Page 113 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

World of leather:
Leppard onstage in
the late 90s.

GETTY X2
“With Euphoria, we were peeking our used on five of the songs recorded for X. Now,
Despite his reservations, additional writers were

heads over the fence: ‘Is it safe to come Everyday and You’re So Beautiful were co-written by
the band with Marti Frederiksen, the American
songwriter who had worked with Aerosmith on
out now?’” Vivian Campbell the albums Nine Lives and Just Push Play. More
contentiously, there was one song, Long, Long Way
To Go, written by Wayne Hector, author of Westlife’s
hit Flying Without Wings; and another, Unbelievable,
same. And in the end it all came together when Omagh, Northern Ireland, which killed 29 people by Swedish trio Per Aldenheim, Andreas Carlsson
Mutt was with us in Dublin. He didn’t write on that and left more than 200 injured. “It was such a and Max Martin, the latter famous for writing
song, but he was influential in directing us.” tragedy,” Phil says. “We’re an apolitical band, but Britney Spears’ … Baby One More Time.
The finished album was broad in range. that really affected us.” As it turned out, Long, Long Way To Go, a beautiful
Demolition Man was placed as the opening track for Euphoria was released on June 8, 1999. The ballad, was one of the best songs on the album.
its energy. “The chorus is pretty manic,” Joe says, album peaked at No.11 on the US and UK charts, With hindsight, and damning with faint praise,
“with all of throwing lines at each other.” Fittingly, while Promises made No.1 on Billboard’s Hot Joe describes Unbelievable as “not that bad”. The
for a song that he describes as “really hard-driving”, Mainstream Rock Tracks. For Phil Collen, Euphoria songs written with Marti Frederiksen were more to
it features a guest appearance from ex-Formula is one of Def Leppard’s best. “I’m very proud of Joe’s taste.
One world champion Damon Hill. Another that album,” he says. “We felt good making it, and “They were kind of poppy,” he says. “Like if we’d
standout track, Back In Your Face, is a throwback to I think you can hear it in those songs.” sat down and said, ‘Let’s try and be Cheap Trick.’
the glory days of British glam rock. ‘The guitar riff is And they’re one of my favourite bands of all time.
very much based in that whole glam era of ’72, ’73,” lang was a bold reinvention, Euphoria a So I was OK with that.” But he adds: “The stuff that
Joe says. “It’s us doing The Glitter Band – to the triumphant return to the classic Def we wrote on our own has the real flavour of what
point where we contacted the engineer who’d Leppard sound. It was when the band Def Leppard is.” Nowhere was this more evident
worked with Mike Leander, the producer on those Sexperimented again – on X, the follow-up than on Four Letter Word, a throwback to the simple,
records, and asked, what’s the exact millisecond to Euphoria – that they dropped the ball. AC/DC-inspired kick-ass rock’n’roll of High ‘n’ Dry.
delay on the handclaps and the snare drum? It was a Joe admits there was some confusion within Joe is blunt in his assessment of X. “It’s a weird
guarded secret but we managed to get it off him.” the band going into this album. “I think we were at album,” he says. “And it’s obviously polarised
The album also has two epic pieces. Kings Of a crossroads,” he says. “Internally, we were all not people’s opinions. It’s certainly not Hysteria but
Oblivion was inspired by the heavy sounds of the going in the right direction. We had some there is some good stuff. So it’s not a standout
’70s. “It’s a great, classic rock song,” Joe says. “It discussions about how we should go, and we had album, but I don’t think it’s a complete duffer.”
harks right back to the days of Uriah Heep and suggestions thrown at us that we should work X was not a flop. It made No.14 on the UK chart,
Wishbone Ash and Lone Star.” And on Paper Sun, with some outside writers, which I was No.11 in the US. But where one experimental
similar in scale to Gods Of War from Hysteria, they completely not cool with because I knew that we album, Slang, had yielded some of the deepest music
went even deeper, the lyrics in this song written in were well capable of writing our own. So why of the band’s career, X came up short. For Def
the aftermath of the 1998 terrorist bombing in would we want to do that?” Leppard, it was a mistake not to be repeated.

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