The Saints : Kissin' Cousins
[Purchase]
Bob Geldorf said "Rock music in the seventies was changed by three bands - The Sex Pistols, The Ramones and The Saints".
Blasting out of Australia with loud guitars and a snarling vocalist named Chris Bailey, The Saints learned their chops by playing sped up raucous versions of tunes by Connie Francis, Del Shannon and Ike and Tina Turner. In September of 1976, they put out a self-pressed single, "(I'm) Stranded", before either the Pistols or The Clash. A reviewer from Sounds called the tune the "single of this and every week" and they promptly landed a three record deal with EMI.
Elvis fans from back in the day when they called themselves Kid Galahad and The Eternals, the lads decided to record one of the King's cheesiest tunes for their debut album."Kissin' Cousins", a celebration of incest made somehow more palatable by the line "She's a distant cousin/But she's not too distant with me", gets the full punk treatment. The Saints had a long career and were inducted in the Australian versions of its Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
