My Sunday Song – “Lights and Thunder” by White Lion

For My Sunday Song #459, we are going to discuss the epic White Lion song “Lights and Thunder”. The song was the first single off their fourth album ‘Mane Attraction’ and the song came out in March 1991. It was an unusual song for a single due to its length at over 8 minutes long. By far, their longest song up to this point in time. That would change in 2008 when they released “Sangre de Cristo” from their album ‘Return of the Pride’. “Lights and Thunder” actually charted in the UK at #95, it charted, I didn’t say it charted very high.

The song was written by Mike Tramp and Vitto Bratta and talks about a Utopian society where there is no fighting, no religion, no kings and only peace, love and happiness. Yep, a make believe world that will never exist. It was a statement that the world is really fucked up (imagine if that was written today as it is more so now) and there is too much fighting, too many wars and simply too much.

Musically is where this song is so badass. It was inspired greatly by Led Zeppelin’s “Achilles Last Stand” and is full of very complex moments, tempo changes and full on rock epicness. This was the opening track of the album and what a way to kick things off. It starts off with some weird keyboard sounds, some drum fills echoing in from all sides and a little Vitto guitar solo…totally wicked. The song explodes in to full band mode, the drums are heavy as hell and the barrage of snare hits is crazy almost like machine gun fire. Mike Tramp sings with an almost angelic-like vocal delivery welcoming you to the utopian world. He goes all gritty during the chorus. Before one of the instrumental breaks, there is a lot of spoken words from various leaders around the world including Martin Luther King, George Bush, and many others all letting us know how bad things are down here.

But the highlight of this song is definitely the music. Greg D’Angelo’s drum work is one of the best on the album, such a massive statement throughout the song. But it is Vitto Bratta’s guitar playing that will blow you away. There is a typical guitar solo, but it is all the instrumental breaks and long drawn out instrumental pieces where his riff mastering simply shines. When you hear a song is “epic”, this is what they mean.

Give the song a listen and let me know what you think. Does it blow you away? Will have ever have a Utopian society? Yeah, probably not. This song is not what you expect when you think White Lion, but damn if there was more like this, these guys would be legends. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all have a wonderful and Happy Sunday!

“Lights And Thunder”

Let me take you to a place
Where everybody knows your face
There’s no King and there’s no Queen
And everything is like a dream
You can live in harmony
With those who were your enemy
You can do just what you want to
No one here will ever hurt you
There’ll be lights ‘n’ thunder
There’ll be time to wonder
And there will be no crying
There’ll be light ‘n’ thunder
There’ll be time to wonder
And there will be no crying
There will be no lying
Yeah there will be no dying
There won’t be a hell below
And there won’t be no god to follow
No religion, no believing
No confession, no deceiving
I will take you up ‘n’ higher
Let you see that you believe it
There’ll be lights ‘n’ thunder etc.
Would you like to live forever
Family and friends together
Come inside and see tomorrow
Where happiness replaces sorrow
You can live in harmony
With those who were your enemy
You can do just what you want to
No one here will ever hurt you
I will take you up ‘n’ higher
Let you find what you desire
Take you to the sky ‘n’ higher
Let you see that you believe it
There’ll be lights ‘n’ thunder etc.

Writer(s): Mike Tramp, Vito Bratta