How to Sing Living After Midnight by Judas Priest
- Artist: Judas Priest
- Range: One octave from B3 to B4.
- Album: British Steel
- Released: March 21, 1980
- Genre: Rock, Metal
About the Song
Living After Midnight was written when Judas Priest’s guitarist Glenn Tipton was working on writing a song at 4:00 a.m. It just so happened that the band’s rehearsal space was directly below their singer, Rob Halford’s, room. He was trying to get some sleep, so he went down to the rehearsal room, asked Glenn to turn it down a bit, and told him he was “living after midnight.” Glenn said that was the perfect name for the song he was working on, and the next day, Rob wrote the lyrics for “Living After Midnight.”
The lyrics give a glimpse into the nightlife of a touring band. It does not tell a story, and much of it is vague. For instance, you know they are loaded on something, but not what that is. Alcohol was a drug of choice for Rob Halford when the song was written, so to put your own story together in your head, you can use alcohol as what you are loaded on or use something you or someone you know might be loaded on.
In the chorus, you can imagine he sings about enjoying his life in the moment, then heading out to do it again in the next city.
Rob Halford loved motorcycles so much that he usually drove his motorcycle on the stage when performing live. This is what the gleaming chrome refers to. Reflecting steel refers to his own reflection on the motorcycle. The steel comes from their album British Steel.
Memorizing the Lyrics
For songs like this that don’t have a specific story, I will make up my own to keep the lines and verses in order in my head when I sing the song. You can come up with your own story or use mine.
First verse: Their tour bus gets into the city at 1 AM, and by then, they are so loaded they have to say it twice. Rob puts on his outfit (all geared up) and heads out to get more drinks (score again). He is excited while thinking about the next day’s gig(come alive in the neon light), where he will make his moves on stage (make my moves, right).
Second verse: It is the next day, and Rob rides his motorcycle to the gig(gleaming chrome reflecting steel). It doesn’t matter what is happening when he gets there, as he is prepared (ready to take on every deal). This gets his pulse racing (pulse racing-hot to take) as he revs the motor on his motorcycle (motor’s revved up).
Third verse: The audience is so hyped up for the concert you can feel the electricity in the air(air’s electric sparking power). Rob gets more excited as he anticipates his performance(getting hotter by the hour). He finds the stage and his spot front and center(set my sights and home in). The crowd goes crazy (joint starts flying) when he starts singing.
Open Throat Techniques
This song goes up to B4, so sopranos and high tenors may not need some of these techniques, but for the rest of us, here are some vowel and consonant changes that will aid you in singing this song.
- Change the vowel sound of “geared” from “ear” to “air” and only lightly touch the r consonant.
- In the word “score,” change the c to a g and sing “sgore.”
- For the higher first words of each verse on the chorus, eliminate the g at the end. This will help keep you from closing down the glottis.
- When singing “Living,” use a very quick “ah” to get you to the “ih” sound. “Lah-ihvihn, after midnight.”
- Change “Rocking” to “Rawkihn” to keep an open throat smaller “AH” vowel.
- Loving should be fine using the “UH” sound for “Luhvihn.”
Live Singing Notes
- In Rob’s later years, he now has the rest of the band sing those higher first words in the chorus without him; then, he sings the rest of the line. This means he doesn’t sing the words living, rocking, or loving.
- In the studio version, he sings, “Ready to take on every deal.” When he sang it live in the 80s, he changed the lyric to “Ready to take on any deal.” In the 2000s, he sings it as “Ready to take on every deal.” The official lyric video from the Judas Priest channel shows the lyric as “Ready to take on every deal.” My speculation is he wanted to change the lyrics after they did the studio recording, but it became such a monster hit that he gave up changing it and went back to singing it as every deal.
- In both the studio version and the Live Aid performance, he does not pronounce the “s” in the word steel, sounding more like “teal” or even “eel.” In later live performances, you can clearly hear him pronounce the word “steel.”