Tag: Bob Halligan Jr.

My Sunday Song – “Don’t Close Your Eyes” by Kix

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic13 Comments

For My Sunday Song #437, we are taking one of the best power ballads from the Hair Band era, “Don’t Close Your Eyes” by the band Kix. The song is off their 1988 album ‘Blow My Fuse’ and was the 5th single off the album. The song was released on May 12, 1989 and went all the to #11 on the Hot 100 just missing a Top 10 song. The song also went Gold selling over half a million copies. Donnie Purnell, from the band, was their main songwriter. He collaborated on this song with John Palumbo from the band Crack The Sky and Bob Halligan Jr., who made his mark writing songs for Judas Priest.

The song an anti-suicide song. Someone has taken a bunch of pills and called for help. The person who received the call is giving a heart wrenching plea for the caller to stay awake and not fall asleep. The person pleading to hold on tight and they are praying to the Lord to keep their soul. Help is on the way. Damn…so powerful and so dark. A power ballad that is far from a love song. The lyric of “Don’t sing your last lullaby” is so strong and hits you between the eyes. It also makes me wonder if that person didn’t make it and went to the other side. Whatever the outcome, a moving song regardless.

Musically, it opens with a piano, wind blowing and an overall very haunting opening. The guitars, the bass and the drums are all subtle, nothing overpowering as the focus is the vocals of Steve Whiteman. He really sells the story as you can hear the sadness and feel the pain of those lyrics. It feels like a very personal song to the band. There is a great instrumental break, but again, it doesn’t show off and is simply for the song, the way hit should be.

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Judas Priest – ‘Screaming for Vengeance’ (1982) – Album Review (The Complete Albums Collection Series)

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic47 Comments

For me, ‘Point of Entry’ was a little disappointing. The hard, heavy sound of the band was replaced with a more melodic album that was trying to repeat the success of ‘British Steel’, but failed. ‘Screaming for Vengeance” was the band’s answer back that they could still deliver heavy metal music and let me tell you they did just that. This time around, the band went off to Spain to record the album in Ibizia at Ibizia Sound Studios. If you are wondering why not record in England, well, due to tax issues in England, bands would find it better to not live in England all year long so this let them be out of the country for a spell (and probably why Halford had moved to Arizona years earlier). Okay, that was not really necessary information so let’s try and give you something better.

This album is a first for Priest. No, not the their first album silly. This is the first Priest album to feature a drummer who had played on more than two albums. That is right, Dave Holland was the first Judas Priest drummer to make it on three albums!! Wow!! Give yourself a hand boys, because for you, that is impressive. Dave would actually go on to play on four more albums plus a Live album. Congrats Mr. Holland. The drummer curse was now over. The band is still intact with Dave, Rob Halford, Glenn Tipton, K.K. Downing and Ian Hill.

During this album, Tom Allom was a task master. The label was putting pressure on the band to deliver and album that the American fans would appreciate. A hard hitting, true heavy metal album. The label felt the band was about to break in America and they wanted the bands to deliver the goods that would do that. And well, we will see if they do…here’s a hint…they do!!

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