Songfacts®:

• Although it is the title track of UFO's 1977 album, the definitive version of "Lights Out" appears on Strangers In The Night, which is arguably one of the finest live double heavy metal albums ever made. The track was co-written by vocalist Phil Mogg, drummer Andrew Maynard Parker, bass player Pete Way and guitarist Michael Schenker. The live album also features Paul Raymond on keyboards, second guitar and vocals. It was recorded in Chicago.
• In January 1980, Phil Mogg and Pete Way graced the front cover of (the now long defunct) Sounds music paper. Inside was a big interview by Garry Bushell in which Mogg admitted rather sheepishly: "I do personally think a lot about politics and I have written political lyrics. I wrote 'Lights Out' as an anti-authoritarian song but Paul Raymond thought it was about the miners' strike." >>

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• In a Songfacts interview with Michael Schenker, he said that the song started with a riff that Pete Way came up with, and the rest of the band added parts to it to complete the track. Talking about how the band wrote songs around this time, Schenker explained: "It's a combination based on the circumstances and on the moment. But there was no particular strategy of how to do it. It's just like, 'Who has got something? What is it?'"
• The Christian Rock band Stryper recorded this for their 2011 album The Covering, and when we spoke with their lead singer Michael Sweet, he explained how their song "More Than A Man" came out of this UFO tune. Said Sweet: "You listen to the song 'Lights Out' by UFO and you compare it to a song that we have called 'More Than A Man,' it's a very similar riff, it's the same riff: da-da-da-da-da-da-dum-dum-a. Same kind of feel. Different melody, different lyric and whatnot."