Page 135 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

Superior Reputation cementing

On Through High ’N’ Dry Adrenalize Euphoria Songs From The
The Night VERTIGO, 1981 MERCURY, 1992 BLUDGEON RIFFOLA, 1999 Sparkle Lounge

MERCURY, 1980 Leppard’s second album is the Grunge didn’t kill hair-metal with The title spoke volumes: a nod to BLUDGEON RIFFOLA, 2008
“We’ve never been heavy metal,” connoisseur’s choice, a hard rock a single blow. In March 1992, two Pyromania and Hysteria, a signal 2008 was a banner year for
claims Joe Elliott. But for all his tour de force that swept them out months after Nirvana’s Nevermind that the old Def Leppard was classic rock, with AC/DC,
protestations, Leppard’s debut is of the NWOBHM ghetto. topped the US chart, Def Leppard back after Slang. Even Mutt Lange Metallica and even Guns N’
a heavy metal album, plain and Working with Mutt Lange for hit the top spot in America with was back lending a hand on Fuckin’ Roses all back in business.
simple. In their youthful naivety, the first time, Leppard made a Adrenalize. Euphoria, not as producer but as And you can add to that
the five-piece attacked their huge leap forward from their The album party vibe of lead co-writer of two songs, including illustrious list the best Def
debut album with all the gusto of debut, On Through The Night. single Let’s Get Rocked might have lead single Promises, a super-slick, Leppard album since Hysteria.
their NWOBHM peers. Wisely, Mutt didn’t smooth off all suggested it was business as harmony-laden track reminiscent Rejuvenated by a succession
No shame in that. The brutal of their rough edges. usual for Leppard, but in reality of 1987’s killer single Animal. of triumphant US enormo-dome
Wasted has the same streetwise Opening with the knockout the band were still in mourning Leppard ticked all the right tours, Leppard delivered an
appeal as early Iron Maiden, one-two punch of Let It Go and for Steve Clark, to whom boxes with Euphoria. Back In Your arena-rock master-class with
Rock Brigade and Rocks Off are Another Hit And Run, it’s the Adrenalize was dedicated. Face is the guiltiest of pleasures, a Songs From The Sparkle Lounge.
the very definition of gonzoid, and rowdiest and most balls-out, Adrenalize featured six tracks throwback to Gary Glitter’s Nine Lives is classic Leppard,
the prog-tinged seven-minute ass-kicking album the band have co-written with Clark, but it was a pomp. Goodbye is a deluxe power C’mon C’mon recalls the glory of
Overture references 70s-vintage ever recorded. The pissed-up title new song, White Lightning, that ballad. And there’s something of 70s glam rock. Most
Rush and Kansas. But the true track is Leppard’s Highway To Hell; served as the most fitting Steve Clark’s swagger in Paper adventurously, the richly
measure of Leppard’s ambitions the duelling guitars of Switch 625 epitaph: a meditation on Clark’s Sun, a song that Brian May says textured, left-field power ballad
was Hello America, with its had echoes of classic Thin Lizzy. death, it has a Zeppelin-inspired blew him away. “We like Brian,” Love is bassist Rick Savage’s
polished vocal harmonies. Things were rapidly heating up. grandeur he would have loved. says Joe Elliott. “He rocks.” homage to Queen.

Good Worth exploring Avoid

Retro Active Slang Mirror Ball – Def Leppard X

BLUDGEON RIFFOLA, 1993 BLUDGEON RIFFOLA, 1996 Live & More BLUDGEON RIFFOLA, 2015 BLUDGEON RIFFOLA, 2002
For an odds ‘n’ sods album, Retro After grunge, hair-metal’s BLUDGEON RIFFOLA/FRONTIERS, 2011 The title of the band’s last album In 2006 Leppard’s covers album
Active was both astonishingly superstars had to rethink. Jon Bon All of the greatest live rock to date was simply explained by Yeah! suffered a terrible mauling
good and an impressively strong Jovi had a bob and pulled off a albums – Deep Purple’s Made In Joe Elliott. “It’s just called Def from the press, most notably the
seller, achieving platinum status smart reinvention. But when Japan, Thin Lizzy’s Live And Leppard because that’s what it one-word review: “No.”
in the US. Leppard’s first album Mötley Crüe went ‘alternative’ Dangerous et al – have captured sounds like,” the singer said, Yeah! deserved better, if only
with guitarist Vivian Campbell, it and Bret Michaels grew a beard, a moment in time for a band at before elaborating: “It doesn’t for Leppard’s inspired remakes of
also includes the last work of his they weren’t fooling anyone. its early peak. sound like any one specific era of David Essex’s Rock On and ELO’s
predecessor Steve Clark. In these trying times Leppard In that sense, Leppard, like Van Def Leppard. It’s got everything.” 10538 Overture. Certainly there
Clark’s signature riffing drives knew they couldn’t make another Halen before them, missed a He wasn’t underselling it. The are worse albums. Such as X.
the album’s weighty epics Desert Adrenalize. As Joe Elliott recalls: trick. But on the plus side, Mirror breadth of the album was Def Leppard have always
Song and Fractured Love, the “We went heavier and darker. Ball proved that this was still one illustrated in its fist and last tracks embraced pop music. When
former styled on Zeppelin’s And it nearly killed us!” of the best live acts in the – Let’s Go, a classic Leppard making Hysteria, one of their key
Kashmir. Elsewhere Leppard Slang sold a disappointing business, delivering an arena rock opener, albeit it one reminiscent inspirations was Frankie Goes To
acknowledged other key half-a-million copies in the US. master class with all the hits and, of Pour Some Sugar On Me, and Hollywood. But with X they went
influences with covers of The But it’s a bold album, with great in memory of Steve Clark, the Blind Faith, with dark, soul- too far. By working with cheesy
Sweet’s Action and Mick Ronson’s songs in Work It Out and the steamin’ Switch 625. searching lyrics and a touch of pop songwriters a great rock
Only After Dark. The ballads Miss monolithic Pearl Of Euphoria. Equally, the addition of three Sgt. Pepper-style psychedelics. band lost its balls, albeit
You In A Heartbeat and Two Steps Joe Elliott calls Slang “our most new studio tracks, including the Best of all was Man Enough, a temporarily. Apart from one
Behind proved that the band honest record”. But a return to muscular anthem Undefeated, tongue-in-cheek funk-rock sizzler track, the beefy Four Letter Word,
could flourish without Mutt the classic Leppard sound wasn’t proved that Sheffield’s finest still inspired by Queen’s Another One X is all pop and no rock. This
Lange’s studio trickery. far away. had the creative juice. Bites The Dust. really was a sell-out.

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 133