Dec 15

Judas Priest

JUDAS PRIEST
 
 
Judas Priest  are a British heavy metal band formed in Birmingham, England, in 1969.  The band has sold close to 50 million albums to date.  MTV ranked them the second greatest metal band of all time.  The band’s best-selling album is 1982’s Screaming for Vengeance with their most commercially successful line-up, featuring singer Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis.  The Guardian referred to British Steel as the record that defines heavy metal.  Despite a decline in exposure during the mid 1990s, the band has once again seen a resurgence, including worldwide tours, being inaugural inductees into the VH1 Rock Honors in 2006, receiving a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 2010, and their songs featured in video games such as Guitar Hero and the Rock Band series.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

 

 

Judas Priest sounds like another band name with Satanic tinges, but actually, the phrase is sometimes used as a euphemism for the oath “Jesus Christ”.  The popular English heavy metal band formed in 1969 and is still going strong.  They are generally regarded as being one of the best in the business, with MTV ranking Judas Priest second on their list of “best metal bands”.  Wikipedia says of the band:  “Their influence, while mainly Rob Halford’s operatic vocal style (widely considered as one of the most unique vocalists in the genre) and the twin guitar sound of K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton, has been adopted by many bands.” 

 

Rob Halford is the first hard rock musician to come out as a gay man that I can recall, during an interview on MTV News in 1998. 

 

(October 2014)

 

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The infamous Filthy Fifteen, along with the reasons for their inclusion on the list, follow. Not only is Prince listed first on the list, he was also the songwriter for #2, “Sugar Walls”; and Vanity, at #4, is a one-time Prince protegé. 
1. Prince – “Darling Nikki” (sex, masturbation) 
2. Sheena Easton – “Sugar Walls” (sex) 
3. Judas Priest – “Eat Me Alive” (sex) 
4. Vanity – “Strap on Robbie Baby” (sex) 
5. Mötley Crüe – “Bastard” (violence) 
6. AC/DC – “Let Me Put My Love Into You” (sex) 
7. Twisted Sister – “We’re Not Gonna Take It”  (violence) 
8. Madonna – “Dress You Up” (sex) 
9. W.A.S.P. – “Animal (F--k Like A Beast)” (sex)
10. Def Leppard – “High ’n Dry” (drug and alcohol use) 
11. Mercyful Fate – “Into the Coven” (occult) 
12. Black Sabbath – “Trashed” (drug and alcohol use) 
13. Mary Jane Girls – “In My House” (sex) 
14. Venom – “Possessed” (occult) 
15. Cyndi Lauper – “She Bop”  (sex, masturbation)
 
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Only a third of the songs on this list – “We’re Not Gonna Take It”, “She Bop”, “Sugar Walls”, “Dress You Up”, and “In My House” – were hits, and only the Twisted Sister number is really a signature song. Most of the Filthy Fifteen are deep album cuts that, even at the time, were likely unfamiliar to many of the fans of these bands and artists. For me, the Prince song “Darling Nikki” does not ring a bell; and the same goes for those by Def Leppard, Black Sabbath, Mötley Crüe, Judas Priest, and AC/DC. If this was intended as a resource to help out parents instead of just a publicity stunt, adding the album names would have saved everyone a lot of time. 
(June 2016)
Last edited: March 22, 2021