On one of my recent trips to record shop, I scored a couple picture discs by one of my favorite bands, Def Leppard. The one we are going to talk about next is the 12″ Single Picture Disc for the song called “Let’s Get Rocked” off the band’s 1992 album ‘Adrenalize’. The first one we talked about last week was “Make Love Like A Man”. The store I bought this at is called Noble Records and is one of my favorite local record shops in Charlotte. Noble Records has a YouTube channel and he constantly posts videos of collections he has bought and what he will be putting out on the floor. When he has big collections purchased, they usually go out on a Saturday at 10am. I was watching the video and he quickly flipped past the two Def Leppard picture discs as I could tell he isn’t a fan…but I am. I knew immediately I had to have them.
I got up on Saturday, mask in hand and headed to the store. The store was packed and actually made me a little nervous. However, everyone was wearing masks and being polite. Although I am not 100% sure we were following perfect Covid social distancing protocol, I was willing to take the risk. I went in and told Dillion what I was looking to get and he told me where they were (if they were still there and someone didn’t already have them in hand. I went through that stack and lo and behold, they were still there. I grabbed them, paid for them and got out in maybe 5 minutes and immediately hand sanitized my hands. I was so excited to grow my Def Leppard collection a little more.
The single “Let’s Get Rocked” was the first single off the ‘Adrenalize’ album and did pretty good going to #15 on the Billboard charts. The song is a mindless fun track about a teenager disobeying their parents and yet it was filled with sexual innuendo after sexual innuendo. It isn’t my favorite track on the album, but it is still a good time track and they still play it in their live shows regularly. 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.
The B-Side on this are two tracks. First is “Only After Dark” which is a cover of a song written by Mick Ronson and Scott Richardson. The vinyl, however, only has Mick Ronson credited which is interesting. It is a glam rock song with a little new wave edge to it. It would later be released on the band’s album ‘Retro Active’.
The second B-Side is a live version of “Too Late For Love” which was recorded at McNichols Arena, Denver, Colorado on 12 & 13 February 1988. Now, I am guessing by listing both dates that this song was pieced together from two performances of the song which seems very odd to me. However, the two dates are the dates they recorded the shows for their In Your Face, In the Round concert video so that makes more sense. If you know that video, you know this song. It is fantastic.
And there you have it, the second of the two Picture Discs I picked up at Noble Records. Really great finds and so happy to have them in my collection. Thanks for stopping by and hanging for a little while.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 