“The true and free expression I demand is human rights. Right!”
Videos by American Songwriter
So declared singer Rob Halford in “Raw Deal,” a deep cut from Judas Priest’s third album Sin After Sin, which was released in 1977. The song was interesting for a couple of different reasons—it had a slightly funky mid-tempo groove that glided along, with three “choruses” that ran for mere seconds, and a faster paced coda building to an agitated final scream. The song had an angsty feeling to it, as Halford recognized in his 2020 memoir Confess. It served surreptitiously as his coming-out song two decades before he officially did so in the press.
A Slightly Veiled Tale
The six-minute “Raw Deal” was included on Sin After Sin, which was co-produced by Deep Purple and Rainbow bassist Roger Glover. The eight-song album was reportedly recorded in a matter of days. This was Priest’s major label debut for Columbia/CBS Records, and it included a rocked-up version of Joan Baez’s gorgeous folk ballad “Diamonds and Rust” for more commercial appeal.
While “Raw Deal” was Halford’s coming-out moment, most fans blinked and missed it because they probably didn’t understand the references. As he noted in his memoir: “It was a howl of rage that nobody heard.” The vocal production on some of Priest’s early albums, especially here, found his singing mixed in with the music rather than above it, making clarity an issue on a few songs. Couple that with Halford’s enunciation in a few spots and certain words were tricky to understand.
But these days, and in retrospect with the printed lyrics in the 2001 album reissue, it’s pretty obvious what was going on in the song. And during one brief part—specifically at 1:28 on the YouTube video—guitarist K.K. Downing even mimicked a catcall.
Setting The Scene
For younger listeners who had no understanding of gay culture, it might have seemed like the character in the song walked into a bar with some macho types and was trying to sort out the vibe of the room. It could even have felt like a scene from a western due to the line I cased the joint / straining at the seams. But in reality, Halford’s lyrics were about a man walking into a gay bar on New York’s Fire Island, a popular LGBTQ haven off the south shore of Long Island, and checking out the action. “Straining at the seams” took on a different connotation especially when he seemingly hooked up with someone in the bar.
I made a spike about nine o’clock on a Saturday
All eyes hit me as I walked into the bar
And see the other guys were fooling in the denim dudes
A couple cards playing rough stuff, New York, Fire Island
I cased the joint, straining at the seams
I moseyed up to the counter and the tender came a-grinnin’
I snapped the smile off his face and snarled “Give me a bourbon”
The mirror on the wall was collecting and reflecting
All the heavy bodies ducking, stealing eager for some action
The scene screwed me up, I saw some contact
Then the big boys, saw me and knew that
“Love Knoweth No Laws”
It should be noted in that the UK, where Halford, Freddie Mercury, Elton John, Boy George, David Bowie, and countless other gay and bisexual male performers grew up, male homosexuality was outlawed until 1967. It was literally illegal to be a gay man if police caught you in the act, so to speak. Thankfully, those days have long passed us.
One of the final lines of “Raw Deal” is repeated over and over—as quoted in the 2001 reissue of Sin After Sin: “I’m going, no loss.” However, it has been suggested the actual lyric is “love knoweth no laws.” One can actually hear it either way, and the latter version actually makes more sense given the history just presented. Also, “a spike” may have been “The Spike,” which was a real S&M gay bar in New York City’s Chelsea District between the mid-1970s and early 2000s. Halford likely had not spent that much in New York back then, but he could have learned about the referenced places through friends.
In the ’70s and ’80s, metal musicians didn’t publicly admit to being gay, making Halford wonder if he was pushing the “Raw Deal” lyrics too far for the time. But many in the music industry already knew the singer is gay. Some fans had figured it out by the ’90s—songs like “Grinder” and “Jawbreaker” certainly had some double entendres—but it wasn’t until he officially came out on MTV News in February 1998 that he publicly declared it. He also became a cover story for The Advocate that spring as well. It was a liberating experience for him.
To this day, there is still no other major male metal figure who has come out. There have been plenty of gay male metalheads along the way, but no one at the level of commercial success that Halford has. One wonders why given how times have been changing.
Protective Solidarity
“I’ve always felt really cool about the fact that the guys in Priest were accepting of the song ‘Raw Deal,'” Halford recalled to Loudwire in 2020. “It may have been that they didn’t know what I was talking about, but ‘Raw Deal’ is just talking about the good times that can be had in Fire Island, New York. The reference is there.
“When you’re in the closet, you’re protecting everybody but yourself and that’s the way it was for me for many, many years in Priest,” Halford continued. “Primarily because I love this band with every fiber of my being and I never wanted to do anything to harm or damage what we were about as a metal band. That’s very normal for musicians to feel so enamored with the band and the people in the band that you love so much. But in this case the fear of rejection, in every essence including the fan base, was so important to be avoided. It was tremendously difficult.”
Now fans can not only celebrate Halford as a great singer and an important gay metal icon, but they can appreciate the difficult journey he undertook before he came out. “Raw Deal” was a part of that odyssey and a bold if underappreciated move for its time.
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Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
