Live at Abbey Road, 1998
Recorded live at Abbey Road studios, 28 March 1998
Released as ‘Glad to Be Gay 98’ on Live At Abbey Road [Castaway Club CCCDV5], 1998
[Lyrics new to this version are marked in bold]
I’d like to play a single of mine that got to number eighteen in the British charts twenty years ago without any play on Radio 1, which is the BBC radio station here.
The song is called Sing If You’re Glad To Be Gay, but to sing on the chorus you don’t necessarily have to be glad. The message of the song is be yourself, be proud of whoever you are and don’t let anyone tell you how to live your life.
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
And 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
The papers in Britain are really the pits
Commissioned by bigots and written by shits
They plaster their pages with bingo and tits
Then add all the scandal and slander that fits
They pick out their victims, destroying their lives
They smear as they sneer as they damn and despise
If it’s paedophile teachers or lesbian nuns
If it’s filth and it’s fiction it’s there in The Sun
Sing if you’re glad to be gay
Sing if you’re happy that way
And now there’s a nightmare they blame on the gays
It’s brutal and lethal and slowly invades
The medical facts are ignored or forgot
By the bigots who think it’s the judgement of God
Attacked by the Vatican, bashed by the bill
With cheap politicians all making a kill
The message is simple and obvious, please
Just lay off the patients and let’s fight the disease
And sing if you’re glad to be gay
Sing if you’re happy that way
For 21 years now I’ve fought for the right
For people to love just whoever they like
But the right-on and righteous are out for my blood
Now I live with my kids and a woman I love
Well if gay liberation means freedom for all
A label is no liberation at all
I’m here and I’m queer, and I do what I do
And I’m not gonna wear a ‘straight’ jacket for you
No – I say
Sing if you’re glad to be gay
Sing if you’re happy that way
Sing if you’re glad to be gay
Sing if you’re happy this way
The recording was broadcast live by Merlin Communications as part of their first birthday celebrations.
Castaway Club was Tom’s fan club/information service, and the recording was issued as Volume 5 in the series of CDs for Castaway Club members.
