Originally Posted December 1, 2014
For those of us who have spent lonely hours on a treadmill or similar machine designed to turn voluntary self-torture into physical well-being, combating boredom is a constant struggle. Most of us turn to music to get us through those lonely, painful hours, but spend enough time on the turning gears and even the most beloved album loses its ability to inspire and becomes boring. For this reason, I’ve found myself turning to ever more obscure album selections and “questionable” choices that I would never tap into if I were called upon to showcase my musical tastes.
In that vein, I turned to the once beloved, later reviled, and often criticized 1986 Judas Priest release, Turbo. My regular readers (as if) already know how Priest triumphantly reclaimed a spot on my musical radar with a masterful live show in Allentown earlier this month, buoyed by an ultimately competent, and sometimes inspired, new album (Redeemer of Souls – worth a listen on your part). As such, the mighty Priest was once again getting regular listens from me, and was often fueling my cardiovascular forays on the afore-mentioned runs. However, a steady rotation of Screaming for Vengeance, Defenders of Faith and Painkiller, as awesome as that lineup is, began to suffer the same fate as any string of albums subject to repeated listens – familiarity is in inverse proportion to ability to inspire, so I began looking elsewhere in Priest’s back catalog of vinyl.
Which inevitably brings me to Turbo. Turbo is widely seen as a musical misstep for the mighty Priest. Coming off what is arguably their strongest string of albums (ranging from “British Steel” to “Defenders”), Priest was firmly established as Heavy Metal royalty and had as much claim to the title of “Most Badass Band on the Planet” as anyone. However, Turbo radically changed Priest’s course, to mixed results at best. More on that in a bit.
However, it is just not a simple matter to declare Turbo a “bad album” and move on. In many ways, Turbo was not at all a bad album. Its production was the cleanest and crispest sounding of any Priest album to date (which is not always a good thing, as many fans will attest). And quite frankly, the song writing on the album ranges from masterful to competent, depending on which track you’re focusing on. But it cannot be denied that Priest, at this point, were master song-crafters, and I think the tracks reflect that, whatever your opinion on them may be. And the album art was an awesome continuation of the style and motifs of the last two – Screaming for Vengeance and Defenders of Faith, and the “trilogy” of those three album covers is a winning contribution to Priest’s image in the 80’s.
No, the reason why calling Turbo a “misstep” is so complicated is not because it’s “bad”. The reason it is largely seen as a negative album is that it was a significant, if somewhat daring, departure from what had worked so well for Priest on the last 5 albums or so, at what was probably the worst possible time in that band’s career.
Now, change in a band, even daring departures from customary sounds, is often a good thing and is often lauded even if the change itself is not always seen as a positive one. Too many bands get “stuck” in the same old sound. After three albums or so, this sound gets boring and leads to ever diminishing commercial returns as the band’s fan base grows, changes, and often moves on in their musical tastes. That’s why many bands who have been successful over long periods of time (U2 comes to mind), spend much of their career evolving and changing, like a shark that constantly has to move forward in order to survive. And, as I’ve said, even if such changes are not always “home runs”, they’re often admired by critics who at least give bands credit for daring to be bold, innovative, and willing to try something new.
Not with Turbo though. Why is that?
Again, Turbo was not bad and, quite frankly, wound up introducing a lot of fans to Priest who probably never would have given the band a listen otherwise. I was one of those fans. Squarely in the middle of those awkward, adolescent years where I wanted to rebel but was too damned scared to rebel too much, I began delving into the “glamorous” American brand of heavy metal in my early teens. At the time, this pretty much consisted of Motley Cure, Quiet Riot and Ratt, as the “hair metal” craze hot not yet been kicked into overdrive by Bon Jovi, Poison and company by this point. In the early 80’s, listening to that music and moving in those circles necessarily meant reading the heavy metal magazines, and it was there that I saw the first ads and read the first interviews of the band as they were just releasing Turbo.
As it was being released, it was the use of guitar synthesizers that was the big selling point of the album. I still remember an article entitled, “Priest Forge New Metal with the Use of Guitar Synthesizers” that piqued my curiosity. In this article, band members proclaimed that they were engaging in more actual melodies on the new album as opposed to mere “metal riffing”. In addition to the new musical elements being sold by the record label, there was also a new look for the band that had less of the traditional black leather and studs and more of hair mousse and, quite frankly, multi-colored vinyl apparel in its place. (This look was the center piece of the “Turbo Lover” video that accompanied the first single off the album). To those who were already die-hard metal heads at this point in time, there was no getting around the fact that this was a “pussification” of Priest’s look and sound. But, hey, let’s face it - it was a more accessible look for Priest. Suddenly, they didn’t look so violent and scary. And all this talk of using “actual melodies” with their techno-cool “guitar synthesizers” seemed very cool in a notably glittery-metallic-80’s kind of way. If the current offering by Priest was either “Defenders” or “Screaming”, I probably wouldn’t have given them a listen at that point in time. I like to think I would have discovered them eventually, as my musical tastes solidified, became bolder, and I grew less reliant on the pop hooks and synth-softened melodies of my early youth for my musical satisfaction. But there’s no doubt that the reason I went to Priest how I did, when I did, was due to liking the idea that Turbo was offering. In hindsight, was I reacting to (or, being manipulated by) corporate machinations designed to bring a new, and more lucrative audience, to Priest? You bet. But corporate shills don’t always get it wrong (or, perhaps more accurately, no matter how wrong they are, there are always some individuals in the demographic who respond to their ploys), and for whatever reason, I was an easy mark at that time. If we’re honest with ourselves, we all are suckers at some points in our lives. And, in my defense at this point, I was both young and still trying to figure out my musical tastes, so I think I can be forgiven somewhat for rising to the corporate bait, so to speak, by given Turbo a try.
So those were the marketing aspects that brought me to Turbo, but how about the music? As I mentioned above, the song writing ranges from competent to well done. These were not raw, rough-around-the-edges songs, but songs crafted by a band that had a good eight albums under their belt by this point. They were experienced and professional and, quite frankly, well done if you judged them on their own basis.
This brings us to the fourth track – “Parental Guidance”. If you had stuck with Priest this far through the Turbo album and found yourself teetering on the edge of hating it, this is probably the song that put you over. First let me say this – it is an absolutely well-crafted, catchy, hard rocking pop-infused song that had “hit single” written all over it. If any other band from that time period had released it, especially an American Hair Metal Band, it would have been a mega hit. But for the mighty Priest? No way. We’ve all heard the apocryphal stories of how longtime Judas Priest fans cried when they first heard the Turbo album – well, if that ever really did happen, I’m sure this is the song that brought the tears.
How can this be if the song was as masterfully crafted as I’ve described it? Well, just imagine Judas Priest in all of their black leather-bound glory, poised on the stage like a pack of hungry wolves ready to tear into their set like a predator after its prey, fans standing rapt with adoration and expecting a badass metal experience. Then, after a few competent if somewhat “poppy” power chords, the band tears into, “You say I waste my life away but I live it to the full/And how would you know anyway, you’re just mister dull”. Eh, what? “Mister Dull”? WTF? Then, “You always chew me out because I stay out late/Until your three-piece suit comes back to date, it won’t get straight?” What the hell? “Won’t get straight”? Why is the baddest metal band on the arguing with their parents about staying out late?!? Then, oh god, that chorus – “we don’t need no, no, no Parental Guidance here”. This is Judas F*&%ing Priest here people, why in God’s name would they be singing about their parents giving them a hard time?!? Despite the fact that the band members were closer to 40 than they were 30 when they wrote this song, Priest was never a band that ever had to worry about their freaking parents man! While the pop hooks were there, this was just the wrong song, at the wrong time, for a band like Judas Priest. If anyone remembers how incongruous it was for a “band” of obvious white-bread pretty boys like “New Kids on the Block” singing about being “Tough Enough”? Well, this was the inverse of that – a case of bona fide badasses with actual street cred suddenly being bummed because their parents complained about them playing their music too loud. This was the musical equivalent of that campaign commercial where Michael Dukakis stuck his pencil-necked head out of that tank with a combat helmet on – the image didn’t fit the subject matter, and the public knew it. Hell, even clueless adolescent me knew it, and I, for the most part, loved the album.
At this point, most listeners’ impressions of the album were set, and the remaining songs faced an uphill battle the rest of the way. “Rock You All Around the World” was obviously engineered to be a stadium rocker, complete with a sing-along chorus that the crowd could chant along to. Again, with this track, Priest showed themselves to be superbly competent at their craft, but the chorus was somewhat clumsy and it just never caught on with live crowds the way I think the band intended.
“Out in the Cold”, which kicked off the second side of the album, was really where you saw the band use the guitar synths to their fullest, and those “actual melodies” they spoke about in the magazines were on full display. It really was an interesting piece of music and, in my opinion, the second most accomplished track on the album after “Turbo Lover”. However, it received a lot of criticism for being a slow, ponderous number – which isn’t always a negative in my opinion. Priest had done “slow ponderous numbers” before, most recently with “When the Night Comes Down” on their previous album (“Defenders of Faith”). However, I think that “slow and ponderous” coupled with their heaviest dose of guitar synthesizers yet was just too much for most fans who were still reeling from the juvenile pap of “Parental Guidance”. That aside, I still think of “Out in the Cold” as a strong, if somewhat singular song and still enjoy listening to it to this day. It was probably the most “musically accomplished” song on “Turbo”.
The next song, “Wild Nights, Hot & Crazy Days”, was Judas Priest doing their best Van Halen impression. The song is about summer, hot weather, having fun, summer, looking good, summer, and having a lot of fun, in summer, in hot weather. All in all, I think it’s a really enjoyable, high-energy song, and it never fails to kick me into high gear when I’m running at the gym. But, again, when people turn on Priest to hear Rob Halford sing, they’re not doing it to hear his impression of David Lee Roth, and I fear that, because of that, the song just fell flat for most listeners.
“Hot for Love”, despite the sound of its title, was a rather thought-provoking musical foray for Priest. It seems like Priest was trying to maintain its high-energy, hard rocking sound, while at the same time incorporating elements of “electronica” in a strange hybrid that tries to be equal parts British Metal and Depeche Mode. In the midst of all the familiar-sounding riffs and power chords were a lot of echo effects and a lot of reverb, with a healthy dose of electronic percussion sprinkled in. And while I don’t think the band was “successful” with this little musical experiment, it’s probably the song I have the most grudging respect for. There really are some interesting moments in this song, and the lyrics of “nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, nowhere to go/Nowhere to run to/Nowhere to hide this hurt inside” come across as some of the best on the album. But it just doesn’t hold together. I always wondered how it would have worked out if Priest could have indulged a little more in this sound, and spent a little more time mastering this style of musical experimentation. But the overall critical reaction to Turbo sent them spinning in another direction, leaving this potentially fruitful vein of musical experimentation largely untapped in their future endeavors.
By the time the band gets to “Reckless”, a very competent and very enjoyable up-tempo little rocker that closes the album, I think most listeners have tuned out or completely given up on Turbo (or, conversely, gone back to the beginning to hear “Turbo Lover” again if they liked the album). And I think that’s a real shame because I always considered “Reckless” to be one of those “hidden classics” so many bands have squirreled away in obscure places of their back catalogue. I think that if “Reckless” possessed a more strategic place in the album’s track line-up, and had gotten the proper promotion from the band and their label, Priest could have had themselves a mild hit with this one. It’s largely a back-to-basics rocker with little (if any) discernable guitar synth in it (which may explain why they failed to promote it). Off all the songs on Turbo, I think this is the one that could have fit most comfortably on any of Priest’s previous releases, and may explain why they threw it on the end almost as an afterthought (“hey, here’s this song we wrote for the last album but it didn’t make the cut so let’s tag it on at the end here”). It’s a shame though, because it really is a competent little number and I’ve enjoyed it a great deal over the years.
And so ends my song-by-song review of Turbo. If you’ve followed me this far, you probably see why Turbo failed. It was not so much a question of musical quality or a case of bad song-writing. It’s just that this was not the kind of music that Judas Priest fans wanted to hear from Judas Priest.
And again, it makes me wonder – why? I mean, Motely Crue had just come off of two albums in the U.S. where they established themselves as badass, masochistic Satan Worshippers, and right around the time “Turbo” came out, the Crue released “Theatre of Pain”. “Theatre” was, track for track, a much “softer” album than “Turbo” and signaled as dramatic a departure for the Crue’s sound as “Turbo” was for Priest’s (and contained the treacly ballad “Home Sweet Home”, which was much more of a sellout song than anything on “Turbo”). However, fans of the Crue did not react to “Theatre” with the righteous indignation so apparent in the fan reaction to “Turbo”. Again, why was this?
I think that, for better or for worse, Priest had already by the mid-80’s established themselves as the elder statesmen of Heavy Metal. I mean you still technically had Black Sabbath on their third or fourth lead singer, but they just didn’t seem relevant at the time. And while Ozzy was as popular as ever, watching his career was the musical equivalent of watching a slow-motion train wreck taking place over the course of many years. His music was great, but nobody expected the Oz man to be a statesman about anything. It was just an adventure for him to get a new album out and make it from show to show on any given tour. Meanwhile, Priest had a solid eight or so albums under their belt, and while they were not as old as “Metal’s Founding Trinity” of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Sabbath, they did precede the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (see Iron Maiden, Saxon, Def Leppard, etc.) by a good three or four albums. And they were competent, well spoken, and all the while utterly badass. So while Crue were still in their relative infancy and evolving into their sound as a band, Priest was seen more as an institution. After all, they were the self-proclaimed “Defenders of the Faith”, the definers and defenders of “True Metal” upon which all the glam metal, pop metal, thrash metal and speed metal genres were based.
So in many ways, I think Priest underestimated the role they played in the Metal Universe, and the larger musical universe in which it contained. If you looked up Heavy Metal in the dictionary at the time, it probably would have had a picture of the band as a visual illustration of the genre. They were standard against which all others were measured and from which all other sub-genres evolved. It was an esteemed position to be in, and they had earned and owned like no other band before or since.
Which is why Turbo was largely seen as a failure. No one wanted this kind of album from Priest. The long-term Priest fans surely didn’t want it. And for the newer fans who were into the more glamorous and pop-infused versions of the genre, well, Priest was not the band they were going to go to to get their fix anyway. With Turbo, Priest was simply peddling to the wrong demographic, and ended up alienating their core audience as a result.
But I still say it’s a good album. Arguably a great album. It’s just not a good or great “Judas Priest Album”.
So if you’re in the mood for some hard-hitting rock singles, without getting too bogged down in the riff-heaviness that can be heavy metal, you should look Turbo’s way. Forget for a moment that it’s by Judas Priest, that it was largely seen as a critical failure, and that it badly damaged the band’s image going into the end of the decade. Instead, pop it in your car on your way to the presentation you have to get yourself motivated for. Or make sure it’s on your iPod (or equivalent) when you go for that run or workout at the gym. The album is called “Turbo” for a reason. While not as “heavy” as what we expect from Priest, it is fast-paced, largely upbeat, and quite frankly, a whole lot of fun. So assuming you can give yourself momentary amnesia about the band that wrote and performed it - give it a try. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised and going back to it again and again. I know that I will.
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