singer Tim Hardin in 1965. It has since been recorded by artists including Bobby Darin in 1966, Karen Dalton also in 1966, Glen Campbell in 1968, the Nitty Gritty ...

" (live) (

Tim Hardin James Timothy Hardin (December 23, 1941 – December 29, 1980) was an American folk and blues musician and composer. As well as releasing his own material, several of his songs, including " If I Were a Carpenter" and "Reason to Believe", becam ...

) – 2:12 #"Must I Paint You a Picture?" (extended version) – 7:13 #" Raglan Road" (live) (

Patrick Kavanagh Patrick Kavanagh (21 October 1904 – 30 November 1967) was an Irish poet and novelist. His best-known works include the novel '' Tarry Flynn'', and the poems "On Raglan Road" and "The Great Hunger". He is known for his accounts of Irish life t ...

, traditional) – 3:46

Personnel

Musicians

*Billy Bragg –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

, acoustic

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar (however combinations of the two - a semi-acoustic guitar and an electric acoustic gui ...

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three Edge (geometry), edges and three Vertex (geometry), vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, an ...

Danny Thompson Daniel Henry Edward Thompson (born 4 April 1939) is an English multi-instrumentalist best known as a double bassist. He has had a long musical career playing with a large variety of other musicians, particularly Richard Thompson and John Mart ...

–

double bass The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or #Terminology, by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched Bow (music), bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox addit ...

Cara Tivey Cara Tivey is an English pianist/keyboardist and vocalist who has mainly worked as a side musician. She is best known for her collaborations with Billy Bragg. Tivey is also the cousin of Stephen and Nick Duffy of The Lilac Time. Biography Ca ...

–

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

, vocals, Hammond C-3 organ *

Micky Waller Michael Waller (6 September 1941 – 29 April 2008) was an English drummer, who played with many of the biggest names on the UK rock and blues scene, after he became a professional musician in 1960. In addition to being a member, albeit sometim ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

*Wiggy – electric guitar, acoustic guitar,

12 string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in o ...

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos tha ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

*Tony Maronie –

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Bruce Thomas Bruce Thomas (born 14 August 1948 in Stockton-on-Tees, England) is an English rock bass guitarist, best known as bassist for the Attractions; the band formed in 1977 to back Elvis Costello in concert and on record. In addition to his work ...

–

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

*Dave Woodhead –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

flugelhorn The flugelhorn (), also spelled fluegelhorn, flugel horn, or flügelhorn, is a brass instrument that resembles the trumpet and cornet but has a wider, more conical bore. Like trumpets and cornets, most flugelhorns are pitched in B, though some ...

*B. J. Cole – pedal steel guitar *Martin Belmont – electric guitar *Barb Jungr – harmonica *Julia Palmer – cello *Camilla Brunt – violin *Kenny Jones – 6 and 12 string acoustic guitar *Theresa Pamplin – viola *Donna Welchman – violin *Phill Jupitus, Porky – backing vocals *Jayne Creamer – backing vocals *Kaya Jenner – backing vocals *Michelle Shocked – backing vocals

Production

*Joe Boyd – Record producer, producer *Wiggy – producer *Martin Hayles – Audio engineering, engineer *Graham Dear – assistant engineer *Lawrence Watson – photography *Liu Chich-Kuei – Cover art, artwork *Thumbnail – Graphic design, design

References

Information from the Official Billy Bragg website discography and the 2006 reissue CD liner notes"Workers Playtime", Billy Bragg, Yep records YEP2606 (2006) CD unless otherwise noted. {{Authority control Billy Bragg albums 1988 albums Albums produced by Joe Boyd Go! Discs albums Cooking Vinyl albums