Speaker 1: This is a podcast from Minute Media.
Speaker 2: Hello everybody, and welcome back to Shirley. You can be
serious podcasts guys. Today we are doing a special introduction
of our Patreon exclusive membership episodes. For our Patreon subscribers,
you get a special exclusive episode that no one else
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Speaker 1: That's right. Once a month, we're going to be going
into one hit Wonders at the eighties, nineties and beyond.
And the first one that we did this month, it's
already out there. You can download it right now is
Video Killed the Radio Star. Most people know that that
was the first MTV video ever shown, but there's a
lot of stuff, like one of the members was called
the Inventor of the eighties.
Speaker 2: It's an amazing podcast. You definitely need to go check
it out. So do that. But if you're not in
that place right now, no problem. Go leave us a
five star rating and hopefully a good review. If you
throw in some tags from one of our prior episodes,
we'll put you in the running for a custom engraved
Ozarka tumbler cup. For those of you who aren't ready
to jump into the Patreon boat, no problem at all.
We have a special episode one of our favorites from
season one. This is the first of the two Pyromania
track by track, and then next episode we cover Hysteria
track by track and look at the history of def
Leppard and compare those two incredible albums.
Speaker 1: You know we're dropping this for two reasons. Def lepperd
just released new CD like last week, and so it's
kind of fun to go back and listen to Pyromania,
listen to Hysteria, listen to the new one, see what
you like best. But also Hysteria gets us going on
the Summer of eighty seven track that we're going to
be spending like the next eight or nine weeks.
Speaker 2: In Yeah, get ready to jump with us into the
Summer of eighty seven. This episode we will cover Pyromania,
which was eighty three, and then we'll jump into hysteria,
which is, I mean, drops us right in the middle
of summer of eighty seven. And then we're going to
jump into all kinds of awesome eighty seven music and movies.
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Speaker 1: And you know what, my friend he says, it's always
easier to see a diraffe in the planes than it
is to see a draft in the forest. Exactly, it's
time to chop some stuff down, boys, wack it.
Speaker 3: Hello everybody, and welcome to Surely you Can't Be Serious Podcast,
discussing and debating the iconic and the forgotten of eighties
and nineties pop culture with your co hosts James d Grades.
Speaker 1: And Jason Colbin.
Speaker 2: All right, welcome back, everybody. We are Jason and d
from the Shirley You Can't Be Serious Podcasts coming to
you live from Sheffield, England. I am in my Union
Jack sleeveless shirt and Jason is in his Union Jack
shorts with no shirt at all. We are here to
go toe to toe and rock and roll with def
Leppard and the comparison of the Pyromania album and Hysteria.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to do this. This is I've had
a love affair with these two albums for almost forty
years now, and frankly, there's only one way we can
start this podcast. D Yeah, under Leaving Cloud and glory Ow.
We're going to talk about the history a little bit
of def Leppard, the tragedy and the blessings that they had,
and then we're going to go through these two hugely
impactful albums in the nineteen eighties.
Speaker 2: I'm super excited.
Speaker 1: That mean, maybe the most defining sound of the nineteen.
Speaker 2: Eighties, absolutely, like theyre are a handful of bands that
defined what rock and roll sounded like in the nineteen eighties,
and this is one of those one of those bands.
Speaker 1: Without a doubt, without a doubt. So step inside, walk
this way, you.
Speaker 2: And me, babe.
Speaker 1: Let's start with just kind of a pre story how
defl was formed and how it kind of came about
and win and all that stuff.
Speaker 2: Sure, I mean, there's a big story that leads up
to Pyromania, and it starts with Joe Elliott as a
young teenage boy with dreams of becoming a rock star,
and he decides he wants to have a band. He
wants the band to be called Deaf Leopard spelled properly,
and he makes posters and learns how to play the
guitar and has these dreams. And then one day he
misses his bus and he happens to meet this guy
named Pete Willis, and Pete Willis starts talking to him
and they realize, hey, we both like music. Pete Willis
had a band called.
Speaker 1: Atomic Mass right he had been in that band with
Rick Savage and Tony Kinning.
Speaker 2: And so they invite Juel Elliott to come and try
out for the band. Joe wants to play guitar with him.
When they first put Atomic Mass together, Rick Savage played
the guitar, Pete Willis played the guitar, and Tony Kinning
played the drums. Rick Savage said, well, I don't play
guitar as good as you, so I guess I'll play
the bass because we have to have a bass. We
can't have two guitars and no bass. And so he
started playing the bass. They brought Joe Elliott in. They said, well,
why don't you sing, and let's see what you got.
His audition was Stairway to Heaven. Okay, So as he.
Speaker 1: Sang Stairway to Heaven when it goes up at the end,
Joe stayed low right, and they were all like, well,
that was great, except why he didn't go up? What's
the deal? And so he did really fancy himself as
singer initially, but he would soon learn right.
Speaker 2: So they weren't in love with his voice, but they
thought he had a good voice. They were in love
with his dream and his passion for becoming a huge success.
And that's really what got him the job as the lead.
Speaker 1: Singer in the band, and really what drives Steph Leppert today.
I mean, he's the engine that makes it go. And
he doesn't have a terrific voice. I mean he's got
a good rock voice, right, and I think Mutt Lane
kind of got the most out of it.
Speaker 2: So, Jason, tell me, do you remember the first time
you heard these guys?
Speaker 1: Yes, I have a very clear memory of when I
heard these guys for the first time. It was after
High and Dry, So in nineteen eighty three, I'm bebopping
in my fifth grade class, mister Hoover's class. If you've
listened to our episodes before, I was mister Thriller, mister thriller.
I loved Michael Jackson. I love Thriller. And I had
this guy that came to my school and he's like,
Thriller's great, but have you heard these guys? And I
saw the album cover. I'm like, I mean, it's a
cool album cover, but I think I'm a stick with
Michael Jackson.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: He's like, no, no, no, no, no, you got to listen
to this song. At least. I'm like, all right, I listened.
I mean, I'm seriously Michael Jackson. And he's like, no, well,
you got to listen to this song. So he plays
Photograph and I'm like, that sounds amazing. Yeah, that sounds amazing.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And that's how I got hooked in was Photograph. So
your introduction to the band was Pyromania back in the
early eighties. Es my introduction to the band, and I
say introduction, I'd heard them, you know, I had MTV,
so I had heard bits and songs, but it was
never an investment for me.
Speaker 2: I never bought an album. But in eighth grade, I
went to my first high school dance. And if you
guys went to high school dances, when you were a kid,
you can imagine the fear and the nervousness and whether
you should dance and whether you should not dance, and
slowly you get your courage up. And that was what
was happening that night. And I had these girls coming
up and talking to me, and I was like, this
is awesome. And then you know, they convinced me to
come out of dance and we're dancing in a big circle,
and then it's getting to the end of the night
and then the DJ says, and now the song that
you've all been waiting for, and they crank up Pour
Some Sugar on Me, and the entire gymnasium eruugh and
people are going crazy. So my first wow, hey, this
is a band I need to be listening to was Hysteria.
Was Pour Some Sugar on Me.
Speaker 1: I think that that was probably a lot of people's
introduction because I mean the summer of nineteen eighty eight,
Pour Some Sugar Me own the airwaves. Yeah, and dominated
that I remember dial MTV you could call and request
your favorite video. It was like number one for like
three months.
Speaker 2: So when we started to do this, what I said
to myself is I've never never had the album Pyromania.
I know some of the songs off of it, but
I'm going to treat it like I'm that kid from
long ago. I imagined myself, my young self, if I
had been a teenager listening to this type of music
in the early eighties. Get the album bring it Home.
I'm going to put my headphones on, I'm going to
crank it up. And I gotta say I was blown away.
I was like, holy crap, this is really really good.
Even now, what is it nearly forty years later? Yeah, yeah,
it's still amazing. I was floored.
Speaker 1: It's a pop metal masterpiece.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So in January nineteen seventy eight, Steve Clark he joined
the band. Yeah, he played Freebird for him and they
were like, oh, this guy's really good.
Speaker 2: Right, played it from beginning to end. And if you
don't know free Bird, Freebird is Lynyrd Skynyrd's signature song.
That is, depending on which version, nine to ten minutes long.
So you can imagine a young, long haired, skinny kid
rocking out on one of the most well known guitar
solos for a solid ten minutes and they were hooked.
Speaker 1: I don't play guitar, but in guitar hero. Yeah, that
was the hardest song in that.
Speaker 2: Well, yes, that's I think I'd say that's an accurate
reflection of how difficult it is. But they not only
were amazed by his guitar playing, but he had the
right look. He came in with no shirt, just a
jeans jacket on, had long blonde hair slung his guitar
hung it way too low so that he had to
pick it up and move it, and there was just
a motion and a dance to his playing. And then
of course he had that amazing ability. So there you go.
They've got their second guitarist, they've got their bass player,
they've got their singer, and they've got their drummer for a.
Speaker 1: While, except the drummer decides that hanging out with his
girlfriend is more important than being in the defining metal
band of the eighties.
Speaker 2: He and Rick Stone, I'm sure commencerr.
Speaker 1: Yeah Rick Stone, Yeah, yeah. If you don't know who
Rick Stone is, go back and listen to Van Halen
episode one. Right, But here's a funny story. So there's
a young kid in the area named Rick Allen, Richard Allen.
Speaker 2: He's fifteen years old, fifteen. He'd started playing drums when
he was nine or ten years old, so he was
a decent drummer, and even at fifteen, had said that
the drummers around here suck and the bands suck. And
then after Tony left the band, def Leppard put out
a one ad and it said Leopard loses skins.
Speaker 1: And Rick Allen said, hey, look at this, Mom, will
you call the band for me?
Speaker 2: And hey mom, hey mom, will you will you call
these guys?
Speaker 1: I'd like to play drums. But he's good, he's fantastic,
and he's right places right time, jumps on the opportunity
and he becomes their drummer.
Speaker 2: Right and then just what a few short years later
they're opening for Ozzy Osbourne and Billy Squire. I mean,
can you imagine a young kid being involved with that
kind of star power.
Speaker 1: At his age? Yeah, it's incredible. Yeah, I have a
fifteen year old home. I barely let him feed the dog.
So they rehearse and they rehearse, and they rehearse, they rehearse.
Speaker 2: Sheffield, England, where they all come from, is an old
steel town. It's steel factories everywhere. If you live in
the town, you're pretty well going to be working in
a factory somewhere and they ended up rehearsing in an
old spoon factory and we're there for nine months or
something like that.
Speaker 1: And finally, Yeah, Steve Clark went to Joe Elliott and said, Joe, listen,
if we don't play a gig, I'm quitting, right, I'll
go find somebody else.
Speaker 2: Right. He's like, we're polishing and polishing and polishing, and
I could be in here ten years and we're still
polishing the same songs. So it's interesting because you get
the impression from the band that they want to be
perfect before they go out into the world. They've obviously
got this drive that they don't want to put out
a bad product. But it's interesting that he's the one
that says this to them because he's ultimately the one
that ends up dealing with the biggest stage fright, once
they get really big.
Speaker 1: It is interesting. Yeah, So Joe Elliott borrows two hundred
and fifty bucks from his dad and they create an EP.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they ended up selling twenty four thousand records, which
I mean, if you just think about a group of
teenage kids spent a two hundred and fifty bucks to
press out an album and they sell twenty four thousand
of them. I mean, if I could sell twenty four
thousand songs, I'd be like in even And they get
an album that's a pretty significant hit.
Speaker 1: And that leads to their next album, which their debut
album technically is called On Through the Night Right.
Speaker 2: This is the first professionally produced album. This is the
one where they've signed with the record label and the
record label is producing their album.
Speaker 1: This is released in March of nineteen eighty. Yeah has
a song Hello America, which is kind of famous, gave
kind of a bad taste for the locals in England.
They didn't like that.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, it's kind of sad. You know. Sheffield didn't
really own this band until they were a really big success.
They had a lot of bad press that they received,
which is unfortunate, but they had aspirations to get out
of the town anyway, so it worked out right well.
Speaker 1: This album On Through the Night caught the attention of
this guy named Robert John mutt Lang mutt.
Speaker 2: Lang or if you are from Sheffield, Langa and this.
Speaker 1: Guy is when he calls them, Yeah, he's a celebrity.
I mean he had produced Highwaight to Hell yeah, and
back in Black.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which I mean, holy smokes right, I mean, come on,
but if you look at his library of work, you've
got ACDC and def Leppard, but you've also got Shania
Twain who ended up marrying Taylor Swift. Brian Adams. I mean,
there's a whole slew of genres that he deals with,
and he is, with that question, one of the biggest
keys to their success.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. If I took you and I said, all right,
grab acdc's entire catalog, pick their best album, it's going
to be produced by mut Lane.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: If I said, take the entire cars catalog, yeah, pick
their best album Heartbeat City, yes, Mutlane. Okay, So when
they get in the studio with Mutt Lane, they produce
an album called High and Dry. So it's their first
commercial effort. I mean it does pretty well, sales two
or fifty thousand copies.
Speaker 2: Again, I mean it got into the top twenty albums
in the UK and top fifty in the US, I believe.
But the way of music back then, even after all
that success, the band wasn't making enough money to have
being a band as their only job.
Speaker 1: I mean, Joelie, it talks very publicly about having a
top fifty album in the United States and having to
work at a construction site.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, we don't have any money left. You're going
to have to go do some real work.
Speaker 1: So that's crazy. So High Dry is released July eleventh,
nineteen eighty one.
Speaker 2: Just before the inception of MTV. Then another key another
it's huge in their in their career.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're spot on ready when MTV hits.
Speaker 2: Right, So Joe Elliott is working construction jobs after having
this big album. But as it turns out, they recorded
a video for one of the songs off of High
and Dry called bringing On the Heartbreak. I'm sorry, I
cannot imagine a guy who's singing like that, band playing
like that, who is now working construction because they don't
have enough money. It's crazy. But the video that they
had fell right in where it needed to because MTV had.
Speaker 1: They needed videos.
Speaker 2: They said it over and over. They had about two
hundred and fifty videos when they're on their first year,
and so that Bringing On the Heartbreak made it into
the rotation and they played it and played it, and
everybody at that time had started to watch MTV and
people started to go, who is this def Leopard band.
Speaker 1: That's right. Timing is everything.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now they're going back in the studio to record their
third album, Pyromedia.
Speaker 2: Right, and they kind of enter a really specialized deal here.
Mutt Lang had produced that first album and it was
all a regular style of production. He was meticulous about things.
But you can still on high and dry hear the
edginess that they had at that time. And they had
been placed in this category called the new wave of
British heavy metal. But listening to even their early stuff,
I wouldn't describe it as heavy metal. I don't think
they ever saw themselves as a heavy metal band.
Speaker 1: And I've heard Joe Eliot say that we have a
lot more in common with Duran Durant right than we
do Quiet Riot, ACDC or whatever.
Speaker 2: Right. He really admired the band Queen, and he really
admired David Bowie and the Hoople Mota hoopl, thank you,
Mota Hoopl and Queen. He loved Queen and that was
kind of the sound that they were going for, kind
of a ACDC meets Queen kind of sound. Never really
again what I would describe as metal.
Speaker 1: All right, So as the recording Pyromania, they start to
have these personal problems within the band, right that ultimately
they've got to deal with.
Speaker 2: So they entered this deal with Mutt Lang where he
basically had complete control over the sound. The first album
that they recorded they had done in thirty days. The
second album that they had recorded, they had done in
twelve weeks. They had been recording on Pyromania. At the
five month mark, five months of recording, they had not
committed one single song to table. It's incredible right, Mutt
Lang had a definite vision about what he wanted to happen,
and the mixing board became an instrument for the band.
This is what Mutt Lang did for def Leppard, and
he was the ultimate perfectionist, which for the band meant
agonizing hell. And at some point they said to Steve Clark, hey,
you need to go dry out, buddy. So Steve went away,
which left only Pete Willis to do the guitar parts
for a time. Well, Pete also was a drinker and
didn't handle his liquor as well as Steve Clark did,
and one day came into the studio after a night
of heavy drinking and was still under the influence and
could not could play couldn't play with a flip.
Speaker 1: I've heard joyli to talk about how in the early days,
Pete Willis, after getting a little bit too much of
the drink, would readily go into the ring with Mike Tyson.
He was that type of sort of angry drunk Steve
Clark drink twice as much. What was half the a
hole that Pete Willis was, apparently, And so when he
couldn't play, and they're trying to impress this guy.
Speaker 2: They had said, they had told him over and over
and over, hey, you can't do this. You know, we'll
let you drink during our stage shows, but you cannot
come into the recording studio drunk. When he does this,
and you got to think about how long they've been
working their tailoff, long days killing it, frustration tears. And
then Mutt Lang comes to Joe Elliott with this sad
attempt at a guitar solo by Pete Willis, and he says,
listen to this, and then he just starts laughing, laughing
to tears. Mutt Lang is laughing to tears at this,
and Joe Elliott isn't laughing at all. He just has
to say, we can't do this. We can't take the
chance that Mutt Lang is going to walk out on
us after all of this work. We can't take the
chance that Pete Willis is going to destroy this album
because of his alcoholism. We have to let him go.
Speaker 1: He said he didn't want Mutt Lang to think they
were a bunch of losers. They only had one loser, right,
So they gave him the old get out. Yeah, but
Phil Colin they hire the same day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Joe Elliott made a call. Phil Colin had been
he played for several bands, but at the time that
this occurred, he was playing for a glam rock band
called Girl and they called Phil and he came over
and they said, hey, you know, we've already got the
bulk of these songs done. We just need some guitar solos.
Why don't you go listen to this one for an
hour or two and you know, make up a guitar
solo and let's see how it goes. And he came
back in thirty minutes and executed a perfect guitar solo.
And those are the words of Mutt Lang. And if
Mutt Lang says it's a perfect guitar solo, you can
rest assured it is a perfect guitar solo. By the
time we get to the point that Pete Willis gets fired,
Rick Allen hadn't been playing the drum for months because
Mutt Lang said I don't want to use a drummer.
I want to use a drum machine. That's insane. I mean,
in nineteen eighty two to say I want to use
a drum machine for a rock album was crazy. So
they would take samples of particular drum sounds to find
the perfect pitch. And then, of course the timing was mechanical,
it was precise, it was uninfluenced by human error. So
Rick Allen hasn't played in several months. They get rid
of Pete Willis, they bring in Phil Colin. They finally say, okay, Rick,
come back in. We're going to record some of your
drums now. He's like okay, and so he plays for
a few minutes. They're like, okay, hold on, okay, yeah,
just hold on, man, okay, just listening, still listening, Yeah,
just a minute more, Rick, hold on, And finally he
just says, hey, guys, you know, why don't you have
me listen to it? And maybe I can give you
my opinion on it, and Mutt Lang says Rick, when
I want your opinion, I'll ask for it, at which
point Rick lost his mind and took an entire set
of drumsticks and chunked it at the recording studio window. Yes, yeah,
he was not happy.
Speaker 1: Rick Allen got a little bit of a temper.
Speaker 2: I think he does. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I won't say
any more about that, but I could. I mean, I
could see myself losing it in that scenario as well. Yes,
I haven't played for months. You bring me back in.
Then I'm sitting here waiting on you to do something
that I'm the expert at. And when I offer my help,
you say, essentially, why don't you go outside and played? Hi,
didn't go screw yourself.
Speaker 1: I'd go screw your all right. So Pyramania is released
January twentieth, nineteen eighty three. So the opening track of
Pyramania is a song called Rock Rock Till.
Speaker 2: You Drop.
Speaker 3: To Me.
Speaker 1: This is a great entry song, kickoff song, kind of
like lay your Hands.
Speaker 2: On Me for a bunch of his new Jersey.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the song they played the beginning of the concert.
That's like, all right, everybody, let's go high energy to front.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, when I first started looking at these guys,
I had heard some people say that back then, when
they were first becoming famous, that they were just an
ac DC knockoff band, to which I thought, these guys
don't sound anything like ac DC to me. But that
first song is definitely very ac DC esque in my opinion.
Speaker 1: So it is a little screechy like ac DC. Right,
he's really leaning on his voice right there. So it's
a great kickoff song to the album one all right
after Rock Rock, Hey You Drop You Get the first
single photograph.
Speaker 2: Picture right, that song that before listening to this album,
like really for the first time, that I was definitely
familiar with.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this is a song kind of about Marilyn
Monroe if you ever watched the video.
Speaker 2: Well, let's just say that all of the songs on
both of these albums are about sex, guns, and rock
and roll, and the band's life is about sex, drugs,
and rock and roll. So it's more sex, more drugs,
more guns.
Speaker 1: Honestly, I think that's being generous because there's a lot
of songs that are about nothing. They're literally about nothing.
Speaker 2: They were not looking to write deep and meaningful songs.
What they wanted. Their goal was to write songs that
were accessible to the general public. So they're not going
to be quoting some j R. Or Tolkien novel and
one of their songs like led Zeppelin. They're not going
to be telling a story about the Bronx like Billy Joel.
This is just what words fit with the melody that
we have and will people be able to sing along
with the song?
Speaker 1: So Photograph is very radio friendly, but this is a
song that I could listen to with my parents. That
first little I don't know, I don't know what you
would call what do you think about this? The you
need to come in on this? This is their first
little chirp at the beginning of this song.
Speaker 2: So I can't say for sure what that is. It
almost sounds like the guitar being plugged into the amp.
It has that kind of click on where the electricity
hits and it's just ging. But knowing what I know
about this album, it probably was something that was specifically
designed by Mutt Lage. Yeah, I think you're right about it,
And it sounded like it may even have been a
backwards recording. I'm not entirely sure. I'm speculating completely on that.
Speaker 1: So this is the video. A lot of this is
We're going to talk about the song, but the video
is kind of wrapped up with it. This is the
video Joe Elliott. They were still a little bit poor.
This album hadn't broken yet. He was walking by a
store window and he saw the Union Jack T shirt
say it was six ninety nine, so he bought it.
Was sleeveless ward in this video. Yeah, and that has
become like the frankenstrat for Edy van Halen.
Speaker 2: In America, everybody started buying the Union Jacks, sleeveless T
shirts and homage to def Leppard. So in eighty three
and eighty four, this was number one on the US
Album Rock Tracks by Billboard. It was number twelve on
the US Billboard Hot one hundred. It was number sixty
eight on the UK Singles Chart and number thirty two
on Canada fifty Singles.
Speaker 1: Photograph was a huge song and still a staple when
they play it live. Pete Willis's guitars are still on Photograph,
although Phil Collen actually plays the guitar solo. It's kind
of interesting this guy who was fired and the guy
who replaced him both play on the same song.
Speaker 2: Right, and just as a credit to the band, even
though Pete Willis was you know, fired midway through the
production of this album, they still listed him on the album.
He's still got still gets royalties from the album. So
I think that's the stand up thing to do, the
right thing to do for him.
Speaker 1: Yeah for sure. Okay, Before we move on from Photograph,
I just want to say, as much as I love
both of these albums, Photograph might be the best song
on either album.
Speaker 2: Hmm, Okay, I wouldn't agree with that statement. I mean,
that's an obviously perspective statement. I like Photograph all right,
but there are even songs on this album just from
listening to it for this podcast that I'm gonna say
I like better than Photograph.
Speaker 1: Wow. Okay, cool, let's get into it.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right.
Speaker 1: Next track, it's called Stage Fract.
Speaker 2: It's Fredy is good. I really enjoyed listening to that.
It wasn't one I think I had ever heard before.
But it's got that kind of pumping guitar, and then
it when you go into the chorus of the song Diet,
that the pop feeling you know that it's not certainly
it's still rock and roll, but it is more melodic
and less hard hitting than your typical rock and roll
song is going to be. At the time, you.
Speaker 1: Get a little bit of the stage live feel at
the beginning of the show, even though it was recording studio.
Speaker 2: You get Joe Elliot hitting those high pitches that he
was afraid to hit during his audition. Yes, he's letting
them down.
Speaker 1: He really is still a good song, not a skipper,
but not one of the stronger tracks in him.
Speaker 2: Somewhere in the distance the.
Speaker 1: Bell track number four too Late for Love, Love It,
Love It.
Speaker 2: When I was listening to this one front to back
when this song came on and they hit that chorus
just a little bit into the song where they're all
harmonizing together, as I was like, holy crap, this is
good and this is what kind of defines def Leppard
for me. Is this the harmonizing chorus that they do.
It's spot on. And obviously, I, you know, realized later
on this because Lang has built it brick by brick,
and I'm sure he'd had each guy singing about one
hundred thousand times before he found the perfect one, and
then he stacked all those perfects together and it's it's breathtaking.
Speaker 1: This really is a great song. Yeah, it's a great song.
It's so good.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: This was their fourth release. This was their single, Yeah,
made it up to number nine on the mainstream rock charts.
Speaker 2: I can say that this one and Rock of Ages
are neck and neck for me for being best song
on the album.
Speaker 1: It's hard to argue with this song. I mean, it's
so it's so good. I would say that it builds
in strength all the way through the guitar solo.
Speaker 2: Okay, so that introduction with the wind creates this atmosphere
and then you have this fantastic combination of just a
guitar and Joe Elliott singing, and it's so good and
it brings you in just before that awesome chorus. I
can remember listening to various songs as I grew up
where they had little whispers that happened behind the scenes.
You know that when you're listening in the rate on
the radio. You don't hear it, but you got headphones
locked in, and there there's this little part. I think
it's in Babe, I'm Gonna leave you, but there's this little.
Speaker 1: Whisper of the lyric right before the lyric.
Speaker 2: And every time I heard it, I'd be like, what
the crowd was that? Yeah, oh gosh, that's on my headphones. Okay,
but you were saying that you listen to this.
Speaker 1: There's a I mean, you have to listen so carefully.
But anytime I'm listening to this, especially when I've got
turned up in my car, there's a little bitty baby
that that happens right before the second chorus, and it said,
I keep there are lots of times I'll be in
the car. I'm like, do my phone just ring this video?
I read that Joe Elliott they filmed this after hanging
out with meat Loaf and Elton John having champagne. Nice
kind of the benefits of being a rockster.
Speaker 2: I think I recorded a video after having champagne with
Meatloaf and Elton John wants so nice.
Speaker 1: Well, we both love two Lefelow definitely one of the
strongest tracks now for sure. All Right, So the next
one after that, Diehard the Hunter.
Speaker 2: So Diehard the Hunter is very Pink Floyd to me
when I hear it. You know, the You've got and
it's very pre one by Metallica. Yeah, you know, because
you've got the helicopter sounds and the sounds of war
going on, you know on the wall. You've got helicopter
in that one as well. And but even the guitar
as it comes in, you've got an acoustic I believe,
I'm not sure. I believe it's a twelve string guitar
playing and the melody that's played is very reminiscent of
Pink Floyd. And you've get the gun shots. You've got
this idea of war, and then you hear these kind
of like laser shots which are like, well is this
helicopter or spaceship? What am I hearing here? But it's
another solid track.
Speaker 1: Very very good. In fact, what you're describing, the exact
thing that you're describing could describe God's of War on hysteria.
You have sound effects. Now, Gods of War took it
to the next level where you got Ronald Reagan talking
to Margaret Thatcher and some other stuff. We'll talk about
that one here in a little bit, but it's very similar.
Speaker 2: Right, I can say for sure, And I've even heard
the band members say it. We're picking things that we
like from other bands and we're taking those and making
them our own.
Speaker 1: Oh for sure.
Speaker 2: I mean if Eddie van Halen can do it. Anybody
can do it right. But I think that they've definitely
taken some stuff. Pink Floyd, for example, made it their own,
and I think that possibly Metallica took some of this
one and made it some of their own well.
Speaker 1: As we have discussed and we'll discuss further, the album
Pyromania set in motion pop metal for the rest of
the eighties into the nineties. I would argue that this
is one of the most influential This gave us hair metal.
Speaker 2: It really did. Yeah, it really brought a different type
of rock in and you know, we talked about the
fact that rock was disappearing, it was dying. So luckily
we have in America, we have Van Halen, in Britain,
we have def Leppard, who's coming to America where we
also have MTV. It's perfect little pieces coming together. And
to throw back to our original episode again, you have
record producers that are an integral part of the sound
of the band. You know, we talked about thriller than
looking for the sonic sound. There's no question that mut
Lang was trying to do the same thing for rock
music and what a perfect time to do it when
MTV is like, we want rock. We're tied at disco.
We don't want to hear punk. We want some rock
music and we want some cute boys and videos to
go along with it. Enter def Leppard.
Speaker 1: You just say cute boys and cute boys and videos.
Speaker 2: All right, everybody listen, I've got five kids. I am
secure and saying. There was a draw that this band
had that not many other bands that were playing hard
rock music had, and that's that's documentable. Sixty percent of
the audience in any given def Leppard concert is going
to be women, and frequently hot women.
Speaker 1: That's right, and that was something new for rock music.
While we're talking.
Speaker 2: About it as far as hard rock goes, Yeah, the
predominant audience for hard rock at that time is going
to be pimply faced guys with dark hair and torn
up shirts. Right entered def Leopard, and suddenly the girls
are like, Oh, I think I like hard rock too.
Speaker 1: It was such a great time for rock and roll,
It really.
Speaker 2: Was, yeah, especially for those guys.
Speaker 1: All right, everybody, hit stop on your tape player, kick
it out, flip it over side to.
Speaker 2: Side too, or flip over the LP if you will.
Speaker 1: That's flip the LP there. All right. So now we're
on to the third single released, which is called Foolin'
Love It. Let's listen to it, the stuttering song. Yeah,
the Foolin' is a hook.
Speaker 2: Okay, So this is, as Jason would describe it, a
summer drive in, top down, windows down radio turned up.
This song comes on the radio. You are cranking this
thing up and letting the wind blow in your hair. Absolutely,
and you're singing along. Then, So as cool as this
song is, and I mean you, this is such as
you would describe it, a radio friendly song. This is
a song that you're gonna latch onto. It doesn't matter
whether you're into rock and roll or disco or punk.
You hear this and you're like, this is a good
freaking song. And then the mid the video and I
don't know, this is like the perfect example of the
nonsense videos that we would see on MTV from time
to time. Somebody somewhere, at some point said, why don't
we start the video with a girl in a mask
playing the harp? Who's on fire?
Speaker 1: What a great idea? What I love it? I love it.
Tell me, let's chain Joe Elliott down like he's Frankenstein
and we'll angle him backwards so we're gett and a
full view of his crotch as the camera comes in
and his massive white pants.
Speaker 2: Yeah, his pants that are way too high. He's got
mom jeans on it.
Speaker 1: And then just in the middle, we're going to have
this really creepy lady look at the moon as if
it is a crystal ball. That sounds fantastic. We are
willing to spend our money on that video.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: The videos at this time were a little bit strange.
I mean, even photograph. You have all those girls that
are in the cages, you know, and oh my gosh,
Joe does that giant split jump and right into the camera.
But it was cool at the time and we ate
it up and I don't know. Fulan reached number nine
on the mainstream Rock chart and number twenty eight on
the Hot one, so it was a it was a
big hit for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and rightly so.
Speaker 1: Next is under laughing Glow.
Speaker 2: Oh Rock of Ages. Yeah, brilliant, brilliant photograph and Rock
of Ages brought this album into the public eye for sure.
And just to you know a little history of this song,
you know, we talked about they had no songs written
when they started recording Pyromania, and they had this one
they had all melodied out, but still didn't have the
chorus to it. They were just like da da D
I mean, that was it.
Speaker 3: They just had.
Speaker 2: They were just scatting whatever they did. Mean, they're in
Mutlang's recording studio one day. They come in the day
before another band has been in there, and maybe they
were recording some hymns, because there happens to be a
hymnal and it's propped open to the song Rock of Ages,
the hymn Rock of Ages, the Rock of Ages, the
one you sing in church. Yes, And so Joe Elliott
sees this book lying there and just sings it.
Speaker 1: And Lange says, that's it, that's it, that's what we've
been looking for.
Speaker 2: My golly, that was right. I mean, what a perfect chorus.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's so good. I don't know if you know
this or not. I mean, we can talk about this later.
But it is better to burn out than fade away.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, how many people have said that really Highlander?
Speaker 1: Right that scene in Highlander and he's like, raw, better
to burnout than to fade away?
Speaker 2: Right now, I'm pretty sure that he got it from
Neil Young as opposed to def Leppard, but you know whatever,
and Pearl Jam does it too. You know, hey, it's
it is timeless.
Speaker 1: Okay. So Rock of Ages did really well. It reached
number sixteen on the Hot one hundred and number one
on the Top Rocks. Okay.
Speaker 2: So Phil Collen is a phenomenal guitar player, There's just
no question about. He is technically proficient, really good. But
def Leppard doesn't have a lot of those timeless guitar solos.
It really doesn't have any except for this song. Rock
of Ages has a really great and it's not long,
but it's very memorable little guitar solo by Phil Collin
in there. But he's brilliant. He does what needs to
be done. I mean, all of the rock music that
was coming out had these big solos in it, and
everybody was trying to be Eddie van Halen or trying
to recreate the Leonard Skinner and Field. But this is
the one song that you can go, oh yeah, I
know that, I know that guitar solo. That's a def
Leppard guitar solo.
Speaker 1: One of the things we need to talk about We
really haven't covered this, the very very famous intro the
Unta Gleban Globin glowmen. Right, what does that mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it doesn't mean anything.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean anything, right, And so in the studio
there would you know, Mutt Lane would just beat him
to death, and there's this grind.
Speaker 2: But occasionally he would do some levity. Yes, he'd break
it up and be funny from time to time.
Speaker 1: That's how he would sort of crack him up. Before
the song started.
Speaker 2: Instead of saying one, two, three, four, he said, unto
leader glob and.
Speaker 1: Globin and the rest is the rest is history. I
mean it's rock music lore, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, So we can't let this one go without
talking about the video once again, Oh early eighties videos.
Before he even starts singing, you've got monks, you've got
an owl, you've got a woman playing chess with a wizard.
You have a tree on fire, and you have Phil
Cullens butt. And let's not forget the smashing goblet and
the giant lightsaber that somehow turns into an electric guitar.
Speaker 1: Joe Elliott is swinging a nine foot lightsaber.
Speaker 2: I wonder if there's some sort of analogy that they're
trying to do euphemism, maybe.
Speaker 1: Very phallic sword in this Oh. I love this song
from the minute I heard it for the first time
off Pyromania. I love the burning sound effects and the
idea of setting fire to stuff.
Speaker 2: That was really cool.
Speaker 1: All Right, we're done with Rock of Pages.
Speaker 2: I think we're done with Rock of Ages. That leaves
just a couple of songs left on the album. And
they're not bad songs.
Speaker 1: No, I think they're all good. I think Coming under
Fire is the next one. It gets radio play now.
I wasn't released as a single, but I've heard it
on radio a lot.
Speaker 2: The chorus is really good. Yeah, and that's a good song. Solid,
it's absolutely solid. Just not one of their biggest hits.
Speaker 1: Okay, so Coming under Fire not a big hit, but
a good song. Next one, next to last track is
Action not work.
Speaker 2: I wonder what that song's about.
Speaker 1: If you listen to the word, that's about making a movie.
Speaker 2: Right, except it's the what kind of movie are we
talking about here? Action? Yeah? And actually need any dialogue.
Speaker 1: You be the hero, I'll be the star.
Speaker 2: Again.
Speaker 1: I go back to all of this is sex, guns
and rock and roll. Baby, let me tell you a
quick story about this song. Actually not worse. Okay, I'm
gonna give a quick shout out to my good buddy
Scott Foster. Okay, hey Scott, he stayed up late with me.
I had a project in college where we had to
make a short film about anything we wanted. It was
basically a get to know your camera, get to know
the editing equipment. And so I went around town filming
my girlfriend, my friends, the football stadium, ducks, what cars,
whatever I could find, and I pieced it together to
this song. Yes, and basically the song, you know, it's
about making a movie. So I made a movie to
a song about making a movie, and we stayed up
all night, and I think it's it turned out. Okay,
I got an a on the project.
Speaker 2: That's all right, that's awesome, that's good. Yeah. The euphemism
here is about as subtle as Pearl Necklace by Zazy Time.
Speaker 1: In Black and Blue by Dan Haley. Yeah yeah, okay,
Well I like the song. I listened to it when
it comes on, I turn.
Speaker 2: It up right, and then we round out finish up
the album with Billy's Got a Gun Again. It's a
solid song. It's not a guy coming Home from War
Guns again, it's a bit long for my taste. This
was nearly six minutes long, and I think they could
probably tidy that up a bit. But that's probably my
my sole criticism of the songs on this album.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's on the lower end of the album.
I think, yeah, it's good, it's solid, but it's not
a not one I'm gonna crank up or anything.
Speaker 2: Right, So, after months and months of recording, they finally
piece it all together brick by brick under Mutt Lang's
onnorous tutelage, and what comes out is a fantastic album,
and it proceeds to do exceptionally well.
Speaker 1: Six million copies in the US and sold one hundred
thousand copies every week from its release through nineteen eighty three.
Speaker 2: So this album as a whole is so good. It
was only topped by Thriller, the best selling album of
all time. This pyromane album spent six months in the
number two position while Thriller retained its title. It's truly,
it's an amazing thing.
Speaker 1: Number two when Thriller is dominating the charts is no
laughing matter.
Speaker 2: No, I mean, just short of Thriller, this is the
This is the number one album of the early to
mid eighties.
Speaker 1: This album ramps up pop metal for the rest of
the decade.
Speaker 2: I mean, you talk about a band that defines the
sound of rock music in the eighties.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: We've talked about Van Halen and how influential they were.
This band is in that same category. They are as
much an influence on all of the other bands. And
when I say influence, I mean other bands are coming
along and stealing their stuff. You listen to Rat and
you go, oh, hey, there's an American version of def Leppard,
except they only have one good song instead of a
whole album work, right.
Speaker 1: Hey listen. I don't really know, but nineteen eighty four
came out after Pyromania. Yeah, I mean maybe Eddie saw
their success and thought, hey, I could do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I mean we know that that album was
more produced I mean rock albums until this album came out,
where bands getting together and playing some songs and just
another side note. While they're recording this album, and Joe
Elliott broke down several times, lost his voice severely for
a time. This one which would in tears say to
Mutt Lang, I can't do it. Again. He goes, it's
not good enough yet, you have to do it again,
he said, I can't do it any better. He says,
you have to. So Joe Elliott leaves the studio, walks
to the next door studio where who happens to be
recording right, and David Coverdale, who has perfect pitch, comes
in records a song in one take, four minutes. Poor
Joe Elliott has been reduced to tears because he's been
spending months trying to get the perfect sound for this
task master. And David Coverdale comes in and probably smoked
a cigarette before it started singing It's all worth it, Joe,
wasn't it? It was all worth it?
Speaker 1: And I do think that, I mean, David Coverdale has
a better, stronger rock voice, but I think mut Lange
gets the most out.
Speaker 2: Of Joel It. Oh absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1: And I could listen to Joe scene all day long. Yeah,
all right, So that takes care of pyrameding right.
Speaker 2: The album becomes a huge success. They ultimately sell ten
million copies of the album. They're writing high, they're doing well,
and their videos are doing well. They're getting lots of
play on MTV, and they say, okay, let's now get together,
we're going to make another album, and of course they
enlist Mutt Lang to help them out again.
Speaker 1: All right, So this is where it gets really interesting.
So the band is at the peak of a success,
it says, we got to do another album, and then
Mutt Lang can't do it.
Speaker 2: Anymore, and then some real tragedy, some real tragedy. Yeah,
it's really questionable how this album truly got made. But
you're gonna have to wait to find out about those
stories on our next episode where we'll talk about Hysteria.
Speaker 1: True Hysteria.
Speaker 2: Yeah, true Hysteria. That's that's solid. It's interesting that both
of these, both of these albums have a psychological component
to the title because having to go with this band
went through, I could I could see being a little
bit off.
Speaker 1: I can't wait to get into the next when we
talk about Hysteria, one of the defining albums in the
nineteen eighties. Yeah, it's gonna be incredible. Hope you come
back and join us next week.
Speaker 2: Come back and join us next week. As it's not
a choice. You are hereby ordered by us to come
back and listen in as we talk about Hysteria and
then give you our final judgment on which of these
two albums is the best def Leppard album. All music,
images and movie clips are used