Billy Bragg - Best Of Billy Bragg At The BBC 1983-2019 [2CD Set] (2019) [CD Rip]

"Work in progress. That's how John Peel thought of his evening sessions, offering artists the opportunity to try out new songs in the studio environment. That's how I looked at them too. The confirmation of a Peel session date was a signal to get my ideas together, to define material that had hitherto been little more than words scribbled on a page or a tune thrashed out during a sound check.

That's why some of the tracks here have a different phrasing and arrangement to that which appeared on record. The songs were so new, you can hear I'm still feeling my way into them. Several were conceived and written the night before the session. In one case, I actually composed a song from scratch while the show was on air.

That rawness was always a key component of my BBC sessions, the thrill of putting something out there for the very first time. And hereI've collected all the best moments across 36 years of my ongoing work in progress." Billy Bragg