Songs You Need To Hear: Billy Bragg, “Never Buy The Sun”

British folk singer Billy Bragg has penned a new song, available for free download, called “Never Buy The Sun.”

One of Bragg’s best songs in years, it comes in the wake of the Rupert Murdoch newspaper scandal, in which employees from News International are accused of engaging in phone hacking, police bribery, and more. Paul McCartney is the latest to complain of having his phone hacked.

“‘Look, all we’re doing is giving the people what they want’ – Well they’re crying out for justice, people crying out for justice,” sings the Bard from Barking.

Bragg came up with the song in a flash after listening to the news on the radio, and he knew he wanted to get it out there as quickly as possible. “During the Miner’s Strike in 1984,” he explains on his site, “I wrote a song about the struggle called ‘Between the Wars’. By the time I got into the studio to record the song, the strike was eight months old and, when the record finally got into the shops in February, the strike was over.”

Watch a video of Bragg performing the song solo below, and download the full-band version here.