The Saints - (I'm) Stranded (1976) [THE STORY OF THE SONG]

    Formed in Brisbane, Australia, in 1974, The Saints were contemporaries of the Ramones and the Sex Pistols—though blissfully ignorant that these bands were in gestation. The Australian four-piece shared with both those bands a passion for The Stooges, along with a contempt for mainstream rock. 

    Forming their own label, they issued “(I’m) Stranded”, a howl of rage against boredom and oppression—Seventies Queensland (the state of which Brisbane is capital) was being rim by a corrupt, racist government and brutal police force. The buzz-saw guitar and vocal wail of “(I’m) Stranded” was a rallying cry for Australian punk. Copies of the single were sent to U.K. music papers, one of which, Sounds, made it Single of the Week (“and every other week”). This led to EMI—the label that would drop the Sex Pistols in 1977— signing The Saints and bringing them to London.

If The Saints played aggressively, they didn’t play “punk”—no ripped jeans and spiky hair for them This led many in the British media, who had embraced punk as a fashion movement, to reject the band. The Saints expanded their sound further than pretty much any other punk band, bringing in horns and acoustic guitars; their literate, paranoid songs were streets ahead of what British bands were then trying to do.

Their music influenced many others, with everyone from Henry Rollins to Nick Cave citing them as an inspiration.