Judas Priest – The Ripper
Hard for me to be objective on this one – in my mid teens this album, 1976’s Sad Wings of Destiny, was a favorite – still my favorite of theirs. They were one of “my” bands then, prior to the release of British Steel in 1980 which contained “Breaking the Law”, “Living After Midnight” and cemented them as “Metal Gods.” 🙂 Rob Halford takes on the persona of Jack the Ripper here, using his unmistakable vocal flourishes to convey the evil intent. The song creeps along through the alleyways and it’s all a bit over the top – call it a guilty pleasure or just plain ear candy, but I eat it up.
The Boomtown Rats – The Elephant’s Graveyard
Powering along in Elvis Costello & The Attractions style and similarly slicing with the lyric, The Rats have a winner here. On the heels of their huge hit “I Don’t Like Mondays,” their next album, Mondo Bongo (1980), finds an already quirky band pulling out all the stops. Bob Geldof straining and wailing with his politics center stage. I also like that this version sounds like it was taken from vinyl. The band is tight on quite possibly my favorite track of theirs. Wonder what Geldof is up to these days.
Judas Priest. “The Ripper.” Knew this one, but hadn’t heard it in ages. Rob Halford has a classic metal voice; this track has nice use of double kick-drum, and I like the squealy guitar bit in the middle part. But while I suppose SOMEONE had to write a song in the voice of Saucy Jack, this one’s merely OK.
Boomtown Rats. “The Elephant’s Graveyard.” Never followed this band much, and never heard this song. I know they’ve done different styles (“I Don’t Like Mondays”), but this sounds lots like “Armed Forces”-era Elvis, especially the bouncy rhythm, the melody, rollicking drumrolls, and the rhythmic sneer of the vocals. Love the hooting electric organ. some nice lyrics worthy of McManus also — “they were guilty until proven guilty.” The outro is the only part that strikes me as non-Costello-y, but if you’re going to be influenced by (ie copy) somebody, he’s a good one to pick.
JP – First time hearing this one. Sounds tame, but that’s 40+ years after being released. I presume for the time it was aggressive and the subject matter was a bit “shocking,” but not my thing.
BR – Ah, Saint Bob and the boys. Actually been on a Rats kick of late and this was nice to see pop up here. Bouncy happy pop music disguises the politics of the lyrics. Always like that kind of juxtaposition. Sounds very much of that time and happy to revisit it any time.
The Elephant’s Graveyard: I loved the energy of this one. I hear a bit of Elvis Costello in this. I think what I like best is the live feel and the genuine fun it sounds like the band is having playing together.
The Ripper: It is interesting how the singer sings this and the way he sets his voice. I found myself re-listening to this for some reason and honing in on this…not sure why. Not bad but not one that I was particularly drawn to either.
Update Note: as I write my updates first and then look to see what others wrote; it is not surprising that there were multiple references to Costello on TBR. It does sound very “in that genre” (or is it the other way around?).
Heard of both of these groups, have heard one Judas Priest song before. I found the JP somewhat humorous. It was almost like talking over music.
BR -Never heard anything from them before, not bad.
Judas Priest – The Ripper
Hard for me to be objective on this one – in my mid teens this album, 1976’s Sad Wings of Destiny, was a favorite – still my favorite of theirs. They were one of “my” bands then, prior to the release of British Steel in 1980 which contained “Breaking the Law”, “Living After Midnight” and cemented them as “Metal Gods.” 🙂
Rob Halford takes on the persona of Jack the Ripper here, using his unmistakable vocal flourishes to convey the evil intent. The song creeps along through the alleyways and it’s all a bit over the top – call it a guilty pleasure or just plain ear candy, but I eat it up.
The Boomtown Rats – The Elephant’s Graveyard
Powering along in Elvis Costello & The Attractions style and similarly slicing with the lyric, The Rats have a winner here. On the heels of their huge hit “I Don’t Like Mondays,” their next album, Mondo Bongo (1980), finds an already quirky band pulling out all the stops. Bob Geldof straining and wailing with his politics center stage. I also like that this version sounds like it was taken from vinyl. The band is tight on quite possibly my favorite track of theirs. Wonder what Geldof is up to these days.
Judas Priest. “The Ripper.” Knew this one, but hadn’t heard it in ages. Rob Halford has a classic metal voice; this track has nice use of double kick-drum, and I like the squealy guitar bit in the middle part. But while I suppose SOMEONE had to write a song in the voice of Saucy Jack, this one’s merely OK.
Boomtown Rats. “The Elephant’s Graveyard.” Never followed this band much, and never heard this song. I know they’ve done different styles (“I Don’t Like Mondays”), but this sounds lots like “Armed Forces”-era Elvis, especially the bouncy rhythm, the melody, rollicking drumrolls, and the rhythmic sneer of the vocals. Love the hooting electric organ. some nice lyrics worthy of McManus also — “they were guilty until proven guilty.” The outro is the only part that strikes me as non-Costello-y, but if you’re going to be influenced by (ie copy) somebody, he’s a good one to pick.
JP – First time hearing this one. Sounds tame, but that’s 40+ years after being released. I presume for the time it was aggressive and the subject matter was a bit “shocking,” but not my thing.
BR – Ah, Saint Bob and the boys. Actually been on a Rats kick of late and this was nice to see pop up here. Bouncy happy pop music disguises the politics of the lyrics. Always like that kind of juxtaposition. Sounds very much of that time and happy to revisit it any time.
The Elephant’s Graveyard: I loved the energy of this one. I hear a bit of Elvis Costello in this. I think what I like best is the live feel and the genuine fun it sounds like the band is having playing together.
The Ripper: It is interesting how the singer sings this and the way he sets his voice. I found myself re-listening to this for some reason and honing in on this…not sure why. Not bad but not one that I was particularly drawn to either.
Update Note: as I write my updates first and then look to see what others wrote; it is not surprising that there were multiple references to Costello on TBR. It does sound very “in that genre” (or is it the other way around?).