After having shaken the already unstable foundations of seventies rock with the unrepeatable "(I'm) Stranded", the Saints from Brisbane, seduced by the call, left their native land of kangaroos to reach the mecca of punk, as well as the true navel of the world during the year-zero 1977. The impact that the London of no future, so far away - physically and otherwise - from the wild and desolate Australian lands had on these crude and naive thugs coming from overseas was traumatic. Their new record label indeed tried to (sold them out by commercially exploiting that stereotype, made of crests and safety pins, created by Johnny Thunders' Heartbreakers and introduced in England by the famous swindlers Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, and our Chris Bailey and Ed Kuepper wrote, about these commercial ambitions of the new London rock, 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 >>

It is no coincidence, therefore, that the London album by the Saints is among the fiercest of '78. While all the punks in London launched slogans and shouted about revolution to the delight of the majors, the Saints, in "Eternally Yours," made a real reaction (in "Prehistoric Sounds," their third discographic chapter, they even quoted the 50s). They accentuated, as if nostalgic towards their beloved and much more genuine Australia, the r'n'b side of their sound as well as the physical approach, typically from a garage band, to rock'n'roll. The baton handed to them by the Missing Links, to which they had already paid tribute in their debut, was carried with even greater pride. The explosive atmosphere of early decade Detroit was evoked, whose socio-musical upheavals were more passionate and spontaneous than those sterile and cloying of seventies London. This extreme citationism, bordering on revival, consumed itself in the initial "Know Your Product", which evoked, with that very noisy brass section, the orgiastic revelry of "Funhouse", and in those guitar lashes, like the testosterone-hard-rock of "No, Your Product", by Ed Kuepper, which cited, for firepower, the Ron Asheton/Fred "Sonic" Smith axis and, for epileptic rhythms, the irrepressible Johnny Ramone. Chris Bailey's voice, on the other hand, resurrected, with its (non-)poses, the ghost of Iggy Stooge, while, in the same year, the then Iggy Pop was reinventing himself as a bizarre chansonnier in the famous "The Idiot". But, if on one hand the merit of this album was to resume a specific way of making rock, on another, the greatness of "Eternally Yours" cannot be attributed neither to the punk orbit, since it contained abrasive tracks like "(I'm) Misunderstood" and "This Perfect Day", among the most beautiful anthems of the year, nor to their typically rural aussie dimension, that of ballads, vaguely of Rolling Stones school, "Memories Are Made of This" and "A Minor Aversion", the only compromise to their amphetamine rock'n'roll.

After giving everything to punk-rock and new life, together with the indomitable Radio Birdman, to Australian rock, the original lineup of the Saints officially disbanded in '79. Ed Kuepper went on to form the Laughing Clowns, an ensemble of avant-garde music put at the service of a sort of decadent cabaret, while Chris Bailey reinvented himself from punk-rocker to melodic but cultured and refined singer, and wrote among the most memorable pop pages of the Eighties. A changing and multiform creature like the best creatures, that of the Saints deserves to be explored in all its declinations. Bob Geldof, now a knight and Nobel prize winner, but in the prime of his youth, fully swept away by these ardors, went so far as to say that the Saints were the most important band of '77. I can only thank these Saints from Australia who came to my ears to renew the liturgy of rock'n'roll.

Tracklist Lyrics and Samples

01   Know Your Product (03:15)

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

06   No, Your Product (04:07)

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

11   Untitled (02:47)

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....

13   International Robots (01:58)

14   L.I.E.S. (02:44)

15   Do the Robot (01:59)

16   The Perfect Day (single version) (02:10)

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