music.wikisort.org - Composition

Don't Try This at Home is the sixth full-length album by urban folk artist Billy Bragg.

Don't Try This at Home
Studio album by Billy Bragg
Released	17 September 1991 (1991-09-17)
Studio	Pavillion Studios, London W10; Cathouse Studios, Streatham; Sonet Studio, London; Clear, Manchester; John Keane Studios; Jester House, Athens, Georgia
Genre	Alternative rock, folk rock, folk punk
Length	56:37
Label	Elektra, Go! Discs (UK), Cooking Vinyl (UK)
Producer	Grant Showbiz
Billy Bragg chronology
The Peel Sessions Album (1991) Don't Try This at Home (1991) William Bloke (1996)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Chicago Tribune	[2]
Encyclopedia of Popular Music	[3]
Entertainment Weekly	A−[4]
NME	9/10[5]
The Philadelphia Inquirer	[6]
Q	[7]
Rolling Stone	[8]
The Rolling Stone Album Guide	[9]
Select	5/5[10]

"Sexuality" was released as a single which reached #27 on the UK charts and #2 on the U.S. Modern Rock charts. Johnny Marr of The Smiths co-wrote "Sexuality" and helped to produce two tracks.

The song "Cindy of a Thousand Lives" is about photographer Cindy Sherman.

"Tank Park Salute" is about his father, Dennis Bragg, who died of lung cancer when Bragg was 18. He said that for a show in Barking, where he grew up, he was so moved by the presence of his mother and brother in the audience that he kept a copy of the lyrics in case he forgot them while performing.[11]

R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe and Peter Buck contribute to "You Woke Up My Neighbourhood." The song was named after a drawing by Woody Guthrie, whose unpublished lyrics were set to music by Bragg and Wilco on the Mermaid Avenue albums a few years later.[12]

"Dolphins" is a cover of the Fred Neil song.

The song "God's Footballer" is about former professional football player Peter Knowles who spent his career at Wolverhampton Wanderers before voluntarily ending his football career to become a Jehovah's Witness.[13]

Track listing

All tracks written by Billy Bragg except where noted.

1. "Accident Waiting to Happen" – 4:01
2. "Moving the Goalposts" – 2:34
3. "Everywhere" (Greg Trooper, Sid Griffin) – 5:01
4. "Cindy of a Thousand Lives" – 4:15
5. "You Woke Up My Neighbourhood" (Bragg, Peter Buck) – 3:11
6. "Trust" – 4:13
7. "God's Footballer" – 3:04
8. "The Few" – 3:27
9. "Sexuality" (Bragg, Johnny Marr) – 3:49
10. "Mother of the Bride" – 3:36
11. "Tank Park Salute" – 3:30
12. "Dolphins" (Fred Neil) – 4:20
13. "North Sea Bubble" – 3:19
14. "Rumours of War" – 2:50
15. "Wish You Were Her" – 2:46
16. "Body of Water" (Bragg, Philip Wigg aka "Wiggy") – 3:58

Bonus disc track listing

Along with a remastered album, a second bonus disc was released by Yep Roc Records (in the U.S.) and Cooking Vinyl (in the U.K.) in 2006. The new tracks include demos of songs on the album, as well as several other songs, including a cover of The Beatles' "Revolution". Natalie Merchant sings on two tracks.

1. "Party of God" (Lead vocals by Natalie Merchant) – 4:15
2. "North Sea Bubble" (demo) – 3:30
3. "Sexuality" (demo) – 3:54
4. "Just One Victory" (Todd Rundgren) – 5:31
5. "Everywhere" – 4:42
6. "Trust (demo)" – 5:43
7. "Bread & Circuses" (Natalie Merchant) – 4:28
8. "Cindy of a Thousand Lives (demo)" – 3:38
9. "The Few (demo)" – 3:50
10. "Revolution" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 1:51
11. "Tighten up your Wig" (with The Athenians and DJ Woody Dee) – 3:18
12. "MBH" – 2:07
13. "This Gulf Between Us" – 2:46
14. "Picadilly Rambler" – 1:49

Personnel

• Grant Showbiz – production
• Johnny Marr – production
• Danny Thompson - double bass
• Peter Buck – mandolin
• Jody Linscott – percussion
• John Keane – pedal steel guitar, bass
• Billy Bragg – vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, keyboards
• Mary Ramsey – violin, viola
• Dave Woodhead – flugelhorn
• Steven Lewis - backing vocals
• J. F. T. Hood – drums, percussion
• Kirsty MacColl -- backing vocals
• Cara Tivey – piano, background vocals on "Dolphins"
• James Eller – bass
• Wiggy – electric guitar, bass
• Julia Palmer – cello
• Amanda Vincent – keyboards
• Andy Hobson - bass
• Caroline Hall – trombone
• Elliet Mackrell – violin
• Lorraine Bowen – clarinet, background vocals on "Accident Waiting to Happen", "Trust", "God's Footballer", "Wish You Were Her"
• Victoria Taylor Roberts – background vocals
• Michael Stipe – background vocals on "You Woke Up My Neighbourhood"
• Andy Szabo – background vocals on "Wish You Were Her"

Technical

• John Keane, Owen Morris, Victor Van Vugt - engineer

References

---