Tag: Def Leppard

Def Leppard – “Hysteria” (1987) – 7″ Single (Part 4 of 7) – (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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On August 3rd, 1987, Def Leppard released their fourth studio album, ‘Hysteria’.  Little did they know this ground breaking album would go on to sell over 25 million records, produce 7 hit singles and go to #1 on the Billboard Charts.  The title track, “Hysteria”, is up next and this was the third single in the U.S. and the fourth in the UK. It was released in the U.S. in January 1988 and the UK in November 1987. The song went to #26 in the UK and to #10 on the U.S. Billboard Charts and no surprise as it was crafted to be a hit. Mutt Lange basically built this song one note at time.

“Hysteria” was written by the whole band including Steve Clark, Phil Collen, Rick Allen, Rick Savage and Joe Elliott as well as the producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange. I say that on every single we’ve talked about because the band decided to credit each member for all the songs. My version is the U.S. version from the Hysteria Singles Boxset, but the B-Side is the same for all version worldwide which was “Ride Into the Sun”.

I’ve seen something from Phil Collen that said the song might be about enlightenment. That moment is the hysteria that you feel. But the song feels like a basic love song. About falling in love so deep and how that intensity feels. He wants to be with her so badly and wants to know if she’s alone tonight and would like some company. He gets crazy when he’s around her and wants to be with her in the worst way. When he is with her, he feels the hysteria of being so close physically. The song is sexy, it is passionate, it is even a little sublime.

A SIDE:

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Def Leppard – “Pour Some Sugar On Me” (1987) – 7″ Single (Part 3 of 7) – (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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On August 3rd, 1987, Def Leppard released their fourth studio album, ‘Hysteria’.  Little did they know this ground breaking album would go on to sell over 25 million records, produce 7 hit singles and go to #1 on the Billboard Charts. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” is the band’s third single in the UK released on September 8, 1987. Here in the States, it was actually the fourth single released on April 16, 1988. The song would change the course of this album for the band and see their popularity rise to heights they had never seen before. The song was written by the band and producer Mutt Lange.

It was do or die time for the band. The album had been a hit and sold over 3 million copies before this song came on, but the album cost so much to make, that the band still hadn’t broken even. They needed to sell way more. They recorded a video with live footage for the song and when it hit MTV, the album started skyrocketing up the charts and selling millions of records. The song never made it to #1 as it peaked at #2 as Richard Marx’s song “Hold On To The Night” kept it from the top of the charts, but there was no denying this was their biggest hit every and their signature song.

Yes, the song is about sex, but it is it the energy of the song that make this one so good. The song was one of the last ones to be recorded as Mutt still didn’t feel they had that one massive song that was needed. There were to intros recorded for the song. The first had the opening line on the song as “Step inside, walk this way, you and me babe, hey hey!” while the single version opened with “Love is a like a Bomb”, and since this is the Single version that is what this one opened with and it is great. The B-Side for this album is another fantastic track with “Ring of Fire”.

A SIDE:

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Def Leppard – “Women” (1987) – 7″ Single (Part 2 of 7) – (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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On August 3rd, 1987, Def Leppard released their fourth studio album, ‘Hysteria’.  Little did they know this ground breaking album would go on to sell over 25 million records, produce 7 hit singles and go to #1 on the Billboard Charts. The first track on the album is the song “Women”. The song was the first single for the album in the U.S., but “Animal” was the first everywhere else. The single was released on August 25, 1987. In the U.S., the song only went to #80 on the Billboard Hot 100, but did go to #7 on the Mainstream Rock Chart. But the lack of success of the single, was not a good start for the band that was heavily in debt from the long recording of the album.

The songwriting credits are for the entire band of Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Steve Clark and Phil Collen. And since producer, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, was so heavily involved, he gets a writing credit as well. The version of the single I have is the U.S. version and the version from the Hysteria Singles Box Set Collection.

The reason for that the single was first in the U.S. and not “Animal” like it was in the UK is that Leppard wanted to make sure their core audience, the males, would understand what they were going for with the sound of this new album. They knew women might not like this one, however, the song isn’t degrading women at all. It is actually inspired by the important women in Joe Elliott’s life and is an anthem that actually pays tribute and celebrates women both their beauty and their strength all with a biblical background to it.

A SIDE:

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December 2023 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs & More

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Welcome to the final Purchases Wrap-Up of 2023 and we will go out with a bang. This month saw a trip to New York City to see the final Kiss show so of course we hit some record stores while there. It also saw Christmas and my Birthday so a lot of good stuff came my way. The month started off with the Kiss show and if you want to see all the Kiss stuff go read the review HERE!!!. Here, we will show the purchases I made while in New York. We hit four record stores and bought from three of them. First up is a couple from the first store and found the debut Kix album and Maneskin’s new one on vinyl. Good stuff…

And at the next one, we found a couple Whitesnake bootlegs of a couple radio broadcasts. And these are early 80’s which is the best stuff…

And I picked up a couple CDs as well including Eric Singers ESP album signed by Eric…

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Top Albums of 2023!!

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I can’t believe we are through with another year. And what a year it was, It saw me complete my goal of reviewing my massive Jeff Scott Soto Series with over 80 posts and 18 months of work. I was crazy to do it, but I loved every minute of it. I also started two more rather large and incredible series with Bon Jovi and Def Leppard which should take me through most of 2024. These might be the last two really Series I do as they are the last of my large band collections I have in my possession. All the other artist I have aren’t in such abundance like these were.

With the Soto, Def Leppard and Bon Jovi Series, I actually didn’t spend much time with new releases and if I’m being honest, this was a pretty piss poor year for rock albums that I grabbed me interest during the year. So, we are going to go through what I call the Top Albums of 2023, but I missed so much this isn’t a definitive list. This is only what I listened to in the year so take it with a grain of salt. Of course there will be some honorable mentions, a worst of album and maybe a best of re-issue/box set. I am not doing a Rock only list this year as I want to highlight anything I listened to this year that I thought was great. Sit back, grab a cup of coffee if it is morning, or a beer if it is any other time of day…and enjoy!!

MY FAVORITE ALBUMS OF 2023:

#10 – The Rolling Stones – ‘Hackney Diamonds’

Is this the best Rolling Stones album, no, not at all. But let’s be honest, how cool is it we got another Stones album. I think it is really cool. Producer, Andrew Watt, was on board to bring the band back to life. He made it modern, but still a Stones album. I liked his work with Ozzy and I like it here. You Still get Mick and Keith and the boys sounding like who they are so don’t fret. There is a bar room blues feel to it, but it also feels relevant for today. They have Lady Gaga on board and even Sir Paul McCartney. I found it it to be a fantastic listen and one of my favorites for the year. Way to go boys. I like “Angry”, “Sweet Sounds of Heaven”, “Bite My Head Off” and so many more. Check it out!!

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Def Leppard – “Animal” (1987) – 7″ Single (Part 1 of 7) – (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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On August 3rd, 1987, Def Leppard released their fourth studio album, ‘Hysteria’.  Little did they know this ground breaking album would go on to sell over 25 million records, produce 7 hit singles and go to #1 on the Billboard Charts. The band’s debut single for the album in the rest of the world and the second single here in the States, “Animal” was also the band’s first hit in their home country of the UK going to #6! Finally, they had UK success. The song was released in the UK on July 20, 1987 and the U.S. in September 1987. “Animal was the second single in the U.S. and did much better than “Women” which had performed poorly on the charts. It went to #19 and cracked the Top 40. The Single I have is the US version with “I Wanna Be Your Hero” as the B-Side while the UK version had “Tear It Down”. My version is also from the Hysteria Singles Box Set.

I’ve read that the song was demoed back in 1984 by Rick Allen with drum parts on an acoustic drum kit prior to his accident. And I read that Phil had originally written the song, but either way the whole band gets the writing credit so it goes to Rick, Phil, Joe Elliott, Rick Savage & Steve Clark. None of the producers that worked on the album could do anything with it and then 2 1/2 years later, a flip switched and the song flowed with the help of producer Robert “John” Mutt Lange. Phil had stated the following…per songfacts.com

“We’d revisit it and I remember we were recording vocals in Paris for something and one day Joe [Elliott] had done this vocal and Mutt Lange had said, ‘Wow, this vocal’s killer. Let’s rewrite the song around that.’ So we did and it was our first English Top 10 single, so it was worth waiting.” Collen credits Lange for taking the song to the next level. “He said, ‘Yeah, this is okay but this can be great.’ That’s always his thing. ‘Yeah, it can be alright and it can be an okay song but we want to make it great.’ And I think we achieved that. Certainly with the album, Hysteria. It had a different kind of response to it than if we had just sat there and released the first draft.”

A SIDE:

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Def Leppard – ‘Hysteria’ (1987) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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On August 3rd, 1987, Def Leppard released their fourth studio album, ‘Hysteria’.  Little did they know this ground breaking album would go on to sell over 25 million records, produce 7 hit singles and go to #1 on the Billboard Charts.  The members didn’t change as it was stilll Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Rick Allen, Steve Clark and Phil Collen who got his first writing credits on this one. Whether you like this album or not, there is no denying the impact it had on the world of music. In fact, I have so many copies of this album. I have it on CD, cassette and vinyl and in fact, I have three copies on vinyl. The original album, the picture disc and the one that came in the box set The Collection, Vol. 1. I would say I’m set.

The album was a labor of love for the band as it took several years to record and they struggled so much during this time. There were so many setbacks during the recording of the album.  First, Robert John “Mutt” Lange turned down the producing job for the record after he had recorded “High & Dry” (my personal favorite) and “Pyromania” although he did help in the initial song writing for the record.  The band went through several producers during the recording including working with Jim Steinman of ‘Bat Out of Hell’ fame.  Their relationship did not go smoothly and he was later fired (they paid him a lot of money to get out of the contract so it must have gone really badly). Later in the process, “Mutt” did come back and produce the final product and then history was made.

The second big obstacle was Rick Allen’s car accident that severed his arm.  Yes, the drummer of the band lost an arm.  With all respect to the band, they did not abandon Rick.  They stood by him and supported him until he was capable of playing the drums with one arm using an electronic drum set and a set of foot pedals to compensate for the lost arm.  It definitely was a trying time.  I won’t go into much more as you can watch the documentary or read the book to learn more otherwise we could go on forever and ever talking about the making of this album as it had been 4 years since their prior release ‘Pyromania’. Instead, we can jump right in to the album as I feel we are here for the music anyway.

The first track on the album is the song “Women”. The song was the first single for the album in the U.S., but “Animal” was the first everywhere else. The reason for that is that Leppard wanted to make sure their core audience, the males, would understand what they were going for with the sound of this new album. They knew women might not like this one, however, the song isn’t degrading women at all. It is actually inspired by the important women in Joe Elliott’s life and is an anthem that actually pays tribute and celebrates women both their beauty and their strength all with a biblical background to it.

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Def Leppard – ‘Pyromania TV Collection’ – Bootleg DVD (The Def Leppard Collection)

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Since I collet Def Leppard music, I also collect videos too. And yes, even bootleg videos. This one I found on eBay and was a collection of everything Def Leppard’s ‘Pyromania’ that appeared on TV. It didn’t matter what show, what country or anything. Someone took the time and pieced it all together to celebrate that album. And I think that is pretty cool. The collection comes in a slim DVD care and contains not one, but two DVDs. And it is around 3 1/2 hours long between the two discs. This is for Lep fans because you get a ton of Joe Elliott, Rick Allen, Rick Savage, Steve Clark and new comer Phil Collen.

DISC 1:

The video kicks off with ‘Heavy: The Study of Metal’ that was on VH1 and showed only the parts related to Def Leppard and ‘Pyromania’. The show talked about the impact Lep had with videos and how they were one of the first rock/metal bands to really break through due to their good looks, good videos and good songs. After that we got a video of “Photograph” from their appearance on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand on May 21, 1983. Of course it is lip synced, but who cares. The picture was a little grainy, but again, who cares. This was around 1983 and there was no HD or even 4K for that matter. We even got to see Dick come over and talk to the boys. They then play “Rock of Ages”. I don’t know if I even saw this back in the day, but so cool to have this now.

We then jump to Australia with an interview in 1984 with them on a boat sailing by The Sydney Opera House. It then cuts to the video for “Let it Rock” which I’m not sure why as that is not ‘Pyromania’ and then back to the interview. The interview gets interrupted by the boat crew dropping anchor. And then to “High & Dry”, interview and “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak”…hmmm…maybe the videos for ‘Pyromania’ weren’t available yet. Nope, now we get a clip of “Rock of Ages” more interview and then “Foolin'” and “Photograph”. It is great to see an interview with Steve Clark…he is sorely missed.

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Def Leppard – ‘Seattle, August 3, 1983’ (Bootleg CD) – Album Review (the Def Leppard Collection Series)

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The tour for Def Leppard’s ‘Pyromania’ album started on February 9th, 1983 in London, England and would go on for 11 months, travel the world on and on December 18th, 1983 in Dortmund, West Germany. The tour was massive and a huge success. They even recorded the show at the L.A. Forum on the September 11th which was released as Live at the L.A. Forum which we reviewed last week. But being a such a fan of the band, I like to collect as many shows as I can get and I found one from a month earlier that was recorded in Seattle, Washington on August 3, 1983. Yes, it is a bootleg, but it is a radio broadcast so they sound is going to be pretty good…and it isn’t bad.

The show as recorded at the Seattle Center Colesium and it is the EXACT same setlist as the LA Forum show the band released. But the show is slightly different and the sound doesn’t sound the same as the other show so it does sound like a different show despite no variations in the setlist. First off, Joe Elliott’s voice is super high in this mix and the guitars are pushed a little to the back. Some songs I notice the bass is even higher then the guitars. The crowd noise isn’t as prominent so sometimes you forget they are there except when Joe interacts with them. The set I have was released in 2022 and on a 2 CD set split identical as my vinyl splits the LA Forum show.

The show kicks off with the air raid sirens, bombs bursting in the background and machine guns firing and it sounds way better and clearer then the Forum show. There is a gap in the track and and it makes it feel like the intro was not even a part of the show. Then the band goes in to “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)”, Joe’s vocals are a little rough and super loud along with the background vocals while the guitars don’t have the crunch or power you’d hope. But the energy is high and the tempo is really quick. “Rock Brigade” is up next and it sounds a little muddy and again, Joe’s a little rough around the edges and is sounds a little shot. The solo is ripping and they stick to the original song with not much extra added.

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November 2023 Purchases – Vinyl & CDs

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Welcome to monthly wrap-up of what 2 Loud 2 Old Music added to the collection and it was another good month. I will be honest, I don’t know if December is shaping up to be as good as this one and that is okay. I need a break. I will be in New York City and hope to hit a couple stores so there is still hope, but as far as what has already been ordered, not much. I know there is Christmas, but that list I gave my family was pretty light as I’d like a new laptop and that will drown out most everything else. For now, sit back and enjoy what we have this month.

The month started out with a sale at 2nd & Charles with a Buy 2 Get 2 Free sale on CDs. Well, you don’t have to tell me twice. My daughter and I hit up a different one then our normal haunt as I have picked that one clean and boy did that pay off. I picked up 20 CDs and 1 DVD as well. So technically, the first photo I bought, then the 2nd one was free.

And the DVD was for Robbie Williams’ TV concert show called “The Robbie Williams Show” and a review if forthcoming…

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