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"Better by You, Better than Me" is a 1969 song by the English
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Spooky Tooth Spooky Tooth were an English rock band originally formed in Carlisle in 1967. Principally active between 1967 and 1974, the band re-formed several times in later years. History Prior to Spooky Tooth, four of the band's five founding members h ...
. The song appeared on the album ''
Spooky Two ''Spooky Two'' is the second studio album by the English rock band Spooky Tooth. It was originally released in March 1969, on the label Island Records (licensed to A&M in the United States). Critical reception ''Spooky Two'' received mixed re ...
'' and was composed by keyboardist
Gary Wright Gary Malcolm Wright (born April 26, 1943) is an American musician and composer best known for his 1976 hit songs " Dream Weaver" and " Love Is Alive", and for his role in helping establish the synthesizer as a leading instrument in rock and po ...
. In 1990, a 1978 cover version by heavy metal band
Judas Priest Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band formed in Birmingham in 1969. They have sold over 50 million albums and are frequently ranked as one of the greatest metal bands of all time. Despite an innovative and pioneering body of work in th ...
was the subject of a much-publicized "subliminal message trial". The lawsuit alleged that the band's recording contained hidden messages which were responsible for influencing a pair of young men in
Sparks Sparks may refer to: Places *Sparks, Georgia * Sparks, Kansas *Sparks, Kentucky *Sparks, Maryland * Sparks, Nebraska *Sparks, Nevada *Sparks, Oklahoma *Sparks, Texas * Sparks, Bell County, Texas * Sparks, West Virginia Books * ''Sparks'' (Raffi ...
,
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
, to make a
suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...
pact in 1985. The case was eventually dismissed.


Spooky Tooth personnel

*
Luther Grosvenor Luther James Grosvenor (born 23 December 1946) is an English rock musician, who played guitar in Spooky Tooth, briefly in Stealers Wheel and, under the pseudonym Ariel Bender, in Mott the Hoople and Widowmaker. Grosvenor was born in Evesha ...
– guitar * Mike Harrison – keyboards, vocals *
Mike Kellie Michael Alexander Kellie (24 March 1947 – 18 January 2017) was an English musician, composer and record producer. In a career that spanned more than 50 years, Kellie was a member of the rock bands the V.I.P.s, Spooky Tooth and the Only ...
– drums *
Greg Ridley Alfred Gregory Ridley (23 October 1941 – 19 November 2003) was an English bassist who was the bassist and a founding member of the rock band Humble Pie and Spooky Tooth. Career Ridley was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, England. Early in h ...
– bass, guitar *
Gary Wright Gary Malcolm Wright (born April 26, 1943) is an American musician and composer best known for his 1976 hit songs " Dream Weaver" and " Love Is Alive", and for his role in helping establish the synthesizer as a leading instrument in rock and po ...
– keyboards, vocals


Judas Priest version

Judas Priest's rendition of "Better by You, Better than Me" is faster than Spooky Tooth's and adds a short vocal bridge. The song was a last-minute addition to the album when CBS Records insisted on including another more commercial track to liven up a record with which a majority of the songs have a very dark and sinister undertone. It was recorded in a separate session with James Guthrie, as Dennis MacKay had moved on to other projects and was no longer available. The band was reportedly impressed with the production Guthrie did on "Better by You, Better than Me", as it stood out in comparison to the overly thin, flat sound that had plagued their albums up to this point; they would ask him to produce their next album, ''
Killing Machine Killing machine may refer to: Film * ''The Killing Machine'', English language title for ''Shorinji Kempo'' a 1975 Japanese action film with Sonny Chiba, Hiroyuki Sanada and Etsuko Shiomi * ''The Killing Machine'', a 1994 American action film with ...
''.


Personnel

*
Rob Halford Robert John Arthur Halford (born 25 August 1951) is an English heavy metal singer. He is the lead vocalist of Judas Priest, which was formed in 1969 and has received accolades such as the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. He has b ...
lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...
*
K. K. Downing Kenneth Keith Downing Jr. (born 27 October 1951) is an English guitarist and a former member of the heavy metal band Judas Priest. Early life and career Downing was born in West Bromwich, West Midlands. In the late 1960s, he developed a p ...
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
s *
Glenn Tipton Glenn Raymond Tipton (born 25 October 1947) is an English guitarist. Often noted for his complex playing style and classically influenced solos, he is best known as one of the lead guitarists for heavy metal band Judas Priest. Early life and ...
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...
s,
backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...
*
Ian Hill Ian Frank Hill (born 20 January 1951) is an English musician, best known as the bassist and the sole continuous member for the heavy metal band Judas Priest. Biography Hill learned how to play the double bass from his father, a bass player ...
bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...
*
Les Binks James Leslie Binks (born in Portadown, Northern Ireland), is a Northern Irish heavy metal drummer. He was the drummer for Judas Priest from 1977 to 1979. History Previously working for Eric Burdon, Binks was a drummer on Roger Glover's album ' ...
drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...


1990 trial

In the middle of 1990, Judas Priest were involved in a civil action that alleged they were responsible for the 1985 suicide attempts of 20-year-old James Vance and 18-year-old Ray Belknap in
Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the ...
, US. On 23 December 1985, Vance and Belknap became intoxicated before going to a playground at a Lutheran church in Reno. Belknap placed a
12-gauge The gauge (or commonly bore in British English) of a firearm is a unit of measurement used to express the inner diameter (bore diameter) of the barrel. Gauge is determined from the weight of a solid sphere of lead that will fit the bore of the f ...
shotgun under his own chin and proceeded to fire the weapon, dying instantly. Vance followed, but survived the self-inflicted gunshot wound with a severely disfigured face. He died three years later. Vance's parents and their legal team, headed by Nevada attorney Ken McKenna, subsequently alleged that a
subliminal message Subliminal stimuli (; the prefix ' literally means "below" or "less than") are any sensory stimuli below an individual's threshold for conscious perception, in contrast to stimuli (above threshold). A 2012 review of functional magnetic resonance ...
of "do it" had been included in the song. They alleged the command in the song triggered the suicide attempt. The three-week trial was watched closely by the music industry and constitutional lawyers. In a pre-trial motion, the judge ruled that subliminal messages were incapable of being protected speech under the
First Amendment to the United States Constitution The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...
, since they were by definition not noticeable and thus could not form part of a dialogue. Timothy Moore, who testified on Judas Priest's behalf, stated that the plaintiffs (led by McKenna) achieved "a major victory in getting the case to trial in the first place". The case was dismissed, with the finding that any subliminal messages within the recording, should they actually exist, were not responsible for the suicides. The lawsuit cost the band approximately $250,000 in legal costs and the judge ordered CBS to pay $40,000 to the plaintiff's attorneys to reimburse them for costs related to bringing the lawsuit, since the label did not comply with discovery orders and provide master tapes of ''
Stained Class ''Stained Class'' is the fourth studio album by English heavy metal band Judas Priest, released on 10 February 1978 by Columbia Records. It is the first of three Judas Priest albums to feature drummer Les Binks, as well as the first to feature t ...
'' to Vance's lawyers. One of the defense witnesses, Dr Timothy E. Moore, later chronicled the trial in an article for ''
Skeptical Inquirer ''Skeptical Inquirer'' is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle: ''The Magazine for Science and Reason''. Mission statement and goals Daniel Loxton, writing in ...
'' magazine. The trial was also the subject of a 1991 documentary entitled ''Dream Deceivers: The Story Behind James Vance vs. Judas Priest''. In the documentary, Judas Priest vocalist
Rob Halford Robert John Arthur Halford (born 25 August 1951) is an English heavy metal singer. He is the lead vocalist of Judas Priest, which was formed in 1969 and has received accolades such as the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. He has b ...
commented that if the band were so inclined to insert subliminal commands into their music, messages commanding their fans to kill themselves would be quite counterproductive; from the band's perspective it would be much more practical to insert the command "buy more of our records". Regarding the plaintiffs' assertions that the statement "do it" was a command to commit suicide, Halford pointed out that the phrase "do it" had no direct message to do anything in particular.
Neuroscientist A neuroscientist (or neurobiologist) is a scientist who has specialised knowledge in neuroscience, a branch of biology that deals with the physiology, biochemistry, psychology, anatomy and molecular biology of neurons, Biological neural network, n ...
and
record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
Daniel J. Levitin testified in deposition that as a practical matter, "it is extremely difficult to mix a high-quality multitrack record for a major label in which the important instrumental parts can all be heard, without trying to spend countless hours burying subliminal messages in the mix." Comedian
Bill Hicks William Melvin Hicks (December 16, 1961 – February 26, 1994) was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, and musician. His material—encompassing a wide range of social issues including religion, politics, and philosophy—wa ...
referred to the case in his stand-up routines, asking "What performer wants his audience dead?" He performed a sketch mimicking Judas Priest being sick of their wealth, power, and fame and coming up with the subliminal message as a solution to their problems. Comedian
Denis Leary Denis Colin Leary (born August 18, 1957) is an American actor and comedian. A native of Massachusetts, Leary first came to prominence as a stand-up comedian, especially through appearances on MTV (including the comedic song "Asshole (song), Assh ...
also commented on the trial on his album ''
No Cure for Cancer ''No Cure for Cancer'' is one of Denis Leary's standup routines from the early 1990s. It was made into a television special, a book, and a compact disc, all with the same title. Leary's routine focuses on Vegetarianism, vegetarians, Tobacco smo ...
'', saying heavy metal bands should put ''more'' subliminal messages in their records: "Kill the band, kill your parents, then yourself".


See also

* "
Suicide Solution "Suicide Solution" is a song by the English heavy metal vocalist singer-songwriter Ozzy Osbourne, from his 1980 debut album ''Blizzard of Ozz''. Overview Osbourne said in 1991 that the song was about the alcohol-related death of AC/DC's Bon S ...
" * Elyse Pahler


References

{{authority control 1969 singles Judas Priest songs Songs written by Gary Wright Song recordings produced by Jimmy Miller 1969 songs CBS Records singles Columbia Records singles Obscenity controversies in music British hard rock songs