Watch Billy Bragg cover Taylor Swift's 'Only The Young'

Billy Bragg has shared his charity cover of Taylor Swift‘s ‘Only The Young’ — watch him perform the track below.

Bragg announced last week that he intended to cover a Swift song as part of the ‘Covers For Others’ fundraising series, which is raising money for the Royal College of Nursing Foundation’s COVID-19 Support Fund.

Uploading his take on the Miss Americana-accompanying track online yesterday (May 31), Bragg revealed that he chose to cover Swift after a closely contested fan vote saw ‘Only The Young’ narrowly seeing off competition from Jackson Browne‘s ‘Before the Deluge’.

“When I sat down to learn how to play the song, it came out as a mash-up between ‘Only the Young’ and ‘Levi Stubbs’ Tears’,” Bragg explained in a description that accompanied the YouTube upload of his cover, referencing his own 1986 single.

“The same day, Taylor posted a powerful statement on Twitter calling out the white supremacy and racism inherent in Donald Trump’s condemnation of rioters protesting the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, so I tagged that onto the end of the song too.”

Bragg confirmed that the fan vote for his ‘Covers For Others’ contribution raised £1707 for the RCN Foundation’s COVID-19 Support Fund, which is providing wellbeing support to healthcare workers during the coronavirus outbreak.







Bragg recently acclaimed Swift as “a kindred spirit”, with the two having struck up a friendship after meeting at the NME Awards 2020.

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