Def Leppard were trying to keep product moving to keep the fans happy between albums. They didn’t want the gaps between albums, that tended to be rather long, to not have anything come out. So, on October 5, 1993, they released another VHS video and this one was called ‘Visualize’. My copy is on DVD which came in 2001, but the original was a VHS only edition. It contained promo videos, interviews and concert footage and it won a 1993 Metal Edge Readers’ Choice Award for “Best Home Video.” It ended up selling only around 50,000 copies in the States. I know I had it in VHS, got rid of that when the DVD came out and bought it again. On DVD, it is coupled with another VHS only release called ‘Video Archive’ which we will talk about later.
When you start the DVD, it makes you pick which language you want and it was so tempting to pick something other than English, but I went with the English version since I am uneducated American who only knows one language. When you click “Visualize” it starts out with some live footage and an interview short with the band, first Joe Elliott then Vivian Campbell, Phil Collen, Rick Allen and then Rick Savage. Good to see all the guys getting face time.
Video wise, the first one is off “Hysteria” and was the final single called “Rocket”. The reason it is here is the video ‘Historia’ was released prior to “Rocket” coming out as a video single. The “Rocket” video is a great one with the band in a warehouse with TVs all around showing clips of rockets and the band’s favorite artist that inspired them like Bowie and Elton John for just a few. The next video was for “Switch 625” and this was done only as a tribute to the passing of the band’s great guitarist, Steve Clark. He has been missed. The video is prefaced by a Japanese interview where Steve talks and jokes around. The band then talks about what he means to them. Very touching tribute.
Before the release of ‘100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong’, Bon Jovi had already finished recording their next album, ‘Have a Nice Day’. The record company wanted to put it out in early 2005, but Jon and the band had other ideas. They actually went back in to the studio and recorded more songs and tweaked some of the existing. As a result, the album didn’t see the light of day until September 20, 2005. The album 13 tracks and 3 bonus tracks scattered over Europe, Australia and Japan. The album would hit #2 in the U.S. and would hit platinum status as well as see #1 in numerous countries around the world so they were still a big worldwide band.
The album saw a new face in the producer chair. A gentleman by the name of John Shanks. John had worked with Ashlee Simpson, Hillary Duff, Kelly Clarkson and so many more. Us rock fans, were not real excited about that pedigree. Would this be a watered down, poppy Bon Jovi. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case as the album picked up where ‘Bounce’ left off giving us some heavy Bon Jovi and actually it saw a more thought-provoking Bon Jovi as Jon Bon Jovi really dug deep for the lyrics.
But, this would also be the first of many Shanks produced albums that many fans is the reason the band has lost its way and isn’t the same as it used to be. Yes, a band should grow and play with new sounds, and they did that, but the diehard fans have not been happy with the results, this fan included. This was the last Bon Jovi album that was good in my book. We will see if that thought still holds true as I re-explore the later albums. For now, I’m just going to enjoy this one like I always have.
The album would kick off with the first single and the title track, “Have a Nice Day”. The song is a carbon copy of “It’s My Life” as it is anthemic as well as delivering a positive message that says live your life the way you want to do it and when people try to bring you down, just tell them to “Have a Nice Day” and move on with your life. It is an exciting opening track, with an ear worm candy of a chorus that will keep you singing for days after you hear it.
The band was now five albums in but it had been 12 years total. Not a great track record. They wanted to not have 4 years or more between albums again so it was decided to release a compilation album to hold fans over until the next release. But this wasn’t any ordinary greatest hits compilation, nope…that would’ve been too easy. The band decided to pull together a bunch of rare tracks and B-sides and put them together on one release…but still…not so simple as they re-recorded parts, remixed others and gave us a solid collection of songs from their career over the span of 1984 up to 1993. It also gives us some of the last recordings of the late, great Steve Clark.
The album would be called ‘Retro Active’ and released on October 5, 1993. It would spawn three singles including “Two Steps Behind”, “Miss You In A Heartbeat” and The Sweet cover for “Action”. Both “Two Steps Behind” and “Miss You In A Heartbeat” would go Top 40 and the album would go on to sell over 1,000,000 copies in the U.S. alone. Heck, even the opening track, “Desert Storm” would hit the U.S. Mainstream Rock Chart at #12 without even being released technically as a single.
One really cool aspect of the album is the cover which was designed by Hugh Syme and Nels Israelson. The image is a photographed of a woman sitting in front of a vanity mirror. However, she is positioned just so, along with other items, so that when you moved the album further away from you it turned in to a skull. A really cool concept
The album opens up with an outtake from the ‘Hysteria’ album called “Desert Song”. It was originally recorded as an instrumental and is the last song released by the band to feature Steve Clark on guitar. In fact, it is noted as the only song in the catalog to feature both Steve and his replacement Vivian Campbell who did some background vocals on the song. I know I said it was originally an instrumental and it was, but lyrics were written when the pulled the song back out after forgetting about it for years. The song is about Mick Ronson who was dying of cancer around this time. It is a killer opening track, hard hitting and a really cool Clark tone to it which is so missed. The bass work is great on this as well as the guitars. To me, the song sounds more like it would’ve fit on ‘Slang’ then on ‘Hysteria’. A truly fantastic track.
We are in the year 2004 and Bon Jovi has now been around for 20 Years at this point. To celebrate their 20th Anniversary, they released a really cool box set of mostly unreleased tunes and a lot of little extras titled ‘100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong’. The Box Set is a collection of 50 songs spread over 4 CDs, 38 of which had never been released. The others were songs from soundtracks, remixes and/or B-Sides. This was a band dumping everything sitting by the wayside in to one set and I applaud them for that. Us diehard fans love this kind of stuff. And if that wasn’t enough, if you have the Japanese Edition, which i do, you get another CD of B-Sides and Japanese Bonus Tracks. That is another 10 songs.
This is a lot of music to absorb and we won’t be absorbing it all here. Nope. I’m going to go through each and every CD, track by track over 6 posts. We are now on the fifth disc which is the DVD and then the sixth disc which is the Japanese Bonus Disc, 10 tracks, but they are all previously released. So let’s get started and dive into the music as that is why we are really here any way.
We are in the year 2004 and Bon Jovi has now been around for 20 Years at this point. To celebrate their 20th Anniversary, they released a really cool box set of mostly unreleased tunes and a lot of little extras titled ‘100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong’. The Box Set is a collection of 50 songs spread over 4 CDs, 38 of which had never been released. The others were songs from soundtracks, remixes and/or B-Sides. This was a band dumping everything sitting by the wayside in to one set and I applaud them for that. Us diehard fans love this kind of stuff. And if that wasn’t enough, if you have the Japanese Edition, which i do, you get another CD of B-Sides and Japanese Bonus Tracks. That is another 10 songs.
This is a lot of music to absorb and we won’t be absorbing it all here. Nope. I’m going to go through each and every CD, track by track over 6 posts. We are now on the fourth disc which had a total of 13 tracks, 10 of which were previously unreleased. So let’s get started and dive into the music as that is why we are really here any way.
We are now to the final disc of music for the original box set. We still have the Japanese Bonus Disc to do and the DVD. This set starts off with two versions of “Love Ain’t Nothing But a Four Letter Word”. A song about domestic violence which is a serious topic for the band. However, the music doesn’t make it feel all that serious. This is an upbeat version with a real R&B, Motown feel to it with the horns and the angelic ladies on the backing vocals. That sound is why they never used it on an album. The other version of this song is Jon’s original demo with I think just him on the song. Some different lyrics and a more rocker feel to it the final studio version.
We are in the year 2004 and Bon Jovi has now been around for 20 Years at this point. To celebrate their 20th Anniversary, they released a really cool box set of mostly unreleased tunes and a lot of little extras titled ‘100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong’. The Box Set is a collection of 50 songs spread over 4 CDs, 38 of which had never been released. The others were songs from soundtracks, remixes and/or B-Sides. This was a band dumping everything sitting by the wayside in to one set and I applaud them for that. Us diehard fans love this kind of stuff. And if that wasn’t enough, if you have the Japanese Edition, which i do, you get another CD of B-Sides and Japanese Bonus Tracks. That is another 10 songs.
This is a lot of music to absorb and we won’t be absorbing it all here. Nope. I’m going to go through each and every CD, track by track over 6 posts. We are now on the third disc which had a total of 13 tracks, 9 of which were previously unreleased. So let’s get started and dive into the music as that is why we are really here any way.
The third disc opens with one of the greatest Bon Jovi songs never to be released on an album. That song is “Edge of A Broken Heart” which was used for the soundtrack of the great comedy movie starring The Fat Boys called ‘Disorderlies’. The movie was from 1987 and was just terrible. However, the song is amazing. The song was written by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora and Desmond Child. It ended up as an outtake to the ‘Slippery When Wet’ then resurrected for the soundtrack. A fan favorite that the band knew needed to be on this box set. The song was too much like the big hits on the album so they pulled it and what a shame.
Next up is “Sympathy” which Jon and Richie during the ‘Keep the Faith’ sessions. According to the book in the box set, the recording studio where they were recording the album in Vancouver had a projector that was playing a Rolling Stones concert and it was plastered on the wall about 8 to 10 feet wide. They song became a homage to the band. At the end of the song is a little bit where Jon pokes fun at Tico Torres singing in a weird old school trying to rhyme anything with Tico. It is pretty funny. Richie helps out and it is quite funny.
We are in the year 2004 and Bon Jovi has now been around for 20 Years at this point. To celebrate their 20th Anniversary, they released a really cool box set of mostly unreleased tunes and a lot of little extras titled ‘100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can’t Be Wrong’. The Box Set is a collection of 50 songs spread over 4 CDs, 38 of which had never been released. The others were songs from soundtracks, remixes and/or B-Sides. This was a band dumping everything sitting by the wayside in to one set and I applaud them for that. Us diehard fans love this kind of stuff. And if that wasn’t enough, if you have the Japanese Edition, which i do, you get another CD of B-Sides and Japanese Bonus Tracks. That is another 10 songs.
This is a lot of music to absorb and we won’t be absorbing it all here. Nope. I’m going to go through each and every CD, track by track over 6 posts. We are now on the second disc which had a total of 12 tracks, 10 of which were previously unreleased. So let’s get started and dive into the music as that is why we are really here any way.
The album kicks off with the song “Garageland” which was written by Richie and Jon at Jon’s new York apartment. The song was written during the Crush era and was about where the members of the band were when they were younger. Now, the individual band members might have been in garage bands, but I don’t see Bon Jovi as ever being a garage band so this doesn’t feel authentic to me. There are some cool moments in the song and it does rock out at times, but it is in rough shape and needs a lot of work to turn it in to something. Jon’s vocals are rough and the bridge/chorus is not that good. For me, not a favorite on this disc and could skip it.
Like “Taking It Back” on Disc 1, “Starting All Over Again” shows the band with attitude and a chip still on their shoulder. Jon explained that the band had their mojo back in 1992 and realized it was the band against a new machine that was rearing its head in music, Grunge and Rap. They were competing against a whole new scene. This was them saying they were going to take it all back and rise to the top again. But it doesn’t sound like anything else on “Keep the Faith” stylistically so was left off the album. I actually like this track. It has some great attitude, I like the guitar tone and it rocks out really great. A vast improvement from the opening track. This song was on a Japanese Bonus Track for ‘Keep the Faith’, but this is actually an alternate version.
After the Tour in support of their album, ‘Hysteria’, Def Leppard didn’t want another 4 year gap between albums, but nothing was easy for these guys. Something always happened. This time it was Steve Clark. His alcoholism was getting worse. He was in and out of rehab and in September of 1990, the band granted Steve a 6 month leave of absence to try and sobered up. Sadly, it did not help and on January 8, 1991, the world lost an incredible guitarist too soon as Steve Clark passed away in his home.
The band was devastated. However, they didn’t want to stop and kept going, but only as a four-piece. No new member was added for the record. It took months after Steve’s death before their heart was back in to it. The band also ended up having to do the album without long-time producer, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, as he was busy working with Bryan Adams and his ‘Waking Up the Neighbors’ album. Mutt did wind up as the “Executive Producer” on the album. Mike Shipley helped the band as both engineer and co-producer as he had worked with the band for years.
Most of the songs had already been demoed prior to Steve’s death, but they were all re-recorded and Phil mimicked Steve’s playing as best he could for the solos Steve was meant to play. And after months of working on the album, they were finished. The album came out on March 31, 1992 and it debuted at #1 in the UK and a week later was #1 in the U.S. It sold over 4,000,000 copies worldwide and had 6 singles off the album.
I bought the album on the day of release but it was not easy. I was down in Cairo, Georgia working for the State of Georgia on an audit. After work, I borrowed the company car and drove down to Tallahassee, Florida and bought the CD and Tape and listened to it on the trip back to Cairo. It was about a 45 minute drive each way so wasn’t too bad. Did I like it? Well, let us find out.
The opening track, “Let’s Get Rocked”, was the first single off the ‘Adrenalize’ album and did pretty good going to #15 on the Billboard charts and #2 in the UK. The song is a mindless fun track about a teenager disobeying their parents and yet it was filled with sexual innuendo after sexual innuendo. “Let’s Get Rocked” does just that with the heavy guitar riffs, Rick’s pounding drum beat and even filled with orchestration and some nasty violins. The most important thing about this song is the question is asks you at the very beginning…”Do You Want To Get Rocked?”. And the answer is always…YES!
This was one of the last songs written for the album as the band had finished riding the song “White Lightning” which is about the loss of bandmate Steve Clark. After coming off such a dark song, the band needed to cut loose and have some fun and as a result, we got this bundle of joy. Despite my tiring of the song, it is pretty great even if it is overly corny. The video is a CGI filled rocking good time and is the only video the band has ever done as a four piece. Steve had passed and Vivian hadn’t yet come completely in to the picture.
Up next is “Heaven Is” which was the 5th single from the album reaching #13 in the UK, but didn’t chart in the States. The song is about a woman…a very fine woman and you can figure the rest. It is a pop song, no doubt. Massive choruses, probably bigger than they have ever done. It is a little cheesy at times, but it is kinda catchy. Not the best thing they have done, but not the worst…that is coming later.
“Make Love Like A Man” which is actually one of my least favorite songs they have ever done, but not as bad as another one on this album. Yes, it is catchy, has a good beat and memorable, but it is generic and stupid at the same time. Now, Joe Elliott has stated that the song was the band having some fun and it was all a joke. They weren’t trying to be big bad boys, they were only joking. The song was the 2nd single off the album and did fairly well, going to #36 on the US Billboard Hot 100 charts. The album was starting to sound very generic and a Hysteria 2.0…yeah…don’t like that.
The sixth and final single was for the song “Tonight”. Written back during the ‘Hysteria’ Tour as a possible B-Side, but instead it was held on to for an album years later. The song charted in the U.S. going to #62 on the Hot 100 and #13 on the Mainstream Rock chart while it also charted in the UK at #34. The song is a ballad and it sees the singer longing to be with the woman he loves and have some very passionate, satisfying sex. THe band was overdoing it with ballads now, but this one reminds me of “Love Bites” and “Hysteria” which are two of their best and for that I like this one. It is sophisticated sounding with some great melodies and the music is emotive as is Joe on the vocals. This is how you do a ballad.
“White Lightning” was written about Steve Clark and his addiction and his untimely death. Steve’s nickname from the band was White Lightning as he normally dressed in all white on stage and ran around the stage like a bolt of lightning. It is such a heartfelt tribute and you can feel the love and passion the band had for this man. The song opens with a guitar solo by Phil Collen that was played in the style of Steve as a personal tribute to him. The solo starts off slow, with an eerie feel to it…a sadness. In fact, Phil played all the parts and even with the dual guitar parts he played as if it was he and Steve going at it together. It is very touching.
The lyrics spell out Steve’s troubles how he was burning the candle at both ends, always had to have that taste, but always unable to let it go and walk away. He was consumed by his addiction and in the end, the addiction won and took his shining light from us way too early. Sadly, this is a story played out everyday with people of addiction. It is a horrible disease with no end in sight that touches millions around the world.
“Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion)” was the fourth single off the album and it did really well going to #34 on the Hot 100 and #1 on Mainstream Rock Chart. And there is a reason for it as it is another great ballad by the band. This one was actually written for Hysteria, but it sounded too similar to the song “Hysteria” so it was scrapped and held on to for later use. Another reason why this album feels like ‘Hysteria 2.0’. The song is about a guy that is so in love with this woman and not sure she is feeling it, but he calls out to her to kick this love in to motion and then have some serious sex. He says it better than that though. A great ballad, very sophisticated and able to connect with you emotionally has who hasn’t felt this way at one time or another.
Then we get to the what is probably the WORST SONG the band has ever done (at least up to this point). “Personal Property” is totally utter trash lyrically and musically. The most generic, piece of crap they have ever put to tape (or digital in this case probably). I can’t describe how bad this song is so you just need to go and listen to it yourself.
“Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” is yet another ballad and the third single off the album and the highest charting as well going to #12 on the Hot 100 and #7 on the Mainstream Rock Chart. An album filled with so many ballads they all can’t be good, but you’d be wrong. This is yet another masterpiece. A tale of unrequited love, I mean, the title sums it up nicely. I love how the guitar solo mirrors the emotions and you can feel the sadness he is feeling not having his love returned. The band really seems to connect with this song on all fronts. Brilliant…just brilliant.
Then we get “I Wanna Touch U” which finally gives us a rocker as it has been awhile since a decent rock song on this album. It is still pretty basic of a song and another about sex. I will say the writing on this album lyric has been singularly focused with the exception on anything written about Steve. This has left a pretty boring album at times for the rockers. No depth here whatsoever. But at least the song will get you moving.
The album ends with one of the band’s best rockers with “Tear It Down”. The original version of the song was used as the B-Side to the song “Women” in the U.S. and “Animal” in the UK. So, they re-recorded it, punched it up a little and modernized it a little to fit where they were sonically and you have a great rocking track. But imagine my disappointment when hearing this on the album. I mean come on!! What the hell Leppard? You’ve done this song, give us something new. You have had 5 years since the last album and we get 9 new songs. This completed the disappointment for the album. Don’t get me wrong, this song kicks ass, but I’ve heard it. It was one of my favorite B-Sides they have ever done.
Track Listing:
Let’s Get Rocked – Keeper
Heaven Is – Keeper (1/2 Point)
Make Love Like a Man – Delete
Tonight – Keeper
White Lightning – Keeper
Stand Up (Kick Love Into Motion) – Keeper
Personal Property – Delete
Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad – Keeper
I Wanna Touch U – Keeper(1/2 Point)
Tear It Down – Keeper
The Track Score is 7 out of 10 Tracks or 70%. As you can tell from the review, I am not a fan of this album for many reasons. One…lyrically, the song was lacking. The lyrics were overly cheesy and mostly about sex in some form or another. Two…too many ballads. Yes, the ballads were great that were one here…but it slowed down the album as there were way too many. Three…no real rockers that stuck with me (that were new songs). “White Lightning” being the best song on the album, the rest were stinkers really. Four…the whole thing sounded like ‘Hysteria 2.0’. This is the first Def Leppard album to not completely change their sound from the previous. Go back and listen to the first four albums and you will notice they don’t sound like each other…yet they still sound like Def Leppard. This felt like rehash. Maybe Mutt is the missing ingredient. My Overall Score is 2.5 out of 5.0 Stars. I hate this album today more than I did back then and I dislike it more with each listen as it bothers me so much with what they did with it.
NEXT UP: DEF LEPPARD – “HAVE YOU EVER NEEDED SOMEONE SO BAD” (1992) – CASSETTE SINGLE
Back in 2011, Whitesnake released a box set called ‘Box ‘O’ Snakes (The Sunburst Years 1978-1982)’. It was a massive 9 CDs, 1 DVD and a 7″ Single of ‘Snakebite’. And if you missed it, like me, you would have to pay the late tax which means you’d be paying a pretty penny to get it now. Probably over $200 with shipping if you were lucky. Luckily, in 2013, they re-released it and called it ‘Little Box ‘O’ Snakes’. This time around there are only 8 CDs, no DVD and no 7″. You also miss out on an extra live show. But you do get a lot of stuff.
As David Coverdale doesn’t own the rights to these albums from the Sunburst Years, we won’t be seeing those massively incredible Deluxe Box Sets he has been doing from ‘Slide it In’ and forward. For now, this will do. I already have all of these on vinyl, but I didn’t have the CDs so this was a cheap easy way to get them all in one bunch. I think I paid around $30 for the set. Much better than the $200 for the original set. For now, this will do.
The set comes in a sturdy card board box and each CD is housed in a cardboard sleeve similar to a vinyl album cover. No CD cases to house them. There is also a booklet accompanying the set. All-in-all, you get 8 albums which includes the first E.P., 5 Studio albums and 2 live albums. A ton of music to get through and an incredible line-up of songs and bandmates.
David Coverdale coming off of Deep Purple put together a stellar band with the likes of Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden on guitars and what a duo that would be. You also get a rhythm section like no other with Neil Murray on bass and Dave Dowle on drums for the first few albums then the incomparable Ian Paice thereafter. If that wasn’t enough, you had Jon Lord on keyboards/organ. What a beast he was and I don’t think there was anyone his equal at that time. Now, what’s in the box?
The video is up now for Episode 5 of The Collection. When you have older siblings, their music taste can influence what you like and my brother, Gary, was a huge Kiss fan and that spawned me being one as well. From about 7-8 years old all the way til now at 55, I am still a Kiss fan.
This week is Part 2 of the Kiss on Vinyl series we have going now. We go from 1983’s Lick it Up all the way to 1997’s Carnival of Souls and everything in between. Find out which tour was my first Kiss concert, which album might be their worst and what 12″ singles and picture discs do I have. All that and more…
I hope you enjoy this episode which goes “live” right now…Monday night, March 18th at 8pm. Please do leave a comment and I promise I’ll address them as soon as I can! Don’t forget to click “Like” and “Subscribe”. Thanks for watching.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 