The Classic LGBTQ rights anthem from ‘the first gay rock star to be out-and-proud from the off.’
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If you search Youtube, you can find various performances of this classic song. The videos span from 1977 to 2014, but I am sure there must be one from 2015 out there, or coming soon. The first TV broadcast of the song though is the one. The performance is important for LGBTQ rights but also for the performance of Tom. The ability to deliver the song’s message with bitter sarcasm, militant spite, and furious power exceeds any performance which followed. That was 1977, maybe the performance changed over the years because things have gotten better… haven’t they?
Glad To Be Gay
The Tom Robinson Band
The British Police are the best in the world
I don’t believe one of these stories I’ve heard
‘Bout them raiding our pubs for no reason at all
Lining the customers up by the wall
Picking out people and knocking them down
Resisting arrest as they’re kicked on the ground
Searching their houses and calling them queer
I don’t believe that sort of thing happens here
Sing if you’re glad to be gay
Sing if you’re happy that way
Pictures of naked young women are fun
In Titbits and Playboy, page three of The Sun
There’s no nudes in xxx News our one magazine
But they still find excuses to call it obscene
Read how disgusting we are in the press
Telegraphs, people and Sunday Express
Molesters of children, corruptors of youth
It’s there in the paper, it must be the truth
Sing if you’re glad to be gay
Sing if you’re happy that way
Don’t try to kid us that if you’re discreet
You’re perfectly safe as you walk down the street
You don’t have to mince or make bitchy remarks
To get beaten unconscious and left in the dark
I had a friend who was gentle and short
He was lonely one evening and went for a walk
Queerbashers caught him and kicked in his teeth
He was only hospitalised for a week
Sing if you’re glad to be gay
Sing if you’re happy that way
So sit back and watch as they close all our clubs
Arrest us for meeting and raid all our pubs
Make sure your boyfriend’s at least 21
So only your friends and your brothers get done
Lie to your workmates, lie to your folks
Put down the queens and tell anti-queer jokes
Gay Lib’s ridiculous, join their laughter
‘The buggers are legal now, what more are they after?’
Sing if you’re glad to be gay
Sing if you’re happy that way
Find more about Tom Robinson