Graham Reid | | <1 min read
This country may not have a great tradition of protest songs but there have always been songs of dissent, anger and, from the late Fifties onward, teenage rebellion.
One of the first – a punk single 10 years before punk -- was this by Auckland's Blue Stars.
The angry young man who won't fit in with society's plan.
These days one line needs some explanation: “I don't stand for the Queen”.
At the time God Save the Queen was played in cinemas before the shorts, Movietone news and main feature. People obediently stood for it.
Hard to believe, but you just did.
I can well remember when, at the Crystal Palace in Mt Eden, for the first time I didn't.
I was probably 14 and that moment seemed like a very nervous act of rebellion because some adult was just as likely to shout at you and command you to stand and be respectful.
On that day no one did and I never stood for the Queen again.
This is a classic local single of teenage disaffection at a time when there were the rumblings of a distinctive and quite hairy youth culture emerging.
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For more oddities, one-offs or songs with an interesting backstory check the massive back-catalogue at From the Vaults.
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