Def Leppard 'Hysteria': C/D?

1) That weird-ass a capella bit at the start of the album version of "Rocket" -- and the way it's chopped up, reused, referred to and more throughout the song.

(x-post -> now #5. I'm talking about "Gods of War".)

(Isn't it "Guitar! Drums!"?)

I'd have to say so, you'll find disagreements of course. But I dunno...

8) Goddamn is the start of "Love Bites" weird and queasy. It's a power ballad but it isn't.

Number 7 OTMFM.

12) the buildup to the chorus of "Run Riot" is so fucking great -- the missing fake-rebellion-as-anthemic-noise link between Sweet's "Teenage Rampage" and the Prodigy's "Firestarter."

and i hated the drum sound.

TS: Lep's "Rocket" vs Smashing Pumpkins' "Rocket"

DON'T MAKE ME CHOOSE

Oh wait, this one is actually in "Love and Affection".

24) "Hysteria" and "L&A" blend into one giant smeared-out falsetto ballad epic.

High N' Dry for this teenybopper.

It's actually, "I gotta know tonight/If your alone tonight"...;)

I memorized the lyrics from my brother's Hit Parader when I was in junior high. It doesn't get much better than "Hysteria" for power ballad goodness.

! Why I'm flattered, but I don't think I've quite deserved to be spoken of in the same breath. ;-)

30) To perhaps answer Myonga's point -- as I said it's an industrial-pop album in ways, but more to the point it's a pop album straight up. A huge over-the-top one of course, but that's precisely its appeal for me at least, it's a place where x ALWAYS equals x. Literally half the album became singles that charted, and while that doesn't rival all but two songs off Thriller going top ten, say, it's still something. So it CAN catch, but I think thinking of it as a heavy metal album, quotes or no quotes, actually isn't the best or only way to regard it.

no.. love bites.

this will be played heavily at my delusions of grandeur party, even though this album's grandeur is earned!

There's number 32!

"THEY COUNTED WRONG."

Dammit I do too. In late middle school, I worked for a landscaping company raking leaves in the huge rich-people yards in the neighborhood where the governor's mansion is located in Nashville. I'm pretty sure Hysteria was the only thing I ever listened to on my walkman while doing that... It used to take me an entire 6-8 hour day to rake one of those yards, and I'd listen on repeat/auto-reverse the whole time.

Simply the fact that the drummer had one arm and that he stayed the drummer. What utter dedication

Rick Allen also managed to get arrested for assaulting his wife with only one arm. I tell ya the guy just never gave up in the face of tragedy.

The decline and fall of Mutt Lange

including mention of British tv documentary about making the album, which I wouldn't mind seeing.

I like it, but Pyromania will always mean more to me, even as I recognize Hysteria is certainly the more strange record, a singular document. I just like the tunes better on the earlier record.

DUDD!!!!

Def Leppard officially stopped mattering after the last note strcuk on Pyromania. After said album, the boys ditched all their sonic ties to the NWOBHM that spawned them and basically attempted to become a vaguely metallic version of Wham! I, for one, have never forgiven them.

But that's brilliant!

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=UIDSUB020405181212270411&sql=A8isxlfde5cqq

"Gods of War"
"Don't Shoot Shotgun"
"Run Riot"
"Excitable"
"Hysteria"
"Love and Affection"

Right. *checks CD* Hey, you might be right! I needed to switch "Hysteria" and "Excitable"

It does?

Reason 33!

34) How did I forget this? The weirdass "COUNTDOWN COMMENCING -- FIRE ONE!" in "Rocket"

Step inside
Walk this way!
You and me babe
HEY HEY!

You and I together in our lives
Sacred ties would never fray
Then why can´t I let myself tell lies
And watch you die every day

I think back to the times
When dreams were what mattered
Tough talking youth naivete

You said you never let me down
But the horse stampedes and rages
In the name of desperation

Is it all just wasted time
Can you look at yourself
When you think of what
You left behind

Is it all just wasted time
Can you live with yourself
When you think of what
You left behind

Paranoid delusions they haunt you
Where´s my friend I used to know
He´s all alone
He´s buried deep within a carcass
Searching for a soul

Can you feel me inside your heart
As it´s bleeding
Why can´t you belive you
can´t be loved

I hear you scream in agony
And the horse stampedes and rages
In the name of desperation

Is it all just wasted time
Can you look at yourself
When you think of what
You left behind

Is it all just wasted time
Can you live with yourself
When you think of what
You left behind

You said you never let me down
But the horse stampedes and rages
In the name of desperation

Is it all just wasted time
Can you look at yourself
When you think of what
You left behind

Is it all just wasted time
Can you live with yourself
When you think of what
You left behind

The sun will rise again
The earth will turn to sand
Creation´s colors seem to fade to grey
And you´ll see the sickly hands of time
Will write your final rhyme
And end a memory

I never thought you´d let it get
this far, boy....

great now I'm crying

Haha! Well, to each listener their own. :-)

Sucks ass, and always has. (Hair metal band chickens out and tries to get "heavy," what dipshits.) Their first LP was the only listenable one. But had *Adrenalize been released a year or two earlier, it still would have been overshadowed by plenty of great Warrant, Faster Pussycat, and Cinderella albums (among other things) regardless.

Sort've an oxymoron, there.

1. Cinderella, Long Cold Winter
2. Faster Pussycat, Where There's a Whip There's a Way
2. Warrant, Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich
3. Warrant, Cherry Pie
4. first Faster Pussycat album
5. Pyromania
6. Cinderella, Still Climbing
7. first Skid Row
8. Hysteria
9. Warrant, Dog Eat Dog
10. first Def Leppard
11. Warrant, Ultraphobic
12. second Def Leppard
13. Cinderella, Heartbreak Station
14. first Cinderella album
15. Slave to the Grind

(and that leaves out Bang Tango, Kix, etc, etc...)

>WARRANT. great band, great live band, two great hammer-down hard rock albums that no one (outside of their fan base) even knows exist--DOG EAT DOG and ULTRAPHOBIC. great songwriter (jani lane). great lead singer (jani lane). oh, and one of the best stage "frontmen" ever (again, jani lane). Warrant and JL (as a writer/singer/frontman) are absolutely the most underrated rock band of all time, from Little Richard through Hilary Duff.

If they'd had a cool name, a "cool image" (like the MC5 who took great photos but when push came to shove, were fuck-up loser junkies who choked over and over outside of their midwest fan base...as in, Grand Funk took the "detroit sound" to the country, however watered down or second-rate; MC5 totally failed, not to mention their halfassed studio recordings, third-rate at best), and had never done the "Cherry Pie" video or tune (which nonetheless is total trash-rock genius, close to the "Louie Louie" of its time)...i dunno, use your imagination.

if "Poison" (giant green logo everywhere, not bad) had been named "Warrant" (uncool name, no logo) and "Warrant" vice versa, is anyone gonna bet me two-bits that Warrant (with the different, cooler name) wouldn't be the no 1 band on that VH1 Top 40 Hair Metal Band Of All Time countdown?

Just punch up http://www.amazon.com and see what Warrant's fan base thought of DOG EAT DOG in the "buyer's reviews"...that is possibly the best heavy-guitar melodic heavy metal album of its entire generation. close to amazing. seriously. It of course came out it the hellmouth of the explosion of 1992 grunge crap-deluge everywhere, and so got buried; the band's manager died, their headlining tour tanked and was canned halfway through, the band splintered/broke up for a year...etc. There's probably a great unreleased Jani Lane solo album between the various (later) Jabberwocky and Lane-solo stuff that CBS eventually decided not to put out (he initially retained a CBS deal after the band was dropped in the mass purge of nearly all major-label hair metal bands, most of whom obviously deserved to return to the hellhole they came from).

if you are a hard rock/metal fan but don't own those 3rd and 4th Warrant albums DOG EAT DOG and ULTRAPHOBIC, your entire collection should be confiscated and traded in for Hilary Duff DVD's yesterday. I say this as someone who heard and loved it all first-wave heavy metal from ground zero, Sabbath in 1970-71 until "heavy metal" turned to formula crap within about a decade. For Warrant to cut a substantial body of truly great or near-great melodic and heavy melodic-metal during the nadir of idiot clueless poser hair-metal and speedmetal bands, was a remarkable accomplishment. (In baseball, that'd be called the "ballpark factor").

After the Beatles, Kinks, and Beach Boys (or whoever you prefer) as 60's giants, i rate Warrant's catalog (much smaller obviously) as impressive as anyone's since. AC/DC w/Bon included. also: if you don't own the CBS catalog best-ofvCD, THE BEST OF WARRANT, you know nothing about this band's music! that is a truly great, near-perfectly sequenced 16-tune set. And top to bottom it rocks as hard as ANY rock bandof the 80's.

for the record, i rate the Small Faces, Green Day, Warrant and a couple others as my favorite catalogs since the Class Of 1963-64 trioka (i'm rounding up a bit with the Beach Boys). I love AC/DC and Sabbath but there's only really two albums by each that kick my ass (and not the common favorites...over here it's LET THERE BE ROCK and IF YOU WANT BLOOD YOU'VE GOT IT, all the way.<

Nothing against Metal Mike, who I admire for his strength of conviction, but I suspect a lot of this is retrospective rockism. "No, THIS is what works, not that popular Nirvana crap everyone liked!" (Not that he's specifically saying that but c'mon, invoking the Beatles and the Kinks and all the usual templates, please.)

Well, 'rockism' as attitude doesn't necessarily mean talking about rock vs. something else NOT rock (similarly in the way that music can 'rock' without being rock, if you will).

> (i'm no dunce, i know that the subtext of my rant includes the point that after the 60's catalogs--beatles/kinks/beach boys for me, i'm not gonna kick the disguided Stones fans anymore than everyone else does already--i hate that hippie-rock laidback shit from 1968 to 1972 with only a couple 45 A-sides excepted--uh, stuff like "mother's little helper" is just HORRIBLE and we all thought so--teen garage band wannabes--at the time; bad song, out of tune guitar, just crap..."19 Nervous" whatever is almost as heinous. there was a huge gap for some band to take over the hard rock field in 1966 but the Who sure didn't do it...that's how the giant market niche existed for Hendrix to claim (believe me, the 1st american hendrix set was every white boy's wet dream of pure rock noise when it hit the racks...that's some crazyass drumming to match the guitar noises). but whatever. uh, i could almost all of ELECTRIC LADYLADY as "hippie rock" too. 2nd Ohio Express album rocks WAY harder (the one with a ton of Kenny Laguna writing credits on the album tracks)...too bad it wasn't mixed/issued in mono.

anyway that Warrant post (separate e-mail) will keep the "fucked-up ness" hecklers happy. seriously, doesn't THE BEST OF WARRANT rock like holy fuck? it's REALLY well mastered/EQ'd, kicks total ass. and their final CBS single, the "We Will Rock You" movie soundtrack single? (charted down in the 70's or 80's Top 40 Pop i believe) cover tune genious. totally rearranged, and in a cool way. someday i gotta buy or patch together a full chronological warrant CBS video comp... i actually do not even have the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" video which is totally aggressive/hard rock-ish kick ass (the video to match the tune)...unless it's buried mid-tape on that odd QUALITY YOU CAN TASTE pastiche retail VHS comp (for the 2nd album). .

for what it's worth, i still like the Small Faces and Green Day catalogs BIGtime. put on "Nice Guys Finish Last" and tell me those little gas-fume malcontents don't rock like fuck! they were using that as their permanent live opening song apparently, when i saw them at the SF Civic in 2001 (it was the first large show of theirs i'd ever seen during 1994 - 2001 where they'd finally sorted the material into a greatest hits set and really had the showmanship/screwoff antics sorted out likewise, into a Greatest Schticks. ha ha...that night when they were recruiting the four miscellaneous goobers from the audience to play the 3 chords to "knowledge," the first wannabe guitarist applicant guy jumped off the quite high 2nd level into the crowd...they picked him of course. the last time i ever ran into Mike D(irnt), at his Frustrators gig in alameda about 6 months later, he reminded me of that, and i of course went, "ohhhhh yeah!" "yeah man, when i saw that guy go off the balcony i thought, oh fuck here we go...we're gonna be in court the next five years like Judas Priest!" JP had the wrong lawsuit brought tho.. it shoulda been for "bad riffs inflicted upon rock audiences without permission." if nothing whatsoever, i have noticed that the Stairway To Hell editons opened up like the Red Sea the debate between yay/nay sayers whether Priest and Maiden totally suck the "useless" bone....uh, duh? the signifiers that ten entire years of mostly useless years of lame generic heavy metal were about to commence? (with the start of NWOBHM for my opionion). not that Priest weren't utterly hopeless long before that. Sad Wings Of Destiny is just....crap. and the singer! jeeesus. honestly, i still really dig the Geddy Lee guy in Rush. i think he dumbed down Robert Plant's mannerisms into somethjing at least in tune and fairly rhyt hmic (catchy). the other 999 Plant wannbes till this day...oh man. anyway i gotta cut/paste that Warrant tirade from the network "message board" (it makes I Love Music look positively authoritatie and informed...the great unwashed coughing up a million variant opinions on everything. uh. i brought a pile of 75 cent thrift store albums today...there was nothing else to buy this weekend, no good movies... i guess you don't need a EX/MT Journey CAPTURED 2-live lp? man. it is seriously NOT good. i just wondered what "wheel in the sky" and "anyway you want it" would sound like...ah, i bet they sold a lot of T-shirts, which basically is what rock is all about right?<

Hmmm, I always assumed it was the Steppenwolf/Burroughs allusion, and not some cat who thinks Warrant is real boss. In any event, his judgement remains clouded.

MIKE SAUNDERS
2003 Ballot
Albums
# artist title label points
Singles
# artist title label
1 Nena & Kim Wilde Anyplace Anywhere Anytime Warner Bros. import
2 A*Teens A Perfect Match Universal
3 Lindsay Lohan Ultimate Hollywood
4 Skye Sweetnam Billy S Capitol
5 Triple Image Turn It Up (japanese import) Wire
6 Hilary Duff Why Not Hollywood
7 Nikki Cleary Summertime Guys Jive
8 Hilary Duff What Dreams Are Made Of Disney
9 Lillix What I Like About You Hollywood
10 Hilary Duff So Yesterday Buena Vista/Hollywood

Though I've only heard one Warrant album, I really agree with a lot of what Metal Mike is saying (irrelevant of Nirvana's existence, the qualities they hold do exist). Warrant's songs are considerably RICHER than any other pop-metal band's. Where Kix doesn't grab me quite as much after they make their post-Pyromania moves (I really prefer them when they truly sounded like AC/DC meets the Cars), Warrant take the basic Poison template and embellish it with chewier lyrics and a more varied attack.

Said singer of the Angry Samoans DID just send me this very rockist email, however, just five minutes ago (apparently he posted this on some other web forum somewhere):

>white boy guitar rock sucks

white boy guitar rock has been total crap for almost 20 years now. doesn't matter which genre...metal, punk, emo....any of that shit. put any of it on against a great Buddy Holly track (on VINYL) and it's obvious = the thread has been lost. lost forever. obviously, all the best forms of hard rock, early metal, and early punk 1965 - 1982 were great for different reasons (than pre-Beatles rock), BUT the rock and roll that preceded that = was primarily dance music. in a good way. we're talking the entirety of 1955-1963, buckwheat.

the crap that has posed/passed as guitar rock (all genres) for almost two decades is not. the beats suck. and i say this as someone who was heavy metal's target audience in 1971 = alienated pissed off white boy who thought black sabbath was the greatest shit i'd ever heard in my life (still do).

pop music has been dominant for almost a decade now because of just those reasons. great songs, good beats, etc... hip hop took over cause the beats are good, likewise.

don't even get me going on "indie rock" (the college rock that crawled out of Satan's butt around 1983 on out). REM, husker du, and five million after them....i hated them all.

let me repeat = DANCE MUSIC (any type of music with good beats) kicks ass on the stuff that isn't. always has, always will. why the fuck do you think rock and roll took over in 1955? duh! Little Richard swung/rocked harder than Mitch Miller, do you think? as in made your feet move?

i swear i'm going to kill the next white boy w/guitar i see making bad noises.<

I admit I'm always a bit baffled by claims like this for 'pop' because surely it's true that pop is never NOT dominant.

Well, I'm all for that! But to tie in with the Iraq theme:

41) Slightly repeating a previous point about the Reagan samples on "Gods of War," but a new example -- hearing this last night actually freaked the hell out of me:

"WE WILL NOT CAVE IN." *rocket launch*

There's yer America May 2004 attitude right there.

42) The likelihood their decision to dress down was based on the fear that people would assume they'd been replaced by cyborgs.

Gear OTM!

And early R.E.M. WERE danceable in the same way that a lot of new wave was danceable.

true.

And they were way less danceable (not to mention way less weird, and way less beautiful) than the Byrds, too.

Hmmm...I think "Stumble" is a bit more danceable than "Eight Miles High," unless you're simply doing a wavey arm dance.

Or maybe Jefferson Airplane.

This is brilliant

I didn't suggest that it wasn't. It's just that I usually bring up Kix whenever discussing pretty much anything with Chuck to the point that it was becoming a bit cliched (sort've like taking a potshot at Killing Joke if you were trying to piss me off, etc.)

3337: because steve clark and phil collen have the best dual guitar action ever. yes, better than carrie/corin AND tom verlain/richard lloyd and ANYONE ELSE YOU CARE TO NAME.

3338: they're better than reading long boring music criticism right in the middle of this thread. i mean no offense, my attention span is pathetic right now, whooooaaaa def leppard are so great. CUSPIDORIAN TO THREAD!

And I was making joke there, re: D&D. Somewhat.

You mean in "Rock of Ages"? I think it was meant to be silly.

But Def Leppard were never "D&D Bullshit" in a lyrical context.

There's a lot of great visual humor in "Me & My Wine."

DON'T BE HASSLING BRYAN ADAMS!!!!

Personally I like it when people get over D&D bullshit.

there's definitely something to this - the ease of "Hysteria," the we-don't-give-a-shit of the "Animal" video, calling a song "Pour Some Sugar On Me." they came out of the pop closet.

One thing that struck me about "Gods of War" is how it's like the weird mirror image of every Iron Maiden song about something newsworthy/relevant -- their own "Two Minutes to Midnight," say -- but in its own world. (Is this reason 32431534?)

http://www.genewilder.org/photos/ww/ww_wouldulike2c.jpg

HYSTERIA SUCKS A BIG BAG OF GREASY DICKS!

i weep for my generation.

COFFEE MUGS!

http://www.eddiesmegastore.com/images/stock/killersmug_large.jpg

"I AM Nirvana, man!"

Well, supposedly it getting to number one meant more than Adrenalize debuting there. (Number two that week -- Wish by the Cure!)

i was almost trife-an those days.

Besides Meat Loaf was huge 1993.

Ok, that was all over the place.

47) The swooping sounds right before the guitar solo on "Hysteria."

Don't you think there might have been something problematic about the 'gleefully sexual' nature of a lot of hair metal though? Maybe you do and are being ironic.

I'm not 100% sure that all that nihilistic 90s stuff was necessarily seen as liberal per se. In one way, it could be read as a liberal dissatisfaction with the order of things. But that kind of cynicism could also be read as having a sense of the futility of trying to change. Misanthropy, which was a major theme, seems to be ultimately anti-liberal.

...and none of this had anything to do with the economy

is Strongo really Gen-Y (which begins ~78)? If so, I think we can grandfather (haha) him in.

oh, and Nelson fucking rock. ok, they don't rock. but you know what I mean.

also isn't chuck's preference for DL over REM kind of ideologically overdetermined? i'm still waiting for chuck to surprise me...

haha *barf*

(and that leaves out Bang Tango, Kix, etc, etc...)

Wait, was Chuck saying those seven albums (incl 2 Warrant albums, a latter-day Cinderella record, and Skid Row) are all better than Hysteria?

Why not buy yourself a candy-coloured, frilly blouse instead? They're kinda the same thing anyway.

I'm more of a peasant-dress kinda gal. Y'know, earthier colors, nothing too loud.

48) The little sad sweet chime that ends "Women" after a final last bit of megabombast.

I remember be very happy When Iwas in the concert.

My Like for the rock is Hysteria.

Both bands are outstanding.

Yeah, strongo, by '91, I think it was more of a choice between "Let's Get Rocked"/"Make Love Like a Man" and grunge.

More like '92, but close enough. Contrary to popular belief, there was very little grunge on MTV and the radio in 1991, beyond "Smells Like Teen Spirit," which didn't even really get played until mid-November.

This thread is strangely both tedious and enjoyable.

You're fired.

Yes, they are outstanding. From within the pantheon of rock greatness, you can look out the window and see Def Leppard and the Stone Temple Eunuchs outstanding on the lawn, peering in.

Def Leppard will re-issue their 1987 release 'Hysteria' on October 16th. The re-mastered double disc will include all of the 'Hysteria' b-sides, live b-sides, remixed tracks and exclusive artwork. Track listing is as follows:

'Hysteria' re-mastered:

1. "Women"
2. "Rocket"
3. "Animal"
4. "Love Bites"
5. "Pour Some Sugar On Me"
6. "Armageddon It"
7. "Gods Of War"
8. "Don't Shoot Shotgun"
9. "Run Riot"
10. "Hysteria"
11. "Excitable"
12. "Love And Affection"

'Hysteria' B-Sides:

13. "Tear It Down"
14. "Ride Into The Sun" (1987 Re-Recording)
15. "I Wanna Be Your Hero"
16. "Ring Of Fire"

Disc Two:

'Hysteria' Live B-Sides:

1. "Elected" (Live In Tilburg, Holland)
2. "Love And Affection" (Live In Tilburg, Holland)
3. "Billy's Got A Gun" (Live In Tilburg, Holland)
4. "Rock of Ages" (Live In Tilburg, Holland)
5. "Women" (Live In Denver)

'Hysteria' Remixes:

6. "Animal" (Extended Version)
7. "Pour Some Sugar On Me" (Extended Version)
8. "Armageddon It" (The Nuclear Mix)
9. "Excitable" (Orgasmic Mix)
10. "Rocket" (The Lunar Mix)

'Hysteria' B-Sides Continued:

11. "Release Me" (performed by STUMPUS MAXIMUS & THE GOOD OL' BOYS)

50) "hysteria, when you're near"

That being said, there are no rules without exceptions, and in the case of hair metal, Def Leppard were among the most obvious exceptions.

Great songs, great harmonies, great production. "Photograph" was a better single, but I still see "Hysteria" as a better overall album than "Pyromania", and certainly one of the better album of the somewhat dodgy music year that was 1987.

Incidentally, why did they release the singles in that order? It makes sense to release two rockers first and then a power ballad, but why "Hysteria" over (at the time) "Love Bites"? Isn't "Love Bites" *clearly* the better/shmaltzier choice for a band seeking a radio hit? Or is this my hindsight talking?

I was a big fan of the album at the time, but didn't get on board (along with millions of others) until "Pour Some Sugar On Me" and didn't even realize that it was the fourth single until months later. So I don't have any firsthand recollection of how the first three singles were received.

No, I meant that if the #3 single was going to be a ballad, why release "Hysteria" instead of "Love Bites"?

I'd never seen this vid before -- the one that always used to air featured the band playing on a huge concert stage (IIRC, the same one as the video for "Armageddon It"). The "living room" video looks a bit amateurish, so did they simply film a new one once the album went mega?

Animal>Hysteria>everything else on Hysteria

dud. dud. dud.

dud. dud. dud. dud. dud. dud. dud. dud.

god, no. def leppard? you've got to be kidding me...potentially the worst band of all time. and I speak from a position of assumed hometown loyalty.

it is my birth name, yes. and although I was brain-baffled by an excess of red wine last night, which led to some overly vicuperative spouting off, I stand by my statement. horrible band. the kenny G of rock.

1. photograph
2. animal
3. now
4. armageddon it
5. hysteria

all of those songs are catchy, melodic, and even get me nostalgic

Stumpus Maximus is, in fact, the band's tour manager Malvin Mortimer, and "The Good Ol' Boys" are Def Leppard. It's not a regular version of the old Engelbert Humperdinck song. With every verse, Stumpus is singing higher, until the end when he does nothing but screaming. It was meant as a joke, and was released as the B-side of the "Rocket" single and other singles.

Malvin became somewhat of a celebrity in '88 when some DJ's in Greece began playing the b-side instead of the usual A-side.

Yes. (Now that I finally have it too.)

I'm an idiot.

Whatever. Hysteria doesn't hold a candle to Pyromania. That is all.

So Hysteria: dud for production, classic for the actual songs, and doesn't vaguely measure up to the preceding two albums.

And all these weird CoolEdited, Pro-Tooled, compressed rock records from Nickelback and P.O.D. that get released these days can all trace their family tree back to this record. God bless Rick Allen for having heart in the face of adversity, but a one-armed man does not belong on the drummer's stool for a rock record. I've got factory preset drumtracks on my cheap four-track at home that have more soul than Rick Allen's drumming.

And keep in mind that I LIKE Def Leppard.

The fact that, as is noted above, the design theme of the album appears to have been Tron just makes it all the cooler.

alex totes OTM....pyromania is a better pop record AND a better hard rock record than hysteria. better singles, mo' rockin' jointz.

high n' dry is hella underrated too.

i've never heard on thru the night, but i'm afraid it can't live up to that huge guitar haulin' big rig cover.

Pyromania is the only good reason to love Def Leppard. Maybe High 'n' Dry. I can see the kitsch/horror appeal of Hysteria (and the appeal is VAST, don't get me wrong), but I'm perfectly happy to let other people enjoy those terrible laffs.

Plus the associations are bad. When people who annoy me sober get drunk, they seem to LOVE THE SHIT out of Hysteria. Bro slapping, titty-shaking purgatory. Makes it hard to join the hug circle.

rock of ages, photograph, foolin', too late for love, etc etc

Specifically addressing that, David Fricke's liner notes for the reissue indicate that nearly all the songs were not only written well in advance of the final recording but had been gone through live in studio at least a few times. (I have to say I actually think he did a great job on these liner notes in particular -- it's the best accounting of the album I've read yet.)

GOT THE REISSUE HOLY SHIT

Considering that myself. But the original sounded pretty good (was a digital recording after all) and they should have reissued "Pyromania" at first.

I heard...or, rather, saw the video, for "Animal" recently, and it completely cemented my argument. Hysteria is poop (and no amount of re-mastering/re-tweaking will save it).

"Animal" is nowhere near the best song on Hysteria, you madman.

It's my favorite, but "Gods of War" (which, holy christ, after the remix sounds like Front 242) and "Rocket" nip at its heels.

"Animal" is nowhere near the best song on Hysteria, you madman.

That's akin to saying that it's not the stinkiest turd in the septic tank. POOP IS POOP.

No it isn't!

Yes it is!

http://www1.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/1721346/2/istockphoto_1721346_kids_fighting.jpg

REVIVE:

Vindifuckincation: In John Sellers' new memoir, Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life, the scribe says....

I'd deemed Hysteria the most disappointing album of all time, and it still might be: next to Pyromania it is an overproduced, castrated, one-armed bore.

Fuckin' AMEN!

The songs are strong, but it's all too glossy and sterile-sounding. It's too bad, because Def Leppard had a really good sense of melody among the hair-metal bands.

"C'mon, Steve!"

martin popoff famously rated this 0 out of 10 in his much esteemed guide to heavy metal!!!

Who the fuck is John Sellers?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/74/JohnSellers-1961SICover.jpg/445px-JohnSellers-1961SICover.jpg
Gunter glieben glauchen globen!

I watched the Hysteria episode of Classic Albums last night and I've got even more respect for it now. The detail with which this thing was crafted is mindboggling. I never knew the cut up backwards vocal bits in "Rocket" were actually the choruses of "Gods of War" and "Love Bites".

Yeah, I need to watch that -- only just learned the whole series was on Netflix Instant, friend Stripey said it was a stellar episode.

There's a bit where Phil is talking about how Mutt brought the song "Love Bites" to the band as a country ballad he'd written, and proceeds to demonstrate the opening verse in that style. IT ALL CLICKS NOW. It really is a country song run through the Def Leppard machine.

yeah I really love that Classic Albums ep. the Love Bits cutups were a nice surprise.

BITES ragh

Happy 25th birthday! Released August 3, 1987.

Adrien wrote a great piece about it today:

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/headbang-blogpost.aspx?post=b9f0d5a5-25ec-4d1f-b9bc-c6e30e0ed424

Though it's not my favorite Def Leppard album, goddamn it's a a beauty.

There's not a bad song on it! Well, I mean 'Don't shoot shotgun' is kinda *shrug* but it's not horrible and all things considered it doesn't interrrupt the flow of the album at all. You can listen to this whole thing and rock out the whole time.

bless their poppy little hearts

I loved it at the time, but now I have to mentally separate it from what came before in order to appreciate it. I love, love, love High 'N' Dry (the best 80s AC/DC album they never made), and this has nothing from that band - even the singer has lost some power in the intervening years. As its own thing, however, it's a monumental beast.

Eh, even as a kid this one disappointed me. It's not all band, but it's SUCH a letdown after what came before.

"Pour Some Sugar On Me" has a great chorus. That's about all I can really say for it. They only got wimpier and more out of touch from here.

I read that the clean chords in "Hysteria" were recorded one note at a time, just layered brick by brick. What insane attention to detail on this album.

Probably mentioned already on this thread but well worth the viewing:

http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Albums-Def-Leppard-Hysteria/dp/B0000649L7

^^^ still my favorite episode

EZ otm - High N Dry is badass, Pyromania is killer too...Hysteria's nothing really close to those, but yeah, as its own album it's pretty great.

It's funny - I"m listening to "Don't Shoot Shotgun" at the moment and there are enough different sections, hooks and sounds to build a competent pop/rock album from it's disparate parts. And that's one of the songs most people consider filler! Truly is a crazy amount of work and detail in every song.

I lack the imagination to imagine a world without "Animal" in it.

That Classic Albums documentary of Hysteria might just be my favourite Classic Albums documentary of them all; the amount of effort put into the making of that album was beyond incredible, not to mention they come across as incredibly down-to-earth during the interviews.

i don't get the complaints about 'hysteria', it's a masterpiece. it made everything after look worse than it already was. though i mean adrenalize looked bad in any context i guess.

Oh god, Adrenalize is a terrible album. In my humble opinion, anyway!

adrenalize was probably the most disappointing album of my youth, it's like the ghostbusters 2 of pop metal.

adrenalize is worse than terrible. AWFUL

adrenalize was probably the most disappointing album of my youth, it's like the ghostbusters 2 of pop metal.
--omar little

booming post

adrenalize was probably the most disappointing album of my youth

appreciate this but wd remind the jury this is a board where people rep for the Smiths

There are some songs I like on Adrenalize, but I'm willing to admit they sound like Hysteria rejects.

MOW THE LAWN!
WALK THE DOG!
TAKE OUT THE TRASH!

Not that one! That song is criminally bad. (And its video is even worse.)

It strikes me as weird that this multi-platinum album that was almost inescapable in pop culture for over a calendar year now has sort of a cult following.

MOW THE LAWN!
WALK THE DOG!
TAKE OUT THE TRASH!

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, August 4, 2012 4:30 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

LET'S GET THE ROCK OUTTA HERE!!!

...I suppose a rock's outta the question?

Please, no more ipecacs.

My brothers and I sang "Let's Get Rocked" as "Lesbian Rock" (including the obligatory "lesbo all the way"), so I don't think I ever paid much attention to whether the original song was as awesome as our version.

One of my brothers also thought "Pour Some Sugar On Me" was called "Awesome Shoot Hombre".

"Awesome shoot, hombre, in the name of love."

Hmm...could work.

there was that dumb commercial where the guy sings 'Pour Some Shook Up Ramen"

Okay this was fun to write:

http://thequietus.com/articles/09833-def-leppard-hysteria

:D

Love the idea of this album, but the non-single tracks are almost all dogs, which was a drag when I had it on cassette. Perfect disc for the MP3 era, however, when I can cull it down to its hits, which are so monolithically hit-like they totally make up for the dross.

Huge as this album was, lotta people forget that "Pyromania" was the second highest selling album of 1983 after "Thriller."

but the non-single tracks are almost all dogs

I'm willing to meet you half way on this, but then there's the fact that "Gods of War" might be the best track on the whole album and it wasn't a single.

More than the other also-rans, at least I can hum that one, but I guess the lyrics sink it for me.

Marvelous fun, Ned. Unfortunately we still get comments like this:

This was rock/metal for people who didn’t like the aforementioned. Massively over-produced, polished, and made for FM radio mass appeal. Perhaps the nadir of stadium poodle-permed rock. However, the reaction against this record was seismic – the Seattle bands, Faith No More, Jane’s Addiction, Pixies… Hysteria should be celebrated as the catalyst for bringing about something far more interesting that was about to happen in rock music…

My second to last paragraph in particular was JUST for them. As well as the earlier one about the continued complaining of 'true metal' types.

Nice read! ANd if your second to last paragraph was aimed at them, you and Def Leppard both have a slightly warmer place in my heart now.

:-)

After reading your piece, I think maybe Def Leppard is about two degrees away from something I would totally dig – not metal but more something like two degrees away from The Buggles? All the glam influence/expensive production/cyberpunk underpinnings, looks like something I would dig! IDK maybe I should listen to it again. I just hate Pour Some Sugar On Me so much.

I don't totally hate it for how it SOUNDS, well I do, but it's also anti-nostalgia of having to hear it every night when I worked graveyard shift making donuts with a bunch of gnarly bros.

Eurgh. Yeah I wouldn't blame you for that. Try maybe a one/two of the songs "Hysteria" and "Love and Affection" when it's late afternoon/early evening, you're feeling relaxed and the sun's hitting magic hour glow.

"Hysteria" is a wonderful, wonderful song

It takes genius to mix a song so that it sparkles as brightly as "Hysteria."

Is that the track where they recorded each string individually to make chords?

Thanks Ned, that was great!

Mr Veg & I listened to Hysteria on a recent car trip too, and we were both grinning & singing the whole way. There's a heck of a lot of fun at the heart of that album, for sure.

Hysteria's the best. Def my favorite track.

"Hysteria," the song, is I think the one that cribs from "Every Breath You Take."

There's a great bit in the Classic Albums documentary where Phil Collen talked how he, Steve Clark and Lange worked on breaking down all the guitar parts so it was much more textured than simply a straightforward riff ever would be, and I think "Hysteria" was the song used as an example. Certainly would make sense!

I need to do "Animal" at karaoke soon. Thanks for the reminder.

xxpost -- "Message in a Bottle," actually! Collen specifically mentions that in the documentary as well!

Yeah, now's a great time to point out that, if you're in any way partial to this record, you should watch the Classic Albums episode. It's fascinating.

Hell, watch it even if you hate this record.

Yeah, I will say that "Hysteria" is the rare example of overproduction working in the album's favor.

is the classic albums special on youtube

Naturally. Here's the first part:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAWm4Ihp43Q

There's also the bonus footage too.

You can stream the whole episode on Netflix as well.

The "over" in overproduction indicates that the process reached a point where no more production was necessary, but the band/producer carried on anyway. I disagree with this whole premise re: Hysteria. It's the most perfectly produced album ever made. Never under, never over. It's just right.

I suppose it's a bit of a paradox, isn't it? If excess is the aesthetic goal than you really can't go over the top.

The dogs on this are "Excitable" and "Dont Shoot Shotgun". The rest is gold.

I wonder how they would be viewed now if they had split when SC died.

That's a good question. However, the thought of 5 or 6 Joe Elliott solo albums is scary.

the part in the documentary where Phil Collen is showing their dueling guitar riffs, it's amazing how mathy it seems when taken apart.

I take guitar lessons, and my teacher is always impressed when I bring him something he considers through-composed, whether it's Def Leppard or Bedhead or Television, where the guitarists have put a lot of thought into how their parts fit together.

also, it's funny when they're talking about the making of "Rocket" and all the lyrical references they were making to the early 70s glam stuff ("Satellite of Love", "Jean Genie", "Killer Queen, etc)... These were references to things just 12-13 years earlier. If I were writing "Rocket" right now in 2012, and wanted to reference 20 things from 1999 or 2000, what would I mention?

N'Sync, Condi Rice, you know.

Y2K

Hell, watch it even if you hate this record.

This would be me - been reading about the making of it in Greg Milner's Perfecting Sound Forever and am kind of intrigued. Actually that's not true, I've never heard the album in full, I just really dislike Def Leppard in general (though I'll grudgingly admit that 'Animal' is quite good apart from the chorus).

the chorus is the ideal release for the pent-up energy!

the chorus is the ideal release for the pent-up energy!

It's that one-note gang-shout bit, it just doesn't work for me at all in this context. I did actually watch the Classic Albums last night though and very much enjoyed it. Phil Collen demonstrating all the separate guitar parts was particularly interesting and they all seemed like genuinely nice, down-to-earth guys. Wished there was more soundboard stuff but I think that about every one of those documentaries. I still can't get behind the actual songs I'm afraid - I realised this is mainly down to Joe Elliot's voice, I just don't like his strained way of singing higher notes (and having it tracked a thousand times doesn't exactly help).

Got real Prince of Darkness "This is not a dream..." speech vibes off this pic of Ann Romney, in relationship to the Hysteria album cover.

http://cdn04.cdnwp.thefrisky.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/06/Ann-Romney-Mitt-Romney-beach-walk-400x470.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yCcLNwU9ps4/T3-oxPk5QTI/AAAAAAAAENc/Q70lyPibd5o/s320/Def+Leppard+Hysteria.jpg

You are receiving this album in order to alter the events you are seeing.

what's with that horrible cover, anyway? imagine what it could have sold if the cover wasn't so atrocious!

GASP

in 1988, my older brother's best friend had three favorite bands: Def Leppard, the Replacements, and U2.

I was into all those bands in 1988. Doesn't seem weird imo.

I was going to say, that seems pitchpoint perfect.

yeah that seems pretty otm

it's the replacements that confuse me.

Doesn't confuse me at all, they were getting greater attention then anyway.

Then Play Long says if it takes four years, hell, it's worth it: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/def-leppard-hysteria.html

I don't think there'll ever be a day when I'm not bowled over by how intricate the fucking production on this album is.

My fave recent thing about this - Elliott's high pitched backing vocals complimenting the main last chorus of "Gods Of War"

The outro of 'Gods Of War' sounds absolutely amazing on headphones.

Collen's work on "Animal" is so great. Such great tone and melodic as fuck

http://i.imgur.com/LtzLrQc.jpg

"Richard John Cyril "Rick" Allen (born 1 November 1963) is an English drummer who has played for the hard rock band Def Leppard since 1978. He overcame THE AMPUTATION OF HIS LEFT ARM in 1985 and continued to play with the band"

DO YOU TAKE SUGAR
ONE LUMP OR TWO

:D

LUMPS? RE: Pete Puma; oh, three or four...

candy-ass record; loved High 'n' Dry when i was 13, less-so for Pyro when i was 14. Down-hill since. The only thing i liked about Def Lep was akin to the first time i was inside a true Brit automobile: Curious. I'd easy pay twelve bucks to see them in a bowling alley show, but i just know that, even at 12 bones, i'd still be disappointed for the absence of tracks from their early, "Range Rover-type" days....

Check it: just like Dick Dale trying to surf a dust wave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Neuoqmqt1HE

...and lest we forget the 2-handed rummer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHNBxd4LnDs

want to like this album.. just sounds like bad xtian rock or something to me. i admire the hugeness of "pour some sugar on me" but it's no "i love rock and roll"

fascinated with how they recorded the drums LAST

I just assumed a lot of the drums were sequenced, programmed or overdubbed in whatever order. Same thing for ABC's (much earlier) Lexicon of Love, which was a drum machine selectively doubled/replaced by real drums. Dave Grohl in Queens of the Stone Age recorded the drums and cymbals separately.

Really interesting posthumous interview with Mike Shipley about mixing this and Pyromania in the latest Tape Op: http://tapeop.com/interviews/118/mike-shipley/

"Mutt's whole thing was, ‘Kids these days don't want to hear honky little snare drums. They're all out watching Star Wars and having visual experiences, so let's make records like that. Rather than going the natural route, let's make something larger than life!'"

Nothing could be more accurate.

I was gonna say, he certainly achieved that!

"There ain't gonna be heroes/There ain't gonna be anything"

Cool interview

yeah but imagine how much realer these songs would be on acoustic guitars, man

^ Read the above comment and thought I was in the Paul McCartney thread for a second.

You can hear huge handclaps going on in "Pour Some Sugar on Me." Those are actually 100 tracks of handclaps detuned and EQ'd. That ended up sounding like ambience in a way, and definitely had a unique sound.

I can't unhear the handclaps now!

I feel strongly now that "Animal" is the best song on this album

Probably right. Has this alb not had a poll?

I couldn't find it! seems weird if it doesn't

bought the 30th anniversary remaster CD when I was on a Target run on a whim

God's of War is the one that really floors me now more than then

Love & Affection is nice too seems like it should have been a hit but I guess there's a limit to how many hits you can have

Excitable is the only one that seems corny imo, were there any good period b sides they could have swapped it for?

Gods of War is a real jam. Damn I do love me an on-the-nose Reagan/Poppy Bush sample, gets me right in the nostalgia feels.

I feel like I remember a poll maybe titled "POLL some sugar on me"?

these songs were incredibly fun live last year too, even without the insane layered vocals that you get on the album

xp 3rd Grade me needed "Excitable."

although outside of nostalgic context I guess I can hear it possessing some annoying qualities (foreshadowing "Let's Get Rocked")

AAAH AAAH!
OOOH OOOH!

Easily my favourite band to come out of Sheffield, America.

if "excitable" was just the intro stretch out to 5 minutes that would be a good song

The Killers nicked the guitar part from 'Women' and used it as the synth part in 'Smile Like You Mean It'

Now available on all your favourite streaming services

http://teamrock.com/news/2018-01-19/def-leppard-now-on-streaming-services-announce-hysteria-uk-and-ireland-tour

!

Great that finally worked out for them. (The band obv, screw the label.)

yessssssssss

I'm a HUGE Def Leppard fan ("Hysteria" is my favorite album), and I'm so glad their catalog is finally available digitally.

With that said, I've got to say the recent Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction news for Bon Jovi kinda bugged me, so I put together a detailed "face-off" comparing the 2 bands to show which one is REALLY more "worthy" of the honor.

I think you'll find it interesting...Feel free to share it!

"Bon Jovi, but not Def Leppard? For Shame Rock & Roll Hall of Fame!"
https://www.nostalgiclogic.com/bon-jovi-not-def-leppard-shame/

posting the same post on two different threads is about as necessary as a drummer having two arms

MEAN

it can be frustrating dealing with dismissive co-workers, those who are very comfortable routinely doing the same inefficient thing over and over. These folks have simply “accepted” the way things are done, and the most effort you’ll get from them is when they challenge your new ideas.

Promo photo for the forthcoming tour is textbook 'men who look like old lesbians' tbh.

Love bites, Animal & Hysteria are all still 10/10

Here in Greenville, as the second year of Trump dawned, Stormy Daniels spread out a taupe fleece blanket on stage, dropped to her knees, arched her back and began to squirt a bottle of lotion onto her chest to the sound of “Animal” by Def Leppard, as the president’s face flashed on video screens behind her.

Love bites, Animal & Hysteria are all still 10/10

And Armageddon It too surely

Euphoria hitting the spot this morning. Not as familiar with this album but it seems more of a successor to Hysteria than Adrenalize was

The way the first verse of Sugar is just these massive Tackhead Test Dept jackhammer beats and nothing else for 11 seconds

I remember reading that the snare sound is this pile of sampled hand claps and just about everything but acoustic snare.

Probably why it sounds like tissue paper

The way the first verse of Sugar is just these massive Tackhead Test Dept jackhammer beats and nothing else for 11 seconds

I think if this album had failed commercially it would have inspired a hipster hair metal reevaluation in the 2010s

The album that came after Pyromania. Nothing else.

Part of this is personal; Pyromania was the soundtrack to my 8th Grade, the album that burned the brightest as I tried to learn about hard rock music without the benefit of a Kiss-loving older brother or sister, the biggest gateway for all that came afterwards.

But the thing about gateways is that you move onto other things from them, and by the time Hysteria came out I was past radio fare (actually was probably dealing with that familiar stupid adolescent rebellion towards what I once loved) and was into underground stuff and the burgeoning thrash scene was as "mainstream" as I was willing to go with. Hysteria was a blip on my radar.

But part of this is more objective, since Pyromania shits over Hysteria no matter what criteria one wishes to employ.

"number of songs with puns in the lyrics"?