TS: Judas Priest's "Love Bites" vs Def Leppard's "Love Bites"

actually i love both of these songs but the Priest one sticks in my mind the most i guess

Priest

so, in terms of band comparison, it's Priest no contest. however I voted Def Leppard cuz Priest's track was a middling effort on an otherwise amazing album, and Def Leppard's was an overproduced excess power ballad that worked.

neanderthal OTM

in the dead of night

The Judas Priest song is a bit of goofy minimalist genius. So stupid, but so catchy, and that cold Defenders of the Faith production suits it perfectly. One of my all-time most listened-to tracks.

Priest easy. I can barely tolerate anything off Hysteria.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSCLyrxb0no

Priest easy. I can barely tolerate anything off Hysteria.

i would have said this, but i listened tonight to the pyromania tracks i most fondly remember: photograph, foolin' and rock of ages, then bringin' on the heartbreak off high and dry. the big hits as i recall them. then and only then all the hysteria singles in aspie order. and the first couple, animal and women, are so incredibly lame and misconceived, the next (the title track), hysteria, so, well, okay, i guess, that pour some sugar on me comes finally as sweet a relief, at least touches the hem of what they once were. and jesus christ the british video/single is so much better than the remixed US version! having granted that, i can't deny love bites, which is so lovely, ridiculous, astounding, the payoff so massive

i don't wanna touch you too much baby
cuz makin' love to you might drive me crazy
i know that you think love is the way you make it 
so i don't wanna be there when you decide to break it (yaow)
love bites, love bleeds
it's bringin' me to my knees
love lives, love dies
it's no surprise
love begs, love pleads
it's what i need...

that well shit man i tell you true

Love Bites is definitely a high point on that Def Leppard album, but my inner 9th grader watching Night Flight in 85 just won't allow it.

Anyway, I wish Foolin' got more love these days. I'm always amazed at the # of parts that song contains. Most pop songs these days don't even fuck w/pre-choruses, etc., and that tune has like 4 distinct parts within the span of 60 seconds:

1) On and on we ride the storm
The flame has died, and the fire has gone
Oh, this empty bed is a night alone
I realized that long ago

2) Is anybody out there? Anybody there?
Does anybody wonder? Anybody care?

3) Oh! I just gotta know
If you're really there and you really care
'Cos baby I'm not

4) F-f-f-foolin', ect.

Oh Mutt, you're so wreckless!!!

part 3 (i just gotta know, if) is the most awesome, because it promises this leap, this otherworldly new world, on which part 4 then more than fully delivers:

we start out in lady luck's chambers, the placid unicorn glade, with styx and heart and zeppelin at their harpsichords' call, before dropping headlong into momentary dio for the big existential question, before rising to DEF fucking LEPPARD as we push the moment to its crisis, cuz baby i'm not

4) F-f-f-foolin', ect.

ha ha totally otm

I was so disappointed in Hysteria because little metal me wanted 12 more Foolin's and Rocks of Ages.

and the first couple, animal and women, are so incredibly lame and misconceived

Crazy talk! "Animal" is the best of the Hysteria singles. That pre-chorus/chorus is awesome.

I love Priest, but I'm not crazy about "Love Bites" (or most of the DOTF album). Have to go with Def Lep here.

"animals" pre chorus/chorus IS awesome, but it has nothing whatsoever to do with the verse that builds it up. the verse sounds like simple minds or something, is completely lifeless and uninspired. it's even in a different key! and that key jump is a cool trick, kind of, but it doesn't disguise the fact that they had a brilliant chorus and no song to go with it. no surprise that they recorded the thing three times with three different producers before finally giving up and dumping the stitched-together result to market.

I love Hysteria, although I think Pyromania was their peak as it blended the best of their old school rock and pop sensibility.

I do agree with "Animal" being a weird pastiche of parts. like it was jarring to me the first time I heard the chorus go back into the verse and how it didn't seem to fit.

I still like the song a lot, but the verse is my favorite part about it.

Women on the other hand is awesome

don't hate "women" or "animal", tbh, but they don't touch me inside the way a def leppard should

lol. think my fav Lep song is still "Stagefright"

I think "Me & My Wine" might be my favorite Def Leppard track. The re-release of High 'n' Dry on cassette owned the summer of '84 for me and my friends.

I'd rather listen to High 'n' Dry than Hysteria any day of the week. I think I prefer Def Leppard in Zep mode rather than ELO mode.

I like both eras, it just depends what mood I'm in. I played both High 'n Dry and Hysteria last week.

VH1 Classic Metal Mania just played both songs about 4 videos apart from each other.

I feel good about my vote for Priest now. I can appreciate that 80's pop production style more now than I could when it was destroying rock music, but "Love Bites" wasn't even that great. I didn't want my metal sounding like watered down "I'm on Fire" or "Boys of Summer".

I wanted my metal in tight vinyl tights.

my issue is it just seems like Priest by numbers. it's the only song on Defenders that I skip (otherwise, it's one of my favorite Priest albums).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaQLN272AX4

my issue is it just seems like Priest by numbers.

yeah, this. generally prefer priest to def lep, but i'm not gonna stake a lot on "love bites" (though i don't habitually skip it, either).

i mean if Def Lep had wrote a song called "Victim of Changes" i'm sure they'd lose 41-0

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