Hard Times of Old England Retold by The Imagined Village

The Imagined Village are touring in 2010! Catch them live at Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, 18 January 2010.

Oh I wish I could catch up with them on tour. I live in Canada so sadly, I will miss out on this spectacular event. This saddens me, we have all sorts of bullshit emo nonsense music where I am from. More image, less talent. Sadness ensues, I hope you enjoy yourself at the concert, have fun ! :)

You know what, live in the US with all the crap we have to listen to on the radio and this song is wonderful by comparison, dreary or not.

This is dreary! It totally misses the point, which is things are crap but we'll dance anyway. Billy Bragg sings like a drain. The only decent bit is the bit at the end.

I fully agree with Slightly Susan. Every time a musician changes a tune, loses a lyric, adds a lyric or changes a lyric to hid the panic at having forgotten one of the words then they become part of the folk tradition. Thats why we find so many, equaly valid, versions of the same song in Cecil Sharp House, and other places. I love it!

If i had the choice between seeing steel eye span and the imaginary village (again) it wud be the imaginary village!gr8 version, gr8 band. Good song that was brought to life by the imaginary village who are amazing!
I saw them in Cambridge, met some of them in the mojo tent, very nice people.

something else amazing about the year was the levellers. For their last song out came Billy Bragg and they played 'police on my back' originally done by the clash!
What an amazing mixture that was!

You would probably like the American group, Old School Freight Train, which does a ballad-paced version of Blondie's "Heart of Glass." Not that I think all rock songs need to be done as folk songs but I like what a musician can do with old material.

You might also like THe Red Stick Ramblers out of New Orleans who play Cajun, Blues and Roots Rock.

Martin Cathy doesn't obviously  agree with you

I think that every time an artist brings something new to a song, the rendition should be welcomed as a gift. Here, The Imagined Village is giving new life to an old song. We need the song now! Highly relevant!

Check out Chumbawumba's new version - superb.