Rocka Rolla

Rocka Rolla is the debut album by the British heavy metal group Judas Priest, released in 1974. It was produced by Rodger Bain, who had made a name for himself as the producer of Black Sabbath's first three albums.

According to the band, the album was entirely played "live", in studio (i.e. all musicians playing simultaneously as in a concert, vs. the more popular method of each musician's parts being recorded separately and then mixing them).^[1]

According to the band there were technical problems in the studio, resulting in poor sound quality and a hiss through the album. The band further claims that the producer had too much control over track selection, and omitted their more popular stage classics- in particular, "Tyrant", "Genocide" and "Victim of Changes". These songs were eventually included on their next album. In addition, the songs "Winter", "Deep Freeze", and "Winter Retreat" form a suite, however they are listed as separate tracks and divided as such on the CD release. The song "Dying to Meet You" contains a clear break before an unlisted song (often known as "Hero Hero") begins. It may be possible that the record company insisted on there being ten tracks on the album which led to this decision. Alternatively, this unlisted song may simply be the second half of "Dying to Meet You", as this is how the lyrics were printed on their 1978 "Best of..." compilation. Many of the songs were written before Rob Halford joined the band. The track "Caviar and Meths" was originally a 14-minute epic penned by Halford's predecessor, Al Atkins, but due to time constraints, only the intro is recorded for the album. A longer version of the song appears on original vocalist Al Atkins's 1998 album Victim of Changes. Though not the full-length version, it is notably longer at seven minutes. The album also contains covers of the songs "Winter" and "Never Satisfied".

At this point of the band's career, they had not yet developed their signature look of leather and studs. They had appeared on a British television programme called The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1975, performing "Rocka Rolla" and "Dreamer Deceiver", and their wardrobe was very "hippified" as journalist Malcolm Dome put it. This footage was included on the "Electric Eye" DVD. In addition, the album has some slight progressive rock influences that would continue through to Stained Class, but to a lesser extent, and would be abandoned in later releases.

Drummer John Hinch would be dismissed in 1975, before the next record was to begin being recorded, for what Glenn Tipton would later call him being "musically inadequate".

The album was reissued in 1987 with a different cover. The original album cover, by John Pasche, had been meant for a Rolling Stones album.^[2] There are also rumours that the Coca Cola Company brought legal pressure because the original album art too closely resembled their most famous brand. The re-issue cover art (by artist Mel Grant, and originally used as the cover for the novel The Steel Tsar) was also used for the US cover of Ballistix for the Turbo Grafx 16 and Commodore Amiga. The band, apparently, considers the "bottle cap" cover to be the official one, as it is the one that appeared on video screens during performances of Never Satisfied on the Epitaph tour.

Since the album was released during the period when K.K. Downing was the band's frontman, this remains the only album on which he is the primary songwriter. On future albums, songs were usually written by Halford, Downing and Tipton, most songs being written by either two or all three of them. This is also one of the only two albums where bassist Ian Hill got a songwriter credit, for the tracks "Winter" and "Caviar and Meths". He would later help write the track "Invader" on the group's fourth studio album Stained Class.

Most of the songs from Rocka Rolla have not been performed by Judas Priest live since the mid-late 1970s, although Rob Halford's solo band performed "Never Satisfied" during live shows in 2003, and the same song is part of the setlist of the Epitaph World Tour.

Track listing

On some versions, "Rocka Rolla" is timed at 4:00 and "Winter" at 0:45, becoming a mashup but remaining on separate tracks. Some releases, e.g. Hero Hero also combine Winter, Deep Freeze and Winter Retreat into one track.

The version of "Diamonds & Rust" that appears on the re-release is actually from the Sad Wings of Destiny sessions and not the version that appears on Sin After Sin. It was probably included to provide interest in Rocka Rolla, an album that would have been unknown to many of the band's fans due to the band not playing songs from it live after the 1970s.

Rocka Rolla features Judas Priest's longest track, "Run of the Mill", prior to Jugulator's "Cathedral Spires" (1997). It is also the longest track co-written by Halford, Downing and Tipton prior to Angel of Retribution's "Lochness" (2005).

Reception

Allmusic gave Rocka Rolla a rating of 2.5 out of five stars, and said that while it was a "sketchy and underfocused debut," the album "definitely hints at Judas Priest's potential and originality."^[4]

Personnel

• Rob Halford: vocals, harmonica
• K.K. Downing: guitar
• Glenn Tipton: guitar, backing vocal
• Ian Hill: bass
• John Hinch: drums

References