Someone Fetch a Priest

It's the 63rd birthday of the Metal God, so I am here to make my offering. Hopefully it's adequate and I'm not fed into some sort of Grinder.

Born in 1951, no one else could have dressed heavy metal up in the finest gay male BDSM gear and gotten away with it. 

One of those guys that makes me proud to be queer, in the realm of metal vocalists there's Rob Halford and there's, well, everyone else. You could make a case that he is the definitive singer of the genre ever.

This one is often held to be the definitive Judas Priest bootleg ever... it's from their 1984 Defenders of the Faith tour and it's a pre-FM from Long Beach Arena in May of that year. This version alleges itself to be direct from the master and it's as flawless sounding as such a supposition implies.

Judas Priest
Long Beach Arena
Long Beach, CA
5.5.1984

CD1
01 Love Bites
02 Jawbreaker
03 Grinder
04 Metal Gods
05 Breaking the Law
06 Sinner
07 Desert Plains
08 Some Heads Are Gonna Roll
09 The Sentinel

CD2
01 Rock Hard Ride Free
02 Night Comes Down
03 The Hellion/Electric Eye
04 Heavy Duty/Defenders of the Faith
05 Freewheel Burning
06 Victim of Changes
07 The Green Manalishi
08 Living After Midnight
09 Hell Bent for Leather
10 You've Got Another Thing Comin'

Total time: 1:56:50

Rob Halford – vocals
K. K. Downing – guitar
Glenn Tipton – guitar
Ian Hill – bass
Dave Holland – drums

pre-FM master

858 MB FLAC/August 2014 archive link

This is a pretty shreddy show and I'm convinced it'll make yer metal Monday so I am tossing it up. I'll be back Wednesday with a double dose of seminal birthday fare, but for now enjoy this two hours of Priestly goodness as we celebrate the 63rd birthday of the one and only Rob Halford, born this day in 1951.--J.