Imagine the scene.
A band of heavy metal giants invaded the hallowed halls of a famous residence in the countryside near Ascot, Berkshire, United Kingdom.
When Judas Priest began to record their album ‘British Steel’ they were at a crossroads in their career. Maybe it was fortuitous, because so to was the country, and it was out of this combination of circumstances that they built the sound and message for this ground-breaking recording.
And it all happened at Tittenhurst, which was famous for being the home of John Lennon and Yoko Ono from 1971-1973 when Lennon recorded ‘Imagine’, and subsequently purchased by Ringo Starr in 1973 for 5 million British pounds. At the time, Ringo Starr was living in Los Angeles with his wife Barbara Bach. As a revenue stream, Ringo would rent Tittenhurst out to many bands because word had got out that the studio had a cool setup and a great sound.
For Rob Halford, it was all a bit of a blur, but they got there.
I’ve never been able to answer the question as to how and why we ended up at Ringo’s place! That’s just kind of crazy when you think about it. But we were there, and for me as a lifelong Beatles fan, and particularly as a lifelong John Lennon fan because he touched me in so many ways outside of the music that he made – it was just crazy to walk around that house.”
By the time Judas Priest converged on Tittenhurst in the early part of 1980 they brought with them a heavy metal spirit and a punk attitude. In the words of vocalist, Rob Halford;
We’ve got to try and get this punk attitude into our music,” but it certainly seemed to capture some of that anarchy in its projection, musically.”
Part of this approach involved a streamlined creative process that saw Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing write all the songs on ‘British Steel’. In rock and roll the number one rule of song writing has always been, when in doubt, write about what you know, and if that becomes a challenge, do everything you can to write material that relates to you core audience. In Rob Halford’s autobiography, ‘Confess’ he harkens back to the Margaret Thatcher era and the perceived sense of hopelessness that prevailed not only for many of the people he grew up with, but also for future generations.
A lot of bad stuff was going on. The heavy industry and the car makers in the Midlands and around the country were struggling, and there was already talk of factory closures. Unemployment was shooting up. Worst of all, millions of young people had no hope and felt they were being ignored. Writing the lyrics for ‘Breaking the Law,’ I tried to put myself in the mind of a jobless young bloke at his wits’ end.”
Judas Priest was from Birmingham, England and as far as they were concerned, Birmingham was the birthplace of heavy metal. Their role was to carry the torch.
Once Halford, Tipton and Downing took on this perspective the material began to flow. Here is Glen Tipton’s recollection.
We used to meet up at various houses to write, and we just broke into that riff one day and the song wrote itself. We wrote that song in about an hour, I think. Rob just started singing, ‘Breaking the law, breaking the law,’ and before we knew it we had a classic Priest song.”
Rob Halford adds that it was like a heavy metal assembly line and the product was made from authentic ‘British Steel’.
So, you had three minutes of ‘Breaking the Law,’ three-and-a-half minutes of ‘Living After Midnight.’ It was different, but we figured, ‘Maybe that’s the best way to go about it. Don’t think about it too much.’ Going with your gut instinct is always a great thing to do with music.”
Here is ‘Living After Midnight’.
The keep it simple method was employed. They were aiming to reflect the prevailing angst of the time. Out of the ashes of the punk movement, two definite musical genres were evolving. New wave and a more image conscious style of heavy metal. The following quote speaks to themes Judas Priest’s writing triumvirate explored in their album ‘Screaming for Vengeance’ and ‘Defenders of the Faith’.
I’m a bit of a science-fiction fan, and I think I got the lyrics from that world-robots and sci-fi and metal gods, just by word-association. It’s a statement against Big Brother or something, about these metal gods that were taking over”
For an example of the rock gods persona and ‘Big Brother’ theme, here is ‘Electric Eye’ from ‘Screaming for Vengeance’.
To their credit, Judas Priest was relatable to their audience in every way.
Mission accomplished.
Getting back to 1980, Judas Priest’s arrival at Tittenhurst was not the first plan. In late 1979, they had completed a European tour as a supporting act for AC/DC. The band was unified in their respect for AC/DC’s approach to song writing. In the early part of 1980, they began a brief recording session at Startling Studios which is also on the grounds of Tittenhurst. Before too long, these heavy metal gods kicked in the doors of Tittenhurst in a figurative sense and everything was turned up to eleven.
How cool that was, yeah. For many of us, The Beatles really touched us with their music, especially from those early days into more advanced plays of musicians and incredibly innovative and ground-breaking work from [1967’s] ‘Sgt. Pepper’ onwards…Bands could go in there and make a record, so this was surreal, and I remember driving up to the front door, which you see in some of those wonderful videos [like ‘Imagine’]…And oh my god, we’re actually here, walking inside, so we were literally walking in the footsteps of these incredibly powerful, talented musicians, and I think we picked up some Beatle magic in there because ‘British Steel’ turned out to be a really important album for Priest and for metal.”
For Judas Priest, everything became a source for sound; from milk bottles dutifully delivered each morning by the area milkman, to cutlery from Ringo’s kitchen. To their credit, they were very resourceful.
When we were recording that track, we had loads and loads of fun trying to make it sound as metal as we can. We were shaking cutlery trays in front of the microphones to create the sound of metal marching feet…In those days there wasn’t an Internet, so you couldn’t go online and download samples. So, we would whip a piece of guitar chord on a flight case or swish a pool cue in front of a microphone for the audio effects. I lifted and dropped that cutlery tray 100 times, I think.”
Credit for the police siren simulation goes to K.K. Downing who used the tremolo arm on his Stratocaster guitar.
Since its release ‘Breaking the Law’ has been a massive favourite among Judas Priest fans. It checks all the boxes. It is announced by a distinct riff. It has a rebellious message. The repetitive chorus inspires action, and above all, it is short and sweet. It’s a cathartic release. Best of all, the members of Judas Priest gathered with director Julien Temple to shoot a video that reflects the restlessness and angst of their audience. It begins with singer Rob Halford riding in the back of a 1974 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado convertible. He meets up with the rest of the band at a bank, and they proceed to break in, using their instruments as weapons. Their intention is to enter the vault and crack a safe that holds the object of their heist; a gold record of ‘British Steel’. A bank security guard is first shown to be sleeping, but then wakes up to see the band in the midst of their act while watching on closed circuit TV. Rather than respond, the security begins playing air guitar to ‘Breaking the Law’ as the band jumps into the Cadillac and escapes.
For the record, ‘British Steel’ actually exceeded gold status. It rose to the platinum level.
The video, much like the song speaks directly to their audience They are imploring their fans to put some action in their life.
Here are the lyrics presented by Rob Halford, Glen Tipton and K.K. Downing.
There I was completely wasting, out of work and down
All inside it’s so frustrating as I drift from town to town
Feel as though nobody cares if I live or die
So I might as well begin to put some action in my life
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
So much for the golden future, I can’t even start
I’ve had every promise broken, there’s anger in my heart
You don’t know what it’s like, you don’t have a clue
If you did you’d find yourselves doing the same thing too
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
You don’t know what it’s like
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law”
Elements of this song came to life on this day forty years ago when Judas Priest descended upon Madison Square Garden in New York City to promote their ‘Defenders of the Faith’ album. New York DJ, Perry Stone was MCing the event and when he took some time to list a series of acts that were slated to play over the summer of 1984 the crowd became increasingly unruly. It seems they weren’t too big on performers like Neil Diamond and Helen Reddy.
Here is Stone’s recollection.
Naturally, the crowd of 20,000-plus booed me when I introduced myself, but began to get truly unruly when I read that list of uncool acts. The crowd proceeded to throw firecrackers, M-80s, Cherry Bombs and assorted beer bottles at me.”
The scene escalated, and before too long some in the crowd ripped up some foam seats and began throwing them on to the stage. In the end, it is estimated the riot caused $250,000 in damage. Judas Priest was banned from ever playing the venue again which caused Rob Halford to quip with his tongue planted firmly in cheek.
Very metal. The horrible thing is that if we did play Madison Square Garden, there would be some enthusiast who was there from the original riot with his pen knife out. It would start all over again. So, it’s probably best.”
It gets even funnier. A short time later Glen Tipton and K.K. Downing attended a tennis match at Madison Square Garden, featuring John McEnroe. Because they had been banned, the guitar tandem aimed to blend in with the crowd. They thought they had succeeded until this happened.
There’s actually quite a funny ending to that. Me and Ken went there to watch [John] McEnroe play tennis in some indoor tennis championship. We went in hoodies, because we had been banned from Madison Square. Halfway through the tennis match, one of the ushers came down and he went, ‘Thanks for the new seats.'”
So, it seems ‘Breaking the Law’ doesn’t always pay.
Take a seat.
Based on the importance of ‘Breaking the Law’ in the lexicon of the Judas Priest library it is not surprising that the song has been covered by numerous acts since 1980.
Perhaps the most important cover is from Pansy Division in 1997. The ‘queercore’ alt rock band performed ‘Breaking the Law’ during a Pride event in San Diego. Here is a very raw video of that performance which features a special guest.
Take a moment to watch this video which tells the Pansy Division story. At about 57:30 their connection to Rob Halford takes centre stage.
I feel like I’ve been inducted into the rock ‘n roll hall of flame.”
The significance of this performance was far reaching. Less than a year later, Halford gave an exclusive interview with MTV where he came out publicly. The fact that he was well into his career as a rock star before he opening up about his sexuality makes sense because when Halford was growing up in England, homosexuality was outlawed until 1967.
This gives a whole lot of meaning to Rob Halford’s cry…
You don’t know what it’s like.”
It has led to many music fans surmising that for Halford at least, a portion of ‘Breaking the Law’ was deeply personal. In many ways the song was about people who felt they could not express themselves.
Trying to deal with their alienation.”
Judas Priest was giving them a voice.
Looking back on Pansy Division as a band and this concert moment demonstrates an interesting evolution of acceptance. When Pansy Division was rising as a popular musical act nobody was out, but as their popularity increased more and more musicians began to open up about their sexuality. This included artists like KD Lang, Michael Stipe. Etheridge and of course Rob Halford. The list goes on.
Acts like Pansy Division broke down barriers. In their words they served to ‘break the stigma’ of being queer entertainers, and to their credit they held nothing back.
Some people have asked if the message is more important than the music. This is an interesting question, but it says here that the two are inseparable. The message is in the music and the music is the message. Pansy Division were the messengers.
Before we move on to a handful of other covers let’s enjoy this fun adaptation from ‘The Simpsons’ which modifies the message to a desire for conformity. In ‘Respecting the Law’ the FBI goes after Homer who is being accused of piracy for downloading movies and going into hiding. Judas Priest aims to lure Homer out with this revised take on the song.
Now for some more cover versions. Let’s go to 2006 and a unique take from Skafari. This is from ‘Hard Rockin’ Ska’. This is a blast.
One year later, Hayseed Dixie added ‘Breaking the Law’ to their album ‘Weapons of Grass Destruction’. This bluegrass take, on the heavy metal standard brings out the anguish in the narration. Everything Hayseed Dixie does is awesome, but this is among their best covers. I love these guys.
Now for some heavy hitters. Here is Lemmy and Motorhead with their nod to Judas Priest.
Going in a completely opposite direction, here is an intriguing lullaby version of ‘Breaking the Law’ and it works incredibly well.
Moving on to 2013, here are The Pinstripes with a rockabilly version of ‘Breaking the Law’. Again, really good, and the upbeat roots style works.
In 2017, a Swedish heavy metal band called Sturm und Drang covered ‘Breaking the Law’ on their album ‘Learning to Rock’. They cut their teeth on bands like Judas Priest. In 2017, K.K. Downing of Judas Priest joined the band on stage to do a rousing cover of ‘Breaking the Law’.
A few years later in 2020, a Romanian band called The Iron Cross released a cover of ‘Breaking the Law’. This young band ascended through their love of bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.
It speaks to the evolution of this genre and it goes all the way back to Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. Once again, all roads lead back to the Midlands
For Judas Priest, it all culminated in their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022. Enjoy this mini career retrospective.
Here is Alice Cooper and his induction speech which effectively breaks down the significance of Judas Priest in the lexicon of essential acts in music history. Here are the key points.
- Definitive metal band
- Defined the heavy metal sound
- Explosive dual guitar attack
- Rob Halford’s vocals and range
- The look. Black leather, studs and chains.
- Attitude to spare.
- The motorcycle
- A catalogue of great songs that spoke to their audience.
- A live act that was unforgettable
Alice Cooper is more than a peer. He is a friend and this speech is from the heart.
Immediately following Alice Cooper’s induction speech what else would they launch into? Here they are playing ‘Breaking the Law’. They are energized by the magnitude of the moment. This performance will send chills up and down the spine of any true music fan.
In this passage, Rob Halford summarizes the purpose.
Every night it’s a tiny bit different to any other, and I still get a massive adrenalin rush on hearing those twin guitars fire up. It’s also a great crowd participation number. Everyone’s had a confrontation with a copper and likes to scream about breaking the law, don’t they?”
And when everything gets broken down to the lowest common denominator every fan projects just a little bit of the Beavis and Butthead personality.
All you can say is…
That was cool.”
Ted Tocks Covers 