Page 84 - Classic Rock - The Complete Story of Def Leppard 2019

THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS

Def Leppard

Pour Some Sugar On Me

An afterthought they didn’t even want to record, Def Leppard’s

signature tune was a tale of strippers, sexual metaphor, and victory
snatched from the jaws of defeat.

Words: Geoff Barton
“Keep playing it, Steve. All the
JOE AND PHIL ON girls are getting their kit off!”
THOSE LYRICS.

Joe Elliott “Myself
and Mutt Lange had
dictaphones and we
went to opposite
ends of the control
room and made
noises into them over
the backing track.
Then we swapped
machines and
started translating
what we thought
the words were.”
Phil Collen: “We
do that quite a lot.
We did it on Slang,
too. I just mumbled
gibberish into a
dictaphone, and Joe
translated it as being
something, which of
course it wasn’t.
Sugar was done in a
similar way. I think
once you have a
theme, then
subconsciously you GETTY X2
start mouthing noises
that are relevant to
that theme. And the t’s no exaggeration to say that “As far as we were concerned, that was
thing with Sugar their 1987 album Hysteria took Def the final track,” Elliott remembers, “so we
is that it was
obviously a ‘wink Leppard to hell and back several times were having a five-minute coffee break.
wink, nudge nudge’, Iover . Over three years of aborted Mutt disappeared, and I went into the
sexy sort of song.” sessions, a sacked producer and relentless control room and started playing this thing.
bad luck, the band’s fourth album was Mutt comes back and asks what it was. “The main problem with Hysteria was us
the 80s equivalent of Chinese Democracy, I said it was just this idea I’d got – no big dicking around with people like [original
swallowing an estimated five million deal. He said: ‘That’s the best hook I’ve producer] Jim Steinman. That’s what really
dollars from the moment recording began heard in five or 10 years. We should took the time. Once Mutt got involved it
in early 1984. absolutely do this song.’ And, of course, went pretty quick. So although everyone
The record’s emotional cost, however, I was thinking there was no way the guys went: ‘Oh, fucking hell, not more studio
became been even more expensive, after a were gonna go for it.” time,’ it was obvious that we had to do it.”
car accident on New Year’s Eve 1984 led to To start with, they didn’t. “We’d finished As work on the new song began, Elliott’s
the amputation of Rick Allen’s left arm. the record and were just winding down,” hook started to evolve, with a little help
The band were forced into hiatus, while the guitarist Phil Collen recalls. “And we’d from their Midas-like producer.
drummer bravely re-learned to play on a already spent so long [on the album] that it “Mutt Lange saw the intro as this kinda
customised electronic kit. “You really was a bit like: ‘Oh, fuck. Not another song country guitar lick, played with his fingers,”
would start to think that we were cursed,” that’s going to take six months.’ It didn’t, of Collen recalls. “I can’t actually do that, so
noted frontman Joe Elliott. course. It actually took about 10 days, I changed it so it was played with a pick.
By the end of 1986 the ordeal was finally because we were getting the hang of it. Mutt had said: ‘Just make it very gappy.’ So
firmly behind them. Or so the band
thought. As Elliott and producer Robert
‘Mutt’ Lange were tying up the loose ends
of Armageddon It at Wisseloord Studios in “The song became a hit because strippers
Holland, the singer reached for the acoustic
guitar that was kept in the control room. started requesting it on local radio.”

82 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM