Sometimes, when you buy a bootleg CD you have no idea what you are buying. This is one of those cases. I couldn’t find anything about the release other than the front cover. All it said was “Def Leppard – Live Bites” and it listed out a handful of classic Leppard songs. And it was cheap. Those two things were all I had to go on, so I bought it.
When I received the CD in the mail, It didn’t offer much else to it either. It did have a full track listing, but it was only 11 songs and from the looks of it, not a full live show…only pieces. There were two songs from ‘Slang’ and nothing later that told me it was from around 1997 at the very least. There was nothing in the booklet…ha! booklet…one sheet of paper…so not really a booklet…that gave me any indication of where these songs were recorded. The back of the CD had something that said the following…
Having sold over 65 million albums worldwide since their debut release in 1980 and proved themselves as one of rock music’s hardest working and consistently powerful live bands, Def Leppard remain one of only five rock groups who can claim two separate original 10 million-plus selling albums.
After the Circle and subsequent tour, I am guessing the band was taking a little break because it would be 3 more years before another album. In the meantime, why not another greatest hits package since the last one was ‘Cross Road’ which was about 15 years earlier. This time around it was simply called ‘Greatest Hits’. Well, that is unless you bought the 2 CD set which was called ‘Greatest Hits: The Ultimate Collection’. The package was released on October 29, 2010 and it di really well going Gold in the U.S. and selling millions in Europe going multi-times platinum in numerous countries.
One thing they did with this release is that depending where you lived, what version was available. All single disc versions had 2 new songs on them. All 2 CD versions had 4 new songs on them. The difference was the U.S. version on had 26 songs while the International version (Europe/Australia) had 30 tracks and Japan had 31. The U.S. didn’t get any songs from 7800º Fahrenheit, International got 1 and Japan were blessed with 2 (including “Tokyo Road” of course). I will say it does suck they ignore that album here and only give us one from the debut. And it does effect my score. There is nothing else to say about the release so let’s get to the music as there is a lot to get through so I hope you’ve had a nap and are well rested.
DISC 1:
The first disc kicks off with “Livin’ On A Prayer” from ‘Slippery When Wet’. It opens with a wicked bass line, finger cymbals and a talk-box. But that wasn’t all that was great about it, it is the story of Tommy & Gina in “Livin’ on a Prayer” that makes this such a great song. Jon has a way of making the songs human and easy to connect with. The everyday person with problems just like you so the songs feel personal. The song is loosely based on Desmond and his girl-friend as she worked in a Diner, but he was a taxi driver and not working at the docks. It was that Blue Collar feel to the song that made it resonate with so many people. It was a time when Bon Jovi actually wrote songs that told a story that connected with people and not try to write just to make a hit.
“You Give Love a Bad Name” is next and also from ‘Slippery’. It was originally written for Bonnie Tyler and called “If You Were a Woman (and I Was a Man)”, but the song did nothing so Desmond Child re-wrote it for Bon Jovi and the rest is history. The song went to #1 and the beginning of the rise to super stardom had begun. The song checks all the boxes, big chorus, epic guitar solo, killer bass line, pounding drum fills and pure intensity. The song will have you singing along instantly as the song feels familiar and exciting. You can’t get it out of your head.
We are now in the mid 90’s and the rock bands from the 80’s were basically gone. Ok, they were still around, but they were not cool. Those bands were try going darker, heavier and try to match the grunge scene and the style of rock that was going on at the time. Def Leppard were no different as far as not being cool anymore (except I still thought they were). Thankfully though, they did not follow the other bands and go heavier and grungier. No, instead they went in a direction no one saw coming. They experimented with new sounds, new instruments and delivered an album that was like nothing you’ve ever heard from them. They tried something entirely new.
The result of the new sound was ‘Slang’. It was a darker album for sure, but not grunge dark. Lyrically dark. The band members were not having the best of times around then. Joe Elliott and Rick Allen had both been arrested for spousal abuse (not to each other, they weren’t married to each other). Rick Savage was suffering from Bells Palsey and the death of his dad. And Phil Collen was going through a divorce. All of that impacted the writing of this album.
Another thing that impacted the album was that there was no more Mutt Lange. He wasn’t involved at all. However, we did get the impact of Vivian Campbell as this was his first studio album he had made with the band since he joined. I think that helped change things up as well. The band ended up producing the album themselves with Pete Woodroffe. They also recorded the album completely different. No more Lange style of one instrument, one note at a time. This time around, they recorded it together. A novel concept.
It was released on May 14, 1996 and it did not do well at all. Well, it did go Gold, but it didn’t go Platinum. It only went to #14 on the Billboard albums chart. They did release 4 singles but no Top 40 tracks anymore. Nope. Times had changed. However, it doesn’t mean that this album was not good…not in the slightest.
The opening track, “Truth?”, was blatantly obvious that this was not the same band. A darker, more foreboding sound. Very experimental as the band show no signs of their old self and that is why this song is a stellar choice to open the album. It says, hold on to your hat…this is going to be different. It’s heavy drumbeats and very progressive guitar work are exceptional an unlike anything else they’ve done. When I first heard this back in 1996 my initial reaction was…WHAT???? But it quickly turned in to “HELL YES!!”.
The next track, “Turn to Dust”, was an even bigger departure. With the band’s use of a sarangi in the opening of the song, you get a South Asian folk flair. There is a Beatles tone to it and even a Bowie shout-out so the boys haven’t completely abandoned their roots. The chorus is a little heavy and totally killer. It isn’t anthemic, but it is catchy and even better then the opening track.
The first single and title track, “Slang” is one of two songs that might be considered more of their older sound, but still nothing like anything else they’ve done up to this point. You could possibly dance to this one too. Heck, even Joe raps a little on this one. WTF??? Yeah, that was my first impression as well. But, I love it. They are keeping us on our toes with this one. A song about phone sex too…huh!!!
“All I Want is Everything” is up next and it slows things down. A ballad that is nothing like the well-polished ballads of the past. It is dark, foreboding and the guitar tone is gritty and morose. The chorus has a great melody and is quite brilliant. It took me awhile to get in to this song, but I think I’m finally there. I had always wondered why so many people liked this one as at first I didn’t. I put the headphones on and really listened to it and started to hear things I’d never noticed before, certain notes and textures, and eventually I found the song to be one of the finer moments on the album.
One of the more fun songs on the album is the rocker “Work It Out”. Vivian Campbell’s first major contribution to the band and it is a homerun. It has a more industrial sound, it is heavier and that bass at time from Sav is so freaking funky. And some of the best bass work, bar none, on the album. I gravitated to this one immediately and might be one of my favorite tracks on the album…if not THE favorite track.
“Breathe a Sigh” gives us another ballad and this one is another departure for the band. There are some R&B moments with those verses both musically and even how Joe delivers those lyrics. It is soft, subtle and tantalizing. The chorus is old-school Lep with those lush vocal harmonies that would make the boy bands jealous. It really shines amongst the darker material on the album.
Then we get the first misstep for me with “Deliver Me”. I do not like Joe’s singing on it at all. The song is a rocker though so it has that going for it. Joe’s vocals are deeper, grittier and maybe it is too far the other way from Lep, but it does nothing for me. The chorus does pick up and make things better, but the slow, droning verses kill it for me.
The band goes all heavy metal on us with “Gift of Flesh”. The heaviest song the band has done in years and definitely the heaviest on this album. It feels almost apocalyptic, there is an urgency to it and there is something we haven’t talked about at all on this album…a guitar solo. The best one on the album (or at least the most memorable one at least). This song is slamming from start to finish and can I get a Hell Yeah!!!…I can’t hear you!!!
Then the album ends with not 1, not 2, but 3 ballads in a row. Wow! Talk about changing things up. But don’t expect to be bored, not by any stretch of the imagination. It kicks off with “Blood Runs Cold” which could possibly be on of the most haunting songs the band has ever done. Musically, it is ethereal, so much so that it could break if you touched it. Joe delivers the lyrics so emotionally and you can feel the sadness, the pain and the heartache. My favorite ballad on the album.
“Where Does Love Go When It Dies” sees the band get all philosophical with this acoustic beauty. It is about as old-school as they get, but yet it still feels different and more sophisticated. Joe does it again lyrically and vocally and gives us another brilliant track and this one will make you stop and think. You can’t say that too many times with their songs.
Then we get the final song and most epic on the album, “Pearl of Euphoria”. It opens with a killer bass line (Sav does it again). Elliott’s vocals are deliberate, darker and deeper in tone. It has a similar modern tone like “Truth?” and yet there is a 70’s tone a la Zeppelin. It has that otherworldly lyrical content you expect from Zeppelin. The guitar playing is exquisite and some of the finest on the album. There are so many great things about this one I don’t know where to begin. What a way to go out.
Track Listing:
Truth? – Keeper
Turn to Dust – Keeper
Slang – Keeper
All I Want Is Everything – Keeper
Work It Out – Keeper
Breathe a Sigh – Keeper
Deliver Me – Delete
Gift of Flesh – Keeper
Blood Runs Cold – Keeper
Where Does Love Go When It Dies – Keeper
Pearl of Euphoria – Keeper
Track Score is 10 out of 11 Tracks or 91%. This is one of the most surprising albums the band has ever put out. It took me a couple listens to get it back in the day, but when I did, I was all in. A very dark album versus everything else in the catalog and fit with the darkness of the 90’s music that was out, but it was nothing like the 90’s music at the time. It was its own animal or beast. Def Leppard stretched their legs with this one. They experimented, tried new things and some people might not get it, but those of us that do are given a masterpiece. Now, it isn’t as good as their earlier albums, but it might be one of the best they’ve done since ‘Hysteria’, even to this day. My Overall Score is a 4.5 out of 5.0 Stars. I pull this out more than any other album except the first four. I can’t recommend this one enough.
NEXT UP: DEF LEPPARD – ‘MONTREAL: THE CLASSIC 1996 BROADCAST – (BOOTLEG CD)
Welcome back to The Collection. This week we are going to walk through William Broad’s vinyl catalog. Who is William Broad? Well, he is none other than Billy Idol. We will start with the 1981 E.P. ‘Don’t Stop’ and go all the way through to ‘The Cage’ E.P. from 2022 and touch everything vinyl in between. So, if you are fan of Idol or even Steve Stevens, come check this out!!
So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, May 27, 2024 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
And if you are interested, you can check out all the Billy Idol reviews I have done on the site. Heck, take the day off and spend it with Billy!!
We are now up to Bon Jovi’s 11th studio album called ‘The Circle’. The band has been on a massive schedule of album, tour, album, tour for years now and honestly the quality is starting to show. Producer John Shanks is back and a lot of people believe that is the problem, but for me it is more than that. It is the fact the fact they are still chasing that hit and everything has become formulaic and tired. More on that later.
For now, let’s discuss the album itself. The title, ‘The Circle’, has many meanings one possible is that they have come full circle back to the rock & roll sound of before after dabbling in to that country genre for a second…a very long second. Or it could be that the band is a circle of guys and that circle is hard to get in to (and hard to get out unless your Richie and you stop showing up – but that hasn’t happened yet and I’m getting ahead of myself). That circle still consists of Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, Tico Torres and David Bryan. Poor Hugh McDonald still hasn’t been made an official member yet, but that will change eventually.
The album was released on November 10, 2009 and sold over 163,000 records in its first week alone. The album would reach #1 on the Billboard Charts and numerous countries around the world. It stayed at #1 for all of one week, but hey, it is a #1 album. It would also go on to Gold Status in the States and 5 other countries as well as Platinum in Canada. The band was still having success, but for me that loyalty had faded and faded fast. It was years after this album was released before I ever bought it and the only reason I pulled it out today, is so I could do a review. And after a couple more listens, my thoughts haven’t changed. Are you ready for it?
The opening track is the song “We Weren’t Born to Follow” and is very typical of every album since 2000. An uplifting song that talks about the tough times people were facing in the current economic environment. It was a charge to arms to stand up for you believe. But like every opening track on the past batch of albums, it feels like a been there and done that kind of song. Yeah, it ain’t bad, but it ain’t anything new either.
This week, I am going to go through the vinyl in my collection on one of my favorite bands to come out of the 90’s. And that band is Stone Temple Pilots. With Scott Weiland, Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz, you have one of the best rock bands that helped me make through the 90’s when music was what it was when I was growing up. Scott was one of the greatest frontmen to ever perform and the band has so many great songs and albums. Even today, with Jeff Gutt on vocals, the band is still releasing music and still kicking ass.
Join me as I walk through the vinyl of STP that I have in my collection. I am only missing an E.P. and the MTV live show, but otherwise, I think I have it all that has been released on vinyl. From Core to Perdida, walk with me through their amazing career of music.
So go check it out as it will be live tonight, May 20, 2024 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
This week my buddy Deke and I are starting a series called “In Depth” and each episode we will pick any album and dive a little deeper in to it. We decided we would do a mini-Queensryche series and go from their E.P. up to ‘Promised Land’. Since this is the beginning we are starting with their debut E.P. simply titles ‘Queensryche’. So, if you like a little Queensryche then come check it out as we have a little show this week since the E.P. only has 4 songs (5 if you count the 1988 re-issue). Which we do.
Deke is from the Distortion Den and from the blog world as well. Go Check him out at the links below…
So go check it out as it is live now on May 13, 2024 at 8pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
Bon Jovi’s ‘Lost Highway: The Concert’ was actually a Live DVD released on November 13, 2007 where the band played the album in its entirety. This was the firs time the band had played any of their albums this way live. It was shot in Chicago, Illinois in front of an audience of around 2,000 people. And if you look at the picture below, it looks like the stage was set-up to look like a gas station as I see a couple of gas pumps. A much smaller stage and a more intimate setting. The band played an additional three songs at the end. However, I don’t actually have the DVD, but I do have a CD of the concert that was released as a Deluxe Edition of the album. In the UK and Germany, it was called the “Tour Edition”.
The big the DVD and the CD was that the DVD had the song “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” as the finale, but here, we end at “Wanted Dead or Alive”. I guess I will have to live with that difference…until I get the DVD. But there were no changes in the band. The regular band was all there including Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, David Bryan, Tico Torres and Hugh McDonald. But there were a few additional musicians on stage with them including Bobby Bandiera on rhythm guitar, Lorenza Ponce on violin (and vocals) and Kurt Johnston on pedal guitar and mandolin. I guess the band needs help making the songs sound country. I guess that is probably because they are a rock band not a country band. Sorry, off topic there for a second.
Since they are playing the album in full, you already know the setlist and first up is the title track “Lost Highway”. The band sounds great and Jon’s vocals are spectacular. The smaller setting let’s him sing for the song rather than for a large crowd where he might have to sing with more gusto. Richie’s solo feels more exciting and lively here. The crowd sounds like they are in to it and that makes the energy and vibe feel really great. “Summertime” is still as cheesy I remember but in a live setting with a fun crowd, I can see how this would be an exciting song live and they make it just that.
After five albums and another long delay between records, the band and label decided it was time to release a greatest hits package even though they were in the process of working on their nexxt album, ‘Slang’. This would also wrap-up the era pre-Vivian Campbell. From here on it was a different band and a new era. The greatest hits compilation is called “Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits 1980-1985 and was released in the UK on October 23, 1995 and finally in the US a week later on October 31, 1995. And has done pretty good over time going 5X platinum in the US and platinum and gold in numerous other countries as well. Grunge might be king at the time, but Leppard still sold some records.
A cool thing the band did to promote the album was play 3 acoustic shows on the same day…the catch was that it was on 3 different continents. The shows were in Tangiers, Morocco in Africa, London, England, UK in Europe, and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in North America. The feat also made the Guinness Book of World Records. Pretty crazy.
The album also had two different covers. This one you see above and there is one with an eye on it and the picture of the vault in the eye. I need to find that one. If that wasn’t enough, there were three versions of the album. Although most of the songs were the same, North America had “Miss You In A Heartbeat (Acoustic), while Europe had “Action”, “Make Love Like a Man” and “Heaven Is” and Japan had “Rock! Rock! Till You Drop” and a new track “Can’t Keep Away From the Flame”. A real fan would have all three versions…oops, guess I’m not a real fan. Okay, let’s get in to the songs, that is enough chit chat.
After the success of the song “Who Says You Can’t Go Home” with Jennifer Nettles, the band wanted to do a Nashville Influenced album. Heck, they had a #1 song on the country charts, won a Grammy for that song as well, why not try and repeat that success…and that my friend is the problem with this album. They were chasing that country hit. But don’t worry, the whole album doesn’t sound country, but that are a handful of tracks that you can definitely hear that influence.
The album came out on June 8, 2007 and debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts while also going Platinum status. The band was still finding success. The album is the band’s 10th album and the title, “Lost Highway”, was taken from the Lost Highway Records in Nashville. They recorded the album in Nashville with John Shanks back at the helm and Dan Huff who handled the country aspects of the songs. Now, it wasn’t all Nashville as they did spend time in Hollywood and Los Angeles recording some songs too…but this basically came out as a Country Record.
Jon and Richie wanted to write with some Nashville writers, but in the end, they weren’t that inspired so most of the songs on here are actually done by Jon, Richie and John Shanks. They did get a couple of Country artists to appear such as Big & Rich and LeAnn Rimes. The songs are influenced by a lot of what was going on in their lives with both Richie and David Bryan going through divorces, parents dying and basically life happening. And all that is inspiring, but did it translate in to inspiring songs? We will have to walk through the songs and find out.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 