1150. The Saints / (I'm) Stranded. 1977. 4/5

The Saints was founded in Brisbane in 1973 as Kid Galahad and the Eternals, consisting of lead singer Chris Bailey, guitarist Ed Kuepper and drummer Ivor Hay. In their early days, like a lot of Australian pub rock that was beginning to break through they found their own style and with it a burgeoning audience. What they began employing was a sound that had fast tempo, raucous vocals and a guitar with lots of distortion which set them apart from other bands at the time. Indeed, by 1974 when they had renamed themselves The Saints their reputation was beginning to precede them. While the band themselves had been inspired by such acts as Little Richards and Elvis Presley, they had other inklings from bands like The Stooges and MC5. It was the style though, the faster more raucous style of their songs that was what started their influential days. Kuepper explained that when the band played live, they tended to get faster and faster through their nerves in front of audiences. Indeed, Ian McFarlane the Australian rock historian wrote that the band had developed their own distinctive sound, defined by Kuepper’s frenetic whirlwind guitar style and Bailey’s arrogant snarl.In June 1976, the Saints recorded two tracks, "(I'm) Stranded" and "No Time". Unable to find any interested label, they formed Fatal Records and independently released their debut single in September. They sent the single to radio stations and magazines in Australia with almost no interest, and United Kingdom where a small label issued the single. Sounds magazine's reviewer, John Ingham, declared it, "Single of this and every week". Following this, EMI head office in London contacted the Sydney branch and directed that they be signed to a three-album contract.
Over two days in December 1976, the group recorded their first LP, (I'm) Stranded, with Rod Coe producing. They supported AC/DC in late December 1976 and, early in 1977, relocated to Sydney, in the hope of eternal fame.

The Saints have been referred to as one of the first punk bands. They are contemporaries of The Ramones who began around the same time, and when (I'm) Stranded was released in the UK, it became one of the forerunners of the genre, pre-dating the albums of the UK punk scene by bands such as The Clash, the Damned and the Sex Pistols, and it was the lead single and opening track of the album, the eponymous “I’m Stranded” that pushed that, containing all of the elements that make the best punk rock songs. It’s not an easy thing for any band when the first song from their first album, which doubled as the band’s first single, is still the most renown and recognisable song that the band has produced. But while that is true in this situation, it doesn’t mean that it is the only great song on the album. And, that the classifying of it as a pure punk rock album would be premature.
Sure, there are those songs, of which "I’m Stranded" is one of the standouts. “One Way Street” backs it up superbly, rattling along in a way that even now you can visualise just how the moshpits at the front of the stage would have been a sea of bodies throwing themselves around while listening to it. The cover version of the Missing Links song “Wild About You” is terrific, a thrashy hard core version that exudes such violent energy it is contagious.

On the other side of the coin, there is a song like “Messin’ With the Kid”, one that for me doesn’t fit the profile, and yet is not the last time I heard such tones in a punk album or song. If you listen to this song, and then listen to some of the slower, changeup songs from bands such as The Clash and Stiff Little Fingers, you will find the roots of those songs in this song. It even brings me memories of songs by REM and Joy Division and the like. At almost six minutes it is also the longest song on the album, and feels longer because it is the same riff throughout, the antithesis of a real form punk song. In my opinion. And one I could skip every time it comes on. It really halts the momentum of the album, something made even more obvious once you crash back into “Erotic Neurotic”, with the pace picking up again, and the fact the one riff runs through the song not so important because of the energy and short lived song time. All of this continues on with great tracks like “No Time”, “Kissin’ Cousins”, “Demolition Girl” and the closer “Nights in Venice”. “Story of Love” breaks up these songs by once again dropping the tempo and trying to be something else. And in the long run perhaps it and “Messin’ With he Kids” were songs that allowed the band and the fans to catch their breath at gigs, but they both feel out of place on an album that sets itself up as something completely separate from what they offer.

It seems as though I have been aware of this album for most of my life, and certainly heard pieces of it in high school, but didn’t really listen to it all the way through myself until 20 odd years ago, and it wasn’t until then that I could hear just what it was that has been deemed as so influential to the genre. It’s interesting that The Saints ended up relocating to the UK after the luke warm response to their efforts to record. Once in the UK though, EMI had wanted to promote them as a typical punk band, with the old spiked hairstyle and ripped jeans and the link. But the band was not interested in that, and wanted to retain the style they had, the Australia pub band style of jeans and shirts.
Beyond that, the band didn’t stick to the style that had got them their break. Their next album was more of an R&B style, including a song using a brass section, trying to escape what they felt was the pigeon-holing effect of the punk style.
I first heard the album as a part of a mixed-tape that circulated amongst our school group in the mid-1980’s, which was one of my first exposures to a wider punk community. And even then, although the album has a sound that is punk-derived, is it really that? The fact that The Saints are Australian and were developing those songs and style away from the sound that The Ramones had already developed in the US, and what was just about to explode in the UK, the fact that its foundation are the Australian pub rock scene do tend to give it an extra bite that perhaps otherwise it would not have had. It wasn’t pushed by the kind of look that the UK punk scene thrived on in the years following its release, the band themselves retained the ‘look’ that they had grown up watching and then built up as a result.

I put on this album now, and, apart from those two songs which I’ve mentioned, the kind of songs that always turn my stomach no matter who the artist is or what genre they come from, this is still a great listen. It stands as a moment in time, one that is still so highly thought of that it was one of only 8 albums that had a retrospective made on it on the TV series Great Australian Albums.
How many of you have actually heard this album? Sat down and listened to it? If you have any enjoyment of this genre of music it is one worth searching out and experiencing.