Judas Priest: Glenn Tipton vs. K.K. Downing

Cafe Society
1

Oh this is such a difficult question …

My god, Judas Priest was the band that basically defined my future taste in music. I was 13 years old when I first heard Judas Priest. I was 14 years old when I first picked up a guitar. So, naturally, I tried to figure out how to play Priest songs on guitar.

I totally sucked at it, and eventually became a bass player and idolized Ian Hill, who is today the only remaining founding member of Judas Priest.

But god, I tried so hard, and I spent years listening to Glenn Tipton and K. K. Downing, and trying to emulate them.

And, at some point, I came to realize that Tipton was a much better guitarist than Downing.

Despite my not wanting to be a lead guitar player, I learned, by ear, three guitar solos. And two of them were solos from Judas Priest songs. Those two Priest solos were the solos from Hell Bent for Leather and Before the Dawn.

Both solos were Tipton solos.

At some point, while learning to play guitar, I noticed that Glenn’s solos were melodic as well as technical. At the same time, I noticed the KK’s solos relied on a lot of whammy bar and feedback and making funny noises.

Despite K.K. Downing being the founding guitarist of Judas Priest, it was Glenn Tipton who ended up defining Judas Priest’s sound.

K.K. is retired now, and has been replaced by a lookalike, while Tipton keeps playing, and everything sounds the same.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

2

The only thing I have to offer is that K.K. looked more “rocker” than Tipton.

But, man! We all had it called wrong back then, didn’t we?

And what do you mean, "Discuss amongst yourselves. " Aren’t you coming back?

3

He’s feeling verklempt.

4

I’m so verklempt that I could plotz!

Maybe I made the mistake of asking on July 4.

Where is Wordman when I need him?

5

::looks down, kicks dirt::

I have to admit, I didn’t listen to enough Priest to develop an opinion on one vs the other. Same thing with The Scorpions and Iron Maiden. I enjoy the music but didn’t pick it apart the way I did, say, UFO. I loved Michael Schenker and learn a bunch his licks. So I don’t know about Uli Jon Roth vs Matthias Jabs, or the three guys playing in Maiden. I remember reading enough articles in guitar mags and listening to where I realized I preferred Tipton, but I couldn’t tell you why.

6

Well, 'sit right there, innit?

No Priest expert here, but it looked to me like Tipton was concocting a singable melody in his solos (along with some really interesting chromatic chaos), while Downing was mostly going for the scream and wail - the gut lunge, as it were.

I won’t say K.K. never succeeded, but yeah, Tipton’s much more to my taste.

7

The cool thing about Judas Priest records is that they’d indicate on the lyric sheet which solos were performed by which guitarist. On the solo for “The Sentinel” they traded licks back & forth six times, with the final section played by both of them.

Which made it easy to figure out that while K.K. was the flashier player, Glenn had more solid chops and more talent. K.K.'s no slouch, though.

8

Tipton had great chops for sure, but as whole, Priest functioned well as a unit. They wrote kick ass songs, and had a sound that was all their own. I play guitar, and when I play live, I often still throw in ‘Another Thing Coming’ but if I had it my way, and not necessarily the will of the audience, I would pick ‘The Helion/Electric Eye’… Probably one of my all time favorites.