The final single for the album ‘Pyromania’ was unplanned. “Too Late For Love” would be the fourth single and was released on November 25, 1983. A song that wasn’t going to be a single, but due to the success fo the first three singles, they thought let’s release another one and it went to #9 on the US Mainstream Rock chart, but didn’t hit the Top 40 as no official video was done for it.
The single I have is a 12″ Single and it is also out of the U.K. like the “Photograph” single from last week. However, this I actually found in the wild here in the States so I grabbed it up quickly. You have “Too Late for Love” on one side and the other side has two tracks, “Foolin'” from Pyromania and “High ‘N’ Dry (Saturday Night)” off the ‘High ‘N’ Dry’ album. I’m sure that was done to help drive sales of the prior album…and it worked.
I love to collect singles with picture sleeves and I love to find them in the wild. I generally will never buy a single on eBay or Discogs. However, there was one big exception and that was for the song “Photograph” by Def Leppard. The song is off the album ‘Pyromania’ and was the very first single released for the album and it was huge. It was released in January 1983 and went to #12 on the Top 40 and #1 on the US Mainstream Rock Chart for an impressive six weeks. The U.K. didn’t see them have as much success as it only went to #66, but the band was not overly loved in its home country because they felt the band were sellouts to the U.S. market..which truth be told, they were. But the single I wanted was a U.K. only release and I had to buy it online as I wasn’t expecting to ever find it in the wild in the U.S.
Now, why I did I have to have this U.K. only version? Simple…the cover is a 3-Dimensional cover that folds out to look like an actual camera. The Pop-up camera picture sleeve was very rare and only limited to 500 copies and I have now have one. See it below…
…but that isn’t the only cool thing about it. When you look into the view finder you see a photo of Marilyn Monroe. But…the song is NOT about Marilyn Monroe. She is only in the video for the song, see the info below which will talk more about the song. Now, I think this was pretty cool and a must have for any Def Leppard collector.
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.
The album was finished, it was called “Pyromania” and it would basically change the landscape of music for quite some time. It saw the band’s sound go from heavy metal to a more polished hard rock sound that was more radio friendly. They worked on their craft diligently with Mutt and their playing and their songwriting was getting better and better. The band was now Phil, Steve Clark, Rick Allen, Rick Savage and Joe Elliott, this is considered the classic line-up to some. The album saw the light of day on January 20, 1983 and would shoot up the charts going to #2 on the Billboard Charts. It was held out of the #1 slot thanks to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ album.
Thanks to MTV and the Leppard videos, the band would sell over 6,000,000 copies within the first year or so and go on to sell over 10 million copies making it Diamond Status. There would be 4 singles from the album and it would change me forever as this was the album that made me a lifelong fan and collector of the band’s music. It changed my listening habits and the 80’s hard rock sound was it for me and that would be all I listened to during the 80’s…heck even today I still love it as much as back then!
While touring in support of their debut album, ‘On Through the Night’, Def Leppard opened for one of the biggest bands at the time, AC/DC. Famed producer, Robert John “Mutt” Lange, who produced AC/DC’s massive album “Back in Black”, took notice of the band and he was very impressed. So much so, he agreed to be their producer for the band’s sophomore album ‘High ‘N’ Dry’. A move that would change the course of history for this band and catapult them in to the stratosphere of rock stardom. But first, they had to do an album and this album saw the band head to a more melodic phase, however, the edge and rawness of the debut was still present.
The songwriting was more refined, everything seemed more purposefully composed, it was cleaner yet it was still powerful, engaging and after over 40 years with it, it is one of the best rock & roll albums of all time. Well…it is for me. The band, who was Joe Elliott, Steve Clark, Rick Savage, Rick Allen and Pete Willis, recorded the album between March and June of 1981 and it was released a very short time later on July 11, 1981. A short 16 months after the debut. Man, if they could’ve only kept that pace of releases, how much could they have released over the years. The album would go to #38 in the U.S. and #26 in the UK. Not a massive success, but enough of one thanks to the ballad “Brinin’ on the Heartbreak” which saw massive airplay on MTV, that the band was setup nicely for the next album.
Their third album ‘Pyromania’ was so big, so successful and so amazing, that ‘High ‘N’ Dry’ was re-released in 1984 with 2 additional tracks. One was a re-mix of “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” which added synthesizers and piano overdubs to make it sound more like what was done on ‘Pyromania’. The other track was “Me & My Wine” which was the B-Side of the original release of “Bringin On the Heartbreak”. It too was re-mixed for a more modern sound. This re-release helped sell more albums which has since seen the album go double platinum. They even did new videos for it with Phil Collen on guitar who was not on this album at all as Pete Willis was at the time. The copy we are reviewing today is the original release without the 2 new tracks, the way it should be heard. Let’s get to it.
Alright…You Picked It! This one was really close as we almost ended in a tie, but one edged out the pack by one little vote. The one vote that made it not a tie was someone said that they wanted either one album or another that I should pick, so I always go with the first name on the choices. If I didn’t, we would’ve ended in a tie. The winner for this month’s picks ended up being The Cars with ‘Heartbeat City’ and I am real excited about this one. Here are the results.
The Cars – ‘Heartbeat City’ – 8 votes
Prince – ‘Purple Rain’ – 7 votes
Genesis – ‘Invisible Touch’ – 3 votes
U2 – ‘The Joshua Tree’ – 2 votes
Bryan Adams – ‘Reckless’ – 2 Votes
Thanks to all for participating. The February choices will be up on Saturday! And the choices are all now from my collection and the next one will be some albums I have from the 90’s but probably not the ones you’d expect. Hopefully you can help me decide which one I should review.
THE CARS – ‘HEARTBEAT CITY’ (1984):
The Cars were now on their fifth studio album by 1984 and they made some changes with this one. Long time producer, Roy Thomas Baker, was replaced with some dude name Mutt…that is right…Mutt…Robert John “Mutt” Lange. I think you’ve heard of him before. Mutt had just come off Def Leppard’s album ‘Pyromania’ so he was one of the hottest producers around, plus he had done ‘Back in Black’ and “For Those About to Rock, We Salute You” by AC/DC, ‘4’ by Foreigner and ‘High & Dry’ by Def Leppard. Just a few massive albums. With Mutt signing on to do this album, he had to turn down Def Leppard’s next album ‘Hysteria’…but delay after delay allowed him to eventually join in and help with that mind blowing album.
But the Cars were different, they pure pop. They were not a hard rock band. The Cars also co-produced with the album as well. I do know that Mutt’s influence on here is huge and obvious at times as I can hear hints of his other work in these songs. This saw the band return to form and even see elements of their debut on here as well. It might be slick and polished, but is quite incredible too! If this isn’t their best album, it is pretty damn near close.
At a local record show, I found this beauty from AC/DC. It is the U.S. single for their first single off “For Those About To Rock We Salute You” called “Let’s Get It Up”. Hmm…I wonder what this is about?? More on that later. The song never charted in the U.S., but in their home country of Australia, it went to #73 and the Swedes liked it the most as it went to #18 in their country.
The song is typical AC/DC filth, but I mean that in a loving way. “Let’s Get It Up” is about sailing the seven seas and remaining out at sea for a long time, but it also is about, well, getting an erection and keeping it up for a long time. As Brian Johnson said in Kerrang, it is “Filth, Pure Filth, We’re a Filthy band”…yep, that sums it up nicely.
There are two versions of the U.S. Single. One with a gray cannon, like the one I have, and one that has a black cannon. I’ll have to keep that in mind when I’m hunting next time. The B-Side is the same with “Snowballed” also from the album ‘For Those About To Rock We Salute You’.
Another grab from Noble Records from the sell of the big metal collection he picked up from a former record store owner was another Def Leppard release. This time around I found a 12″ Promotional Single for the songs “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak (Remix)” and “Me & My Wine (Remix)”. After the success of ‘Pyromania’, it was decided to do a re-release of the prior album ‘High ‘N Dry’. For that to be successful, they added two new songs…okay one new one and one remix of another song on the album. Both were mixed by Robert John “Mutt” Lange himself. The album was rereleased on May 31, 1984.
The band sent out this Promotion Single with only those two new songs and they actually did videos with for the songs as well. Now, Phil Collens was in the band now and not Pete Willis who played on both these songs so the videos have Phil not Pete which is strange.
This promo is a U.S. release just prior to the album re-release and sent out in hopes of pushing that album. I remember the videos popping up on MTV and I loved it. It was already my favorite Def Leppard album and I was fine and dandy with picking up another copy of the album with the two new tracks. Since these are remixes, let’s talk a little about the songs.
For My Sunday Song #160 and the final in the Def Leppard series, I bring you “Die Hard the Hunter” from the multi-platinum album ‘Pyromania’. The song was never released as a single; however, was played live back in the day.
The song opens with the sound of a helicopter and machine gun fire and is representative of war, the Vietnam War to be exact. The song is about a war veteran who comes back from war, but can’t seem to let it go. The battles the soldier faces being home as he can’t seem to stop fighting the battles and now they are in his mind. The evils of war are following him everywhere and he is struggling to let go of the bad and find the good. A common problem with soldiers then and even today.
What I love about the song is the seriousness of the music. The heavy metal chords that are used give an impending feel of doom and gloom. There is a darkness to the music, an eeriness, a sadness that captures the feelings the soldier is going through. You can actually feel the heaviness of it all through the music. It is quite fantastic how they captured that feeling musically.
Steve Clark’s solo on this is fantastic. He has a really cool riff and along with Pete Willis’ rhythm guitar, the two made a great pair and helped deliver the sound that captured the essence of the song. It was simple sounding, yet brilliant. Not too flashy, but not understated either. Joe delivers the vocals in a way to also help convey the emotions of the song. Always has been one of my favorites on ‘Pyromania’.
For My Sunday Song #156, we are going to talk about one of Def Leppard’s few politically charged songs and one of the few songs from Hysteria that was not a single. The song is “Gods of War”. It is an epic song at over 6 minutes and I loved it when they used to play this one live long, long ago. They still do play it when they do the whole Hysteria album in concert of course.
This was the 80’s and there were all these little military skirmishes going on around the world and it was the end of the Cold War. Ronald Reagan was President of the United States and Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Intermixed in the song were lines from the world leaders threatening the terrorists and even gun fire and battle sounds. One of my favorite lines was towards the end when President Reagan said, “He counted on America to be passive, He counted wrong” and then there was gun fire and explosions. For a teenage boy, that was really badass! Plus, I can do a really great Reagan impression so I would say those lines in his voice every time I would sing it.
Joe came up with the song from watching the news and what was going on in the world. It was Def Leppard’s version of protest song which I am sure was overshadowed by the songs that the band was releasing such as “Pour Some Sugar On Me”. People didn’t look at Leppard as a socially conscience band, but they could be and were.
For My Sunday Song #126, the instrumental we will be covering is “Switch 625” by none other than Def Leppard. For a band that is not noted for doing instrumentals, when they did one, they definitely got it right. The song is off the band’s second album ‘High & Dry’ and is still played today in concert as a tribute to the writer of the song, the late, great Steve Clark.
The song bleeds effortlessly after “Bringin’ On the Heartbreak” with such a smooth transition you would swear it is part of the song. The long, unedited version of the song. The song itself is a beautiful representation of all that was great about the god-given gift of Steve’s guitar playing.
I love the dual guitars battling it out. I can picture Pete & Steve going back and forth and playing off each other (now I am making an assumption that Pete played on the recorded version). It also has such a great melody and if it had lyrics would have made for another great Def Leppard ballad I am sure.
In fact, producer Mutt Lange wanted to add lyrics but after battling out with Joe Elliot, no lyrics were added. Joe felt the song was perfect the way it was and no need to mess it up with his voice (of course that isn’t a direct quote, I’m making assumptions but the story itself is true).
2 Loud 2 Old Music 