Tag: Longing

My Sunday Song – “Another Time, Another Place” by The Defiants

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For My Sunday Song #413, we are tackling the power ballad “Another Time, Another Place” by The Defiants. The song is off the band’s third and latest album, ‘Drive’ and it was written by Bruno Ravel and Paul Laine. You have Paul on vocals and keyboards, Bruno Ravel on bass and Rob Marcello on guitars with Van Romaine on drums. The song did not chart and heck I don’t even know if it was a single, but I do know that if this song was released in the mid to late 80’s it would be #1.

The song is about a love that could have been and doesn’t fall in to the abyss of a love that never was. There was someone in the past that he can’t stop thinking about and he longs for her, but they never became lovers. He dreams about that time in the future in another time and another place where that longing gets fulfilled and they fall in love and are together forever and a day. It is rather heartbreaking to want someone so much and long for them like that and yet nothing to satisfy that desire…at least not yet.

This is more like a Journey ballad as “Another Time, Another Place” might be the best ballad by any band in decades. Yes, it is that good to me. Steve Perry look out. I get lost in the chorus as Paul’s vocals will take over your ears and surround you in comfort and a magical bliss. The chorus is huge and so catchy. It draws you in and won’t let go. The scream Paul has at the end is such a surprise and so cool. I mean it isn’t Rob Halford type of cool, but still pretty awesome. The song is pure perfection again. When it comes on and I’m driving in my car, I keep hitting repeat and can never get enough. It usually accompanies for the rest of the drive. “Drive”…isn’t that the name of the album…how funny.

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My Sunday Song – “Ball And Chain” by Aldo Nova

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For My Sunday Song #354, we are talking another ballad by Aldo called “Ball And Chain” off his debut 1982 album ‘Aldo Nova’. The album came out on April Fool’s Day in the States but it was no joke. The double platinum selling album was huge for Aldo. His song “Fantasy” made the Top 40, but that wasn’t necessarily the best song on the album. One thing Aldo can do is ballads and “Ball And Chain” was one I gravitated towards almost immediately. Aldo wrote and played guitars and keyboards on it as well.

Lyrically, the song is about a love gone dead. The guy sits around waiting for the girl to come back to him. That love he feels weighs him down like a ball and chain as he can’t get over her and he just wants to hear her voice one more time. He wants to hear her say that she still loves him and so he sits, painfully, by the phone waiting for her and yet she never calls. How miserable must he have been to wait so long…he needs some help!!

Musically, it is saturated with keyboards/piano as Aldo loves those synths, but it fits the song so well. The keyboards are almost wailing at times as if they are crying as the hurt so much not hearing from the woman he loves. It is pretty cool effect. Aldo’s guitar solo matches the sound of the keyboards and he just wails away on those notes and makes them cry as well. Aldo sings as if he is feeling the loneliness of his situation and he captures the lyrics so well. And that last “Ball & Chain” vocal sees Aldo hold out the note as long as he can and it ends the song perfectly.

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My Sunday Song – “Desert Plains” by Judas Priest

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For My Sunday Song #296, we are going to discuss the song “Desert Plains” by Judas Priest. The song is from their 1981 album ‘Point of Entry’. The song wasn’t a single, but for me was one of the very few standout tracks on the album. The album went gold in the U.S. selling over 500,000 copies and went to #39 on the Billboard Charts. Not their best showing but that was all about to change with their next album.

“Desert Plains” can have a lot of meanings. I read it was inspired by the beautiful Arizona desert landscape as that is where Rob Halford was living. The song is possibly about riding your motorcycle down the lonely desert road aching to be with your lover and finally arriving at the end as there is a line “The engine roars between my thighs” that makes me think motorcycle, but I guess it could mean some other thing that is between his thighs getting all hot and bothered.

I also saw someone mention that the song is about life and death. The life part is the person on this side of death missing their lover terribly who has died. The other person, who is dead, is on the other side waiting for them so they can one day be together again. If that is the case then the person on this side of death must die because they are together again. That is a little morbid for me, so I personally lean towards the first one because the song does end with them falling in each others arms, but I don’t feel like they died.

The song opens with a loud, heavy drum beat from Dave Holland and is full of dual guitar work from Glenn Tipton and K.K. Downing and a thumping bass line from Ian Hill. Rob Halford comes in and gives a serious tone to the vocals which almost feels a little ominous in its presentation. An album that already has “Heading Out to the Highway”, it is another song that feels like you are driving fast down the road and that there is a dangerous element you can’t escape from and is following you about to catch you. Overall, this is a killer track and might be my favorite track on the album.

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