Rocka Rolla
| Rocka Rolla | ||||
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| Studio album by Judas Priest | ||||
| Released | 6 September 1974 | |||
| Recorded | June – July 1974 | |||
| Studio | Island, Trident and Olympic Studios | |||
| Genre | Heavy metal | |||
| Length |
38:49 (original) 42:12 (with bonus track) |
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| Label | Gull | |||
| Producer | Rodger Bain | |||
| Judas Priest chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Rocka Rolla | ||||
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| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    |
Rocka Rolla is the debut studio album by British heavy metal band Judas Priest, released on 6 September 1974 by Gull Records. It was produced by Rodger Bain, who had made a name for himself as the producer of Black Sabbath's first three albums. It is the only album to feature drummer John Hinch.
According to the band, the album was entirely played "live", in studio (i.e. all musicians playing simultaneously as in a concert, vs. the more popular method of each musician's parts being recorded separately and then mixing them).
According to the band there were technical problems in the studio, resulting in poor sound quality and a hiss through the album. Guitarist Glenn Tipton had just joined when recording of Rocka Rolla began and did not contribute any songwriting except on the title track and "Run of the mill". He did come up with the songs "Tyrant", "Epitaph", and "Ripper", but Bain considered them not commercial enough and rejected their inclusion. Bain also rejected the concert staple "Whiskey Woman" which later, with contributions from Tipton, morphed into "Victim of Changes". These songs were eventually all included on their next album Sad Wings of Destiny. In addition, "Winter", "Deep Freeze" and "Winter Retreat" form a suite, but are listed as separate tracks and divided as such on the CD release.
"Dying to Meet You" contains a clear break before an unlisted song (often known as "Hero Hero") begins. It may be possible that the record company insisted on there being ten tracks on the album which led to this decision. Alternatively, this unlisted song may simply be the second half of "Dying to Meet You", as this is how the lyrics were printed on their 1978 Best of... compilation.
The songs on the album were mostly written by previous Judas Priest frontman Al Atkins, Ian Hill, and K.K. Downing, and had been regular parts of their live performances in Manchester, where the band had achieved a cult following during the past few years. The track "Caviar and Meths" was originally a 14-minute epic penned by Atkins but due to time constraints, only the intro is recorded for the album. A longer version of the song appears on Atkins's 1998 album Victim of Changes. Though not the full-length version, it is notably longer at seven minutes. That later album also contains covers of "Winter" and "Never Satisfied".
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