Mother Sun

I'm a huge Judas Priest fan, and while I wouldn't call my self a Priest historian by any stretch, I think that I know my shit when it comes to the band. Yet, a few weeks ago I managed to get quite the surprise when someone online mentioned the song Mother Sun that showed up in a few of their early live sets but was never recorded in the studio. There was some talk of bootleg copies of the song, so I started my hunt. I quickly found that it had been uploaded to youtube, and a quick search of discogs turned up the Mother Sun bootleg collection of rare live and studio recordings.

Honestly, the bootleg recording of the song isn't that impressive. I mean I'm a huge fan of the first couple Priest records, but this live recording of Mother Sun from 1975 is a bit shaky and rough to listen to. The band Portrait recently recorded a cover version of the song, and their version is actually quite a bit better. Still, I needed the Priest live version in my collection, so I grabbed the bootleg LP.

As a whole, this is a really good bootleg. Side one is just a killer recording of Priest live in the BBC studio from 1978. That opening riff for White Heat, Red Hot is fucking killer and it is nice to hear a live version of Starbreaker. Side two has the two songs that the band recorded for the Old Grey Whistle Test...and while I've seen the live videos for those songs on youtube, it is cool to have them here.