Tag: Photograph

Def Leppard – ‘Greatest Hits: Walmart Exclusive’ (2025) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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I’m not sure the reason behind this next one. Def Leppard has numerous greatest hits album, but for some strange reason, it was believed the world needed a new one. What we have is simply called ‘Greatest Hits’ and is on vinyl only and Exclusive to Walmart on a rather cool Orange & Yellow vinyl. It was released on Friday, August 29th (I believe) and I got it on that Saturday when I got bored and figured, why not take a drive to Walmart and pick this up. You see, I refuse to order from Walmart.com because my account with the store was hacked and someone bought over $600 worth of stuff…which I was able to dispute and get resolved since I received nothing from this screw up by Walmart!!

Anyway…sorry…went off on a tangent there. Back to this release. This is simply a money grab, pure and simple. And of course they grabbed my money since I collect anything Def Leppard…I know…it is a sickness. But what is great about this release is really NOTHING!! Well, the colored vinyl is cool, but that is it. The packaging is rather plan with an all black background with the Def Leppard logo and in very small print ‘Greatest Hits’. The track listing is SAD…really sad. We have five from ‘Hysteria’, three from ‘Pyromania’, one from ‘High ‘n’ Dry’ and one from ‘Vault’. That is it! 10 tracks that we have a MILLION FREAKING TIMES on other greatest hits compilations. And no insert! Nothing new, nothing special, nothing to run out and grab unless you are a fool like me.

SIDE 1:

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Def Leppard – ‘Pyromania’ (40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition – 2024) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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To celebrate the 40th Anniversary of one Def Leppard’s biggest albums, ‘Pyromania’, they give the album the justice it needs and released an awesome box set in 2024. And what a great set it is. It has 4 CD’s, 1 Blu Ray and even includes a hard back book. It is all housed in a cardboard box that is of great quality and the images are fantastic. The housing of the CDs & Blu Ray is not a gate-fold, but instead an incredible tri-fold. The original album is remastered, there is a disc of unreleased demos and mixes, a live set from Germany and the famous live show from 1983 at the L.A. Forum. It is splendid and I have to say that as this is one of my all-time favorite albums.

But before we get to the set, what was going on in the Def Leppard world at the time of the album? Well,…here it is…The tide was changing, Def Leppard’s success was palpable at this point, but not quite there…YET! Robert John “Mutt” Lange was back as producer and the band hit the studios in January 1982 and went through November of that year at Park Gates studio in London. All didn’t go smoothly, there was one big issue and that issue was Pete Willis.

Pete’s drinking problem was…well, becoming a problem. It was causing issues that were impacting his work and the band. It got so bad that on July 11, 1982, mid-way through work on the album, the band fired Pete. This was not a rash decision as it was discussed fully amongst the band because on July 12, 1982, the very next day, the band announced his replacement in the likes of Girl’s guitarists, Phil Collen. By this point in recording, Pete had already recorded all his rhythm parts and those are still on the album. Phil came in and added a few guitar parts and as well as some solos, he had it easy.

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Def Leppard – ‘Hits Vegas: Live at Planet Hollywood’ (2020) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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In 2020, Def Leppard released a really cool box set called London to Vegas. It had 2 shows, one from the 02 in London where they played the entire Hysteria album live and the other called ‘Hits Vegas: Live at Planet Hollywood’ where Def Leppard did another residency. The set had CDs for the shows as well as Blu Ray (or DVD) so you could watch it too. But that wasn’t all. They also released the albums individually and I bought each one as well, but this time on Vinyl.

This thing is impressive folks.  You get 28 songs and they are full of deep cuts as well as the classics.  This show is 2 1/2 hours long…2 1/2 hours…you heard that correctly.  Now the actual show was about 4 songs less so you know they added a few songs from other shows to give you most, if not all the songs they played.  The set is a 3 LP set in a beautiful gatefold packaging that include 3 beautiful transparent blue vinyl. They are really nice. However, since the cover has the U.S. flag on it and being 3 LP’s…wouldn’t a red, white & blue have been even cooler!? The answer is yes.

In a nutshell, the show was fantastic. Joe as you know is not as spot on with the vocals as when he was younger and that is not a problem here as the band does assist heavily with the harmonies and background vocals to help smooth that out.  I would say after a couple songs, you don’t even notice and you just enjoy the show. I mean by the end, I thought everyone sounded great. It was very enjoyable.

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CMT Crossroads – Taylor Swift & Def Leppard (2009) – DVD Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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CMT (Country Music Television) had a great show called CMT Crossroads. The show would bring together two famous acts, one being a country artist and the other either Rock, Pop or whatever they felt would work together. One of those episodes that aired on November 7, 2008 brought together and a young rising country star named Taylor Swift and a band she grew up listening to thanks to her parents, Def Leppard. A dream come true for her and a strange match-up for me. But it was Leppard so I watched. And when the DVD was released, I bought it.

The DVD came out on June 16, 2009 and was exclusive to Wal-Mart stores here in the States. The DVD contained the entire show that was broadcast as well as some bonus material. That bonus material was three bonus songs that were performed and not aired. You also get a bunch of interviews. In total, you get 75 minutes of Country Rock Crossover. Honestly, I wish there was a CD for the show, I’d like that in the collection. Now, was the show good? Let’s find out.

The show kicks off with “Photograph” from Def Leppard and a good one to start as it is one of their most famous songs. Phil Collen breaks out that famous riff while fully dressed and still some hair; and Taylor sings the first verse. Dang, she is so young here. She has a great voice, but she can’t muster the power needed for this song but she can hit some of those notes Joe can’t. Joe Elliott takes on the second version and that is they way this song should be sung. They share the choruses. The band is all the Lep folks and even Taylor’s band so we get two drummers and numerous guitarists and bass players. I even see a keyboard player in the background there. The bands sound awesome and they do play the song to perfection. Who knew it would actually work so well.

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Def Leppard – ‘Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection’ (2005) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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The compilations are coming fast and furious. First we had the UK greatest hits compilation called ‘Best of Def Leppard’ which came in a 1 CD and a 2 CD version. The U.S. did not get that release. Instead, about 6 months later, the States got a slightly different collection called ‘Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection’. This was released May 17, 2005 about 7 months later and went to #10 on the Billboard 200 chart selling over 1 million copies in the States alone. Canada bought about 200,000. So, it did well.

How does this one differ from “Best of”? Not by a whole lot. The biggest, noticeable difference is the artwork is really spruced up and more vibrant with the Union Jack used as background. Some of the pictures are the same and the liner notes I think are identical. This time, Disc 1 is identical to ‘Vault’ with the only change adding 2 songs. Disc 2 is pretty close to the same as well. There is a different New song. Instead of the cover of The Kink’s “Waterloo Sunset”, we get a Badfinger cover of “No Matter What”. We do get 18 tracks on Disc 2 instead of 17 with “Paper Sun” and “Mirror Mirror (Look Into My Eyes” being different. The dropped “Make Love Like A Man”, thankfully. And lastly, the track order is shaken up on Disc 2 as well. Let’s be realistic, they aren’t that different.

DISC 1:

The album opens with the biggest song of their career, “Pour Some Sugar on Me”. It was the third single off ‘Hysteria’ in the UK, but the fourth in the States. And it was do or die time for the band. They need to sell way more and this song did it for them. Yes, the song is about sex, but it is it the energy of the song that make this one so good. This is the ‘Historia’ Video Edit version which opens with “Love is a like a Bomb” and is actually longer then the album version.

Then with no mercy, we get “Photograph”.  First…the song is NOT about Marilyn Monroe.  The song is about an obsession with a woman and all you have of her is that photograph.  The Marilyn Monroe part was added for the video to help tell the story.  And it captures it perfectly.  As the video shows that obsession going a little too far. The song was perfect in my book and the video was mesmerizing.  The two together captured my attention like nothing ever had before and every time MTV showed, I turned up the volume! 

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Def Leppard – ‘Best Of Def Leppard’ (2004) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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Up to this point, Def Leppard really only had 1 greatest hits album and that was 1995’s ‘Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits 1980-1995’. Since that last compilation, they have released a couple more albums so it was time to update the Greatest Hits package and this time it is called ‘Best of Def Leppard’, easy enough. There is a single disc version which is basically the same tracks as the ‘Vault’. Well, close enough. They did remove two tracks and add two more recent ones then they added two more tracks on that one to give us 17 tracks instead of 15. And I am okay with the choices they made.

There is also a 2 CD set which is what I have. It came with a slip case (my copy doesn’t have that piece) and a second disc with more of a diverse selection. While the first mostly ignores the first albums (exception being “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak”), this adds a few more tracks plus gives us more of the newer albums. And even better a new song…well new to Def Leppard as it is a cover of The Kink’s song “Waterloo Sunset”. This was a preview of what was to come with the band’s next studio album ‘Yeah!’ which is a covers album. I like that second disc since it is the usual Leppard standards.

The CD came out on October 25, 2004 and it did sell 300,000 copies in the UK and went to #6 on the albums chart. It charted in other countries as well, but it didn’t chart in the U.S. as it was not officially released here in the States. That would come the next year with a new compilation called ‘Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection’ which we will review next week. Now, since this set is 34 songs over 2 CDs, this review could take awhile. I’ll get started.

DISC 1:

The album opens with the biggest song of their career, “Pour Some Sugar on Me”. It was the third single off ‘Hysteria’ in the UK, but the fourth in the States. And it was do or die time for the band. They need to sell way more and this song did it for them. Yes, the song is about sex, but it is it the energy of the song that make this one so good. This is the ‘Historia’ Video Edit version which opens with “Love is a like a Bomb” and is actually longer then the album version.

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Def Leppard – ‘Tokyo 1999: The Japanese Broadcast 2 CD Set’ (Bootleg – 2022) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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Def Leppard toured extensively for their latest album, ‘Euphoria’, which came out June 8, 1999. That tour brought them to Japan where they played 8 shows, three of which were at Tokyo’s famed Kokusai Forum where this disc was recorded. It is said that this was the October 1st show. However, the bootleggers have it wrong. The band only played “Wasted” on the October 2nd show which was actually recorded in full and broadcast on the radio and it was actually filmed to be shown on TV as well. Why we don’t have an official release of this show from the band is strange. We do have a few songs that from this show that were released on The Collection, Volume 2 Box Set on the Rarities 3 LP from that set.

As with most bootlegs, this CD has one glaring mistake. Look at the picture below and see if you can spot it. And no, it isn’t the fact the picture is with some of the members of Journey. Nope. It is the fact that the picture has the late, great Steve Clark in it who died back in 1991 a full 8 years prior to this release. He isn’t even on this release so shouldn’t have a picture. The bootleggers, however, seem to get all the song titles right and even the spelling. That is pretty rare! Now, that is all I have on this release so let’s get to the show which is the full set list with 22 songs and almost 2 hours worth of music spread over 2 CDs…it is awesome. And one cool thing is they play at least one song from every Leppard album released to date. Good job boys…good job!

The album opens with “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)” which is played at 100 mph as the band seems to be in a hurry to get through it. The band sounds fantastic though, guitars are crisp, drums are powerful and Joe sounds terrific. Always a great opener. And they don’t slow things down as they rip through the Sweet cover of “Action” and I do love Lep’s version of this one. They made it their own. A high energy romp that keeps the pace at breakneck speed. They go in to the first new song and play “Demolition Man” and talk about fast…holy crap I think they sped it up the tempo even more. It is bam bam, next song, bam bam, next song…you get the idea. The new song fits well into the vibe of the live setting. I dig it.

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Def leppard – ‘Rarities 2’ (2019) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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On June 21, 2019, Def Leppard released the second set in their four volume The Collection box set. There is a CD and a vinyl version of the set and my set is the vinyl version. It is 10 LPs and contains the albums, ‘Adrenalize’, ‘Retro Active’, ‘Slang’ and ‘Euphoria’. It also contains 2 Rarities collections called Volume 2 and Volume 3. Since we have already discussed the albums in this set, it is time to start with the rare tracks now and first up is ‘Rarities Two’ of the set. It is a 2 LP release and contains some rare tracks and rare live performances as well. All the songs are from the years surrounding these four albums.

LP 1:

It kicks off with a demo of the song “Tonight” from the ‘Adrenalize’ album. The song sounds like the final version with minor exceptions. Musically, it isn’t fully flushed out, the “oohs-aahs” aren’t full gang style yet and pretty simple sounding. Still a lot to get it to the final stages, but cool to hear an early version of the song.

Next, we get a demo of “When Love & Hate Collide” from the greatest hits album “Vault”. Is another stripped down version of the final song. I don’t like the guitar tone on this one as there is this little high pitched riff throughout that annoys the crap out of me. They definitely improve on that for the final version. Joe’s vocals are not high in the mix and have a weird echo, but the essence of the song is there.

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Def Leppard – ‘Live Bites’ (Bootleg CD) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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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.

Yeah…that was no help.

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Def Leppard – ‘Montreal: The Classic 1996 Broadcast (Bootleg CD) – Album Review (The Def Leppard Collection Series)

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The band’s first show in this beautiful city since August 1992 for the Adrenalize Tour sees them at the Centre Molson in Montreal, Canada on September 15, 1996. A tour that ran from May 9th, 1996 through to April 27th, 1997 in support of their new album, at the time, ‘Slang’. No more ‘In the Round’, the band played on the traditional end stage set-up, but instead of 20,000 people, the place held anywhere from 5,000-9,000 people. No more massive shows, they were no doing a straight up rock show with less lights and less everything. A pure rock & roll show.

This show was broadcast on the radio in Montreal and southern Canada as well as across the U.S. And what we have here is a wonderful bootleg of that show across 2 CDs. A fun fact, a month later on October 23, 1996, the band would enter the Guinness Book of World Records for being the first band to play on three continents in a 24 hour period. That has nothing to do with this release, but figured why not throw that in for good measure. Back to the bootleg, this one sounds fantastic, there appear to be no errors in the track listing as far the titles are right, and the pictures are even of the era of the band. Finally, a bootleg with no mistakes.

Well, it was completely devoice of mistakes actually, the opening track “Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)” actually fades in part way through the song. I am guessing someone forgot to hit “record” on the tape deck. Otherwise, the only issue. The song sounds great, but man, they are playing it at warp speed. They then go into a track from ‘High & Dry’ that doesn’t get played enough, “Another Hit And Run”. The guitar work is sensational on this one and has a great solo. Then we get “Animal” and then the ballad “Have You Ever Needed Someone So Bad” which for me is one of the better songs on ‘Adrenalize’.

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