This is one of those songs where, no matter how hard I try, I can never come up with the words to do it justice. Maybe because it is the saddest song I’ve ever heard
mp3: Billy Bragg – Levi Stubbs’ Tears
From Talking With The Taxman About Poetry, the one that Billy called ‘The Difficult Third Album’ on the front of the sleeve. The only difficulty I have with it is trying to accept that it was released 35 years ago.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Never grow tired of this song.
35 yrs, surely some mistake, seems like only…. Oh 😦
This is peerless though, isn’t it?
It is indeed a work of genius – I can’t believe it’s 35 years…..
This is a masterpiece in any bitrate, only rivalled for emotional punch in Billy’s career by Tank Park Salute. For a pretty persuasive analysis of its power, that venerable critic Greil Marcus has a great piece about this song on his website.
B side Walk away Renee is one of my most played Billy songs, sadly my copy has a slightly offset hole which makes the ending sound wonky
“Put a hole in her body, where no hole should be.”
One of my favourite Billy tracks.
And I agree about the b-side @Lee. It’s the only reason I bought “Reaching to the Converted” cd.