Home From Home: Europe
Recorded live at Zaal Nova, Wetteren, Belgium, January 1998
Released on the Europe disc of Home From Home, [Oyster OYS0017-2], 1999
[Lyrics new to this version are marked in bold]
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
They said it couldn’t happen in Wetteren!
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, 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
