ITT: we wonder WTF rob halford is singing about

[Baliset]

Let Us Prey/Call for the Priest

Call for the priest, I'm dying

Well, the pressure's too much, you know I peaked last night
I gotta get some a quick release
City is standing on my shoulders
My body's going piece by piece
Yeah!

Yes I know what I want and I know where to get it
And I'm going there right away
This is one priest that I don't have to fall on
Down to my knees and pray
No!

When your back's to the wall come along one and all
We shall fight all the slander that's penned
It's us we shall choose let the bigoted lose
For our triumph's the means to their end

With you by my side I shall ride every storm

Let the cynics drop dead in their critical head
They're wrist merchants as we all can see
Bunch of deaf ears with their columnized fears
What a shame, what a shame, oh dear me!

When your back's to the wall, come along one and all
We shall fight all the slander that's penned
It's us we shall choose let the bigoted lose
For our triumph's the means to their end

Yes I know what I want and I know where to get it
And I'm going there right away
This is one priest that I don't have to fall on
Down to my knees and pray

 

[Helm]

I think stuff like 'between the hammer and the anvil', 'ram it down', "grinder, looking for meat, for your to eat!" are generally pretty telling of what rob's choice of topic usually is.

 

[deadair]

gay sex

 

[0sm0se]

WooHooo, GAY SEX! Wait, I was kidding, Ben make Gordon stop touching me, he's got that crazy look in his eyes again!

 

[Baliset]

the more i look at these lyrics i don't think its about just gay sex. i think he mgith just be hinting at gay rights in general. at least i don't see very much gay sex innuendos.

i mean you can take any judas priest song about sex and say its about gay sex because there is no specifics given to the lover in those songs so you could assume he's talking about a girl and not a guy. i mean even obvious songs like ram it down or eat me alive can be looked at as if they are from a hetero point of view.

 

[Baliset]

Desert Plains

Full moon is rising
The sky is black
I heed your call I'm coming back
The road is straight cast
Wind's in my eyes
The engine roars between my thighs

From desert plains I bring you love
From desert plains I bring you love

Wild mountain thunder
Echoes my quest
My body aches but I'll not rest
Quartz light to guide me
Till sunrise leads
My passion screams, my heart it bleeds

From desert plains I bring you love
From desert plains I bring you love

Then in the distance
I see you stand
On the horizon you raise your hand
In burning rubber
I end my quest
You fall into my arms at last

From desert plains I bring you love
From desert plains I bring you love

 

[mindspell]

Unless you sing about you falling down on your knees and "pray" to the bishop...

 

[0sm0se]

It really makes me wonder if Halford himself wasn't molested by priests, hence the sacrilegious name and lyrics.

 

[Baliset]

basically what i am getting at is that people just assume that rob halford is always talking about gay sex in his lyrics now but i would like to think that there is more going on there at least in his older lyrics in the 70's when he actually was decent at writing lyrics.

 

[0sm0se]

Let me tell you something, Greg...

You got another thing coming.

 

[Helm]

I have no problem with halford being gay, and generally find it funny to see metal people go into seizures about how he's still a "metal god" while trying to hold back the tears and forget that awful "two" album. I can see what you're trying to say about how people view the lyrics, but generally, straight metal people don't write a lot of songs about their penis and/or asshole. They're more preoccupied with dragons and being all-around metal to the max. I think I prefer the penis songs, but that's besides the point. Point is, I don't get is how nobody really talked about how blatantly homosexual-themed some of these song titles/lyrics are before rob came out. I mean, point of entry? jawbreaker? hard as iron?

 

[capeda]

Sorta not exactly on topic, but I think Let Us Prey is Priest's best song.

 

[BigFakeSmile]

OT: heres an excerpt from my an inty i did w. halford when we got to the requisite sexuality in judas priest's music question

"well i can remember that when we wrote and recorded [eat me alive] in ibiza, which is a small island off the coast of spain, sometime in the 80s wasnt it? i know we were all absolutely rat-faced drunk and i don’t know who it was. it may have been me, it could have been someone else who came up with this phrase ‘eat me alive’ and then i just threw all the lyrics together in the direction of that reference. and it became almost a parody, almost a cartoon of itself. i mean of course tipper gore at that time took real offense to that song and bunch of others, and used it in her rally cry for censorship, and that was kind of a surprise. i don’t think we realized what kind of an effect htat would create. you know, rock n roll, it’s sex drugs and rock n roll. i think that whoever came up with that phraseology, it’s still there, isnt it, in one way or another. although the least dangerous of them all is the rock n roll. i dont really ever think about that when im writing my lyrics. im always on the search for different subject matter, and sometimes if they do go into that kind of world, i try and remove the he/she gender moniker so it could be for anybody. and i think that’s pretty much how we’ve written all of our lyrics. i mean, these new songs that we’ve just written, i was talking to ken and glenn about should we say he or she? and they go no, we’ve always been very ambiguous about suggesting who this or that song might be directed towards. but no, i don’t really think about it. i dont really put much of my own kind of needs in a sexual way into the lyrics. ive always tried to be a bit more interesting than that. priest was never a tits and ass band. we had a couple of moments, especially on the turbo recording, i think some of those lyrics are kind of bland personally. that’s where were at that moment. but for the most part it’s always a challenge to try and be a bit intelligent and have something of reasonable significance to say. although we’re not rocket scientists here. at the end of theday we just want to give everybody a good time, you know, but if you want to look into the language and maybe find a message if there is a message or a story, than there it is for you."

 

[Baliset]

let us prey is one of my personal priest faves as well. its on my list of songs i want to cover at some point.