40 Year Itch : Tom Robinson's Anthem

On August 12, 1976 the openly gay Tom Robinson performed the song "Glad to Be Gay" at a London Gay Pride event. Sounding like a Ray Davies sing-along, Robinson's song came at a time when police were raiding gay pubs and using the "sus" laws to harass people. (Davies had produced the 1975 debut album of Robinson's band, Cafe Society).

"So with 'Glad To Be Gay' it was, right, fuck you," Robinson tells an interviewer on his website gladtobegay.net . "With the government falling apart, the NF and religious right on the rise, queerbashing on the increase and the police out of control in that hot summer of 1976 it just felt like there was no room for compromise any more."

Among the lyrics:

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

Sing if you're glad to be gay

Sing if you're happy that way...

So sit back and watch as they close all our clubs

Arrest us for meeting and raid all our pubs

Make sure your boyfriend's at least 21

So only your friends and your brothers get done

Lie to your workmates, lie to your folks

Put down the queens and tell anti-queer jokes

Gay Lib's ridiculous, join their laughter

'The buggers are legal now, what more are they after?'

Robinson says it was written as a one-off and he never expected to perform it again, but in February of 1978, "Glad to be Gay" was released on the Tom Robinson Band's Rising Free EP which went to UK #18.