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Dopo aver scosso le già instabili fondamenta del rock settantasettino con l'irripetibile "(I'm) Stranded", i Saints di Brisbane, sedotti dal richiamo, lasciarono la natìa terra dei canguri per raggiungere la mecca del punk, nonchè vero e proprio ombelico del mondo durante l'anno-zero 1977. L'impatto che ebbe la Londra del no future, così lontana - fisicamente e non - dalle selvaggie e desolate lande australiane, con questi rozzi ed ingenui teppisti venuti d'oltreoceano fu traumatico. La nuova etichetta discografica cercò infatti di (s)venderli sfruttando commercialmente quello stereotipo, fatto di creste e spille da balia, creato dagli Heartbreakers di Johnny Thunders e introdotto in Inghilterra dai celebri swindlers Malcolm McLaren e Vivienne Westwood e, i nostri Chris Bailey ed Ed Kuepper, scrissero, a proposito di queste velleità commerciali del nuovo rock londinese, in "Private Affair":
<< New Uniforms, we all look the same / A new vogue for the new generation / A new profit in the same old game >>
Non è un caso, dunque, che l'album londinese dei Saints sia tra i più feroci del '78. Mentre tutti i punk di Londra lanciavano, per la gioia delle majors, slogan e gridavano alla rivoluzione, i Saints, in "Eternally Yours", compirono una vera e propria reazione (in "Prehistoric Sounds", loro terzo capitolo discografico, arrivarono addirittura a citare gli anni '50). Accentuarono, come per nostalgia verso la loro amata e ben più genuina Australia, il lato r'n'b del loro sound, nonchè l'approccio fisico, tipicamente da garage-band, al rock'n'roll. Il testimone lasciatogli dai Missing Links, a cui avevano già reso tributo sul loro esordio, veniva portato con ancora maggiore fierezza. Veniva inoltre rievocata l'atmosfera esplosiva della Detroit di inizio decennio, i cui tumulti socio-musicali erano stati più sanguigni e spontanei di quelli sterili e stucchevoli della Londra settantasettina. Quest'estremo citazionismo, al limite del revival, si consumava nell'iniziale "Know Your Product", che rievocava, con quella rumorosissima sezione di fiati, il baccanale orgiastico di "Funhouse", e in quelle staffilate chitarristiche, come l'hard-rock testosteronico di "No, Your Product", ad opera di Ed Kuepper che citava, per potenza di fuoco, l'asse Ron Asheton/Fred "Sonic" Smith e, per le ritmiche epilettiche, l'incontenibile Johnny Ramone. La voce di Chris Bailey, invece, resuscitava, con le sue (non-)pose, il fantasma di Iggy Stooge, mentre, lo stesso anno, l'allora Iggy Pop si reinventava bizzaro chansonnier nel celebre "The Idiot". Ma, se da un lato il merito di questo disco era stato quello di riprendere una determinata maniera di fare rock, da un altro, la grandezza di "Eternally Yours" non può essere ascritta nè dall'orbita punk, dal momento che conteneva pezzi abrasivi come "(I'm) Misunderstood" e "This Perfect Day", tra gli anthem più belli dell'anno, nè dalla loro dimensione rurale tipicamente aussie, quella delle ballate, vagamente di scuola rollingstoniana, "Memories Are Made of This" e "A Minor Aversion", unico compromesso ai loro rock'n'roll anfetaminici.
Dopo aver dato tutto al punk-rock e nuova linfa vitale, assieme agli inossidabili Radio Birdman, al rock australiano, la formazione originale dei Saints si sciolse ufficialmente nel '79. Ed Kuepper andò a formare i Laughing Clowns, ensemble di musica d'avanguardia messa al servizio di una sorta di cabaret decadente, mentre Chris Bailey si reinventò da punk-rocker a cantante melodico, ma colto e forbito, e scrisse tra le pagine pop più memorabili degli Eighties. Creatura cangiante e multiforme come le migliori creature, quella dei Saints merita d'essere approfondita in ogni sua declinazione. Bob Geldof, ora baronetto e premio Nobel ma, nel pieno della giovinezza, travolto in pieno da questi ardori, arrivò a dire che i Saints furono il gruppo più importante del '77. Io posso solo ringraziare questi Santi d'Australia giunti alle mie orecchie per rinnovare la liturgia del rock'n'roll.
Elenco tracce testi e samples
02 Lost and Found (03:49)
Ain't nobody tells me what to do now
I've heard all the lies & been promised the world
no business man is going to use or confuse me
'cause I ain't no puppet for his capital gain
What do get but exploitation
from creeps who are going to ignore your situation
Too many people getting pushed around
going to end up in the lost & found
They say I got to respect the system
but there ain't no respect in that system for me
you got to be satisfied & show no resistance
if you want to get to the top of that tree
What do you get etc etc...
They give you media minds to keep you satisfied
then take you brain away to appease & make you smile
03 Memories Are Made of This (02:20)
Aren't you a mess
you shouldn't act like this
you stand right there
& laugh in my face
you ask me why I haven't left
Are you feeling fine
have you really got the time
to bother to write one line
don't lay you on the line
it's easy to be the missing link
You're living your life in a chain gang
you're so well guarded
You're living your life in a chain gang
you're so retarded
Are you feeling fine
have you really got the time
to bother to write one line
don't lay you on the line
it's easy when you're the missing link
Are you feeling brave
you might dig your own grave
use the money that you save
lose the money that you save
You shout out
they're all the wrong answers
You're waiting for someone who will never come
You're waiting to hear someone who won't even call
You're living etc etc...
04 Private Affair (02:05)
You say that you got the answers
you heard them all on the telephone
& now you're telling everybody
a major coup in the business zone
We got new thoughts new ideas it's all so groovey
it's just a shame that we have seen the same old movies
So you think that you got a first in fashion
new uniforms we all look the same
A new vogue for the now generation
a new profit in the same old game
We got new thoughts etc etc...
& you think you can run & hide what you've done
don't you know no one cares after the first million
05 A Minor Aversion (03:07)
I've taken all I can
I'm not going to stand here
& be walked on anymore
'cause I don't need you
these days your facts
they don't mean a thing
You think I am going to walk the line
believe your lies all the time
you don't make me your fool anymore
I've waited so long
you kept me here
with all the lies you told
You think that I will stay the same
you think you got me
Don't you know this thing can't last
Don't you know that time will pass
your dreams are not your own anymore
I've waiting for too long
I've been watching & I'm not wrong
I'm not waiting anymore
07 This Perfect Day (02:30)
Don't talk to me about what you done
Ain't nothing has changed it all goes on
And they'll keep laughing till the end
I've seen them drive around in cars
All look the same get drunk in bars
And don't talk back we got no social rights
Oh perfect day
What more to say?
Don't need no one to tell me what I don't already know
We got no high times always flat
If you go out you don't come back
It's all so funny I can't laugh
Oh perfect day
What more to say?
Don't need no one to tell me what I don't already know
Don't talk to me about what's you done
Ain't nothing has changed it all goes on
And they'll keep laughing till the end
Oh perfect day
What more to say?
I don't need no one to tell me what I don't already know
Don't need nothin'
Don't need no one
I don't need nothin', nothin' at all
08 Run Down (02:32)
You are just like a magazine
front cover stuff
you're a scream
posed in such a careful way
there is nothing you can't do
you think you have seen it all
got pictures habging on your wall
fame is nothing new to you
but the good old days are through
You're rundown now out of time
don't want to hear the same old line
c'mon now my little friend
don't you know now that this is the end
Call up the chaueffer & the hire car
down the west end to your favorite bar
talk is going to save you life
before the pills can go too far
You're lost in a masquerade
old girls live on they never fade
fame is nothing new to you
but the good old days are through.
You're rundown etc etc...
Call up you managers & your friends
no one wants to see you
but they pretend
You're such a star
& we all live for you
Night time can't bear to be alone
so find yourself a crowd until the dawn
fame is nothing new for you
but the good old days are through
You're rundown etc etc...
09 Orstralia (02:24)
I don't live this life for me
in orstralia land so free
everyone lazing in the sun
nobody cares so let's have fun
We got no problems got no war
& you don't need your brain no more
No sir
Orstralia goes in once again
we must remeber all our friends
& to make sure always
that we support the CIA
We got no problems got no war
& you don't need your brain no more
No sir
Hang your washing on the line
it's Ok the weather's fine
your hubby goes out commits no crime
he always gets to work on time
10 New Centre of the Universe (02:20)
You're the latest high fashion magazine
always hanging around trying to cause a scene
& oh so perfect in every little thing you do
I don't like the games you are playing
& you can't keep saying you just don't understand
Surround yourself with the best in life
you aren't wrong now but you ain't never been right
& don't ask questions unless it gets something for you
it's untrue....
I don't like the games you are playing
& you can't keep saying you just don't understand
12 (I'm) Misunderstood (02:46)
I stand alone now I don't run
I don't care nothing for your seventh son
I've been missunderstood for too long
Been screaming loud but I ain't been heard
sometimes I wonder if it's worth the words
I've been missunderstood for too long
You're all talking about better days
if I got one I think I'd go insane
I've been missunderstood for too long
Been screaming loud but I ain't been heard
I've been missunderstood for too long
I tell you babe it just ain't right
I sit & dream about you every night
still I can't get ya....
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