Def Leppard 'Hysteria': C/D?

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well REM was doing it before Will To Power for sure. And did Airplane ever have dance beats? Cuz Bill Berry was all 'bout it back in the day.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 20 May 2004 21:35 (twenty years ago) link

and I know you haven't listened to Chronic Town in a million years if ever, Chuck. Otherwise YOU'D be the one telling everybody under the sun that "Yeah Yeah Yeah" by Kix starts off with the same exact sound A YEAR BEFORE the EP, only to add tons of other stuff.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 20 May 2004 21:38 (twenty years ago) link

I'd like to point out that `twas ANTHONY that cited Kix first, not me.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 20 May 2004 21:39 (twenty years ago) link

I actually liked REM's first couple records OK (esp the EP, and the one with "Don't Go Back to Rockville"), but yeah, it's been a while; I admit it. I have a greatest hits CD at home, I think. Anyway, Jefferson Airplane took a lot from soul music, just like Big Brother and the Holding Company did. So yeah, way more dance beats than REM (who took about as little from r&b as, I dunno, Neil Young I suppose).

― chuck, Thursday, 20 May 2004 21:42 (twenty years ago) link

which Jefferson Airplane album would you recommend for maximum dancefloor action? I'm afraid I only know the two big Slick hits.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 20 May 2004 21:44 (twenty years ago) link

and Alex, my post was complimentary of Kix. I love throwing on "Yeah Yeah Yeah" and watching people say "hey, REM!" before the power chords come crashing in! It totally sounds like Peter Buck gettin' all arpeggio on it.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 20 May 2004 21:46 (twenty years ago) link

Yeah, I don't know about this, Chuck. Are you talking just specifically about Jack Cassidy's bass playing? Chronic Town seems way more danceable to me than Jefferson Airplane Takes Off or Surrealistic Pillow. (Did they get more funky on the later records?)

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 20 May 2004 21:47 (twenty years ago) link

and Alex, my post was complimentary of Kix

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.)

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 20 May 2004 21:59 (twenty years ago) link

I GUESS it's mostly in the bass playing (I'd have to go back and listen to them under a microscope to make sure, though), and honestly, since I mostly listen to them on a couple different best-of albums (or Great Society records, which remind me of the Yardbirds a lot), I forget which songs are actually on which albums. But "Crown of Creation" has the same rhythm as "Children of Grave" by Black Sabbath, which is the same rhythm as "Call Me" by Blondie (which = disco!). And other songs are danceable in a garage rock way, which means danceable in a '60s soul way. (Like Black Sabbath, they should have done more FAST songs, but what the hell. Actually, though, I'd guess the reason me and Metal Mike find a lot of '80s stuff like REM undanceable is that we dance too *fast* for it. I know I do. But we've had this what makes one person dance isn't necessarily the same thing that makes somebody else dance discussion before, and it can get pretty pointless. R.E.M. have never seemed danceable to me AT ALL. But I'm not claiming that my feet are the same as your feet.)

― chuck, Thursday, 20 May 2004 22:03 (twenty years ago) link

Oddly, I have played Killing Joke's "Change" during DJ sets, however!

― chuck, Thursday, 20 May 2004 22:05 (twenty years ago) link

Indeed. Killing Joke -- love'em or hate'em -- are capable of being completely danceable much of the time.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Thursday, 20 May 2004 22:08 (twenty years ago) link

I just ask because I think it says in Ralph Gleason's liner notes to Jefferson Airplane Takes Off that Cassidy had played with James Brown (?). And once when I played one of their records I listened to his bass playing to see if it was funky.

― Tim Ellison, Thursday, 20 May 2004 22:12 (twenty years ago) link

(45) I could just go ahead and say "Hysteria" the song, flat-out -- the most utterly perfect power ballad ever? I *love* these things about it, though: the palm-muting during the chorus; the added "Believe in meeee" just before the second-to-last chorus; the layers and layers of guitars in the outro (that always got/gets cut off on the radio). Plenty more, too, but phew.

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Thursday, 20 May 2004 23:59 (twenty years ago) link

Hysteria is the best song on the album. That's not the same as the best track, necessarily.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:04 (twenty years ago) link

actually, Armaggeddon It might be a contender, splitting the difference between Hysteria's writing and PSSOM's production

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:06 (twenty years ago) link

Arm-aggeddon It

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:06 (twenty years ago) link

Agreed, the "C'monnn Steve!" in "Armageddon It" is completely badical.

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:10 (twenty years ago) link

3336: because def leppard think that hair plus eyes plus skin on skin plus legs plus thighs spells women.

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!

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:12 (twenty years ago) link

carrie/corin and hell/verlaine make good records, though

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:16 (twenty years ago) link

thats what i'm saying, it takes a lot to be better than them.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:17 (twenty years ago) link

so you don't like hysteria as an album. well thats your funeral mate.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:18 (twenty years ago) link

amen

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:20 (twenty years ago) link

Maybe that's another thing standing in my way of liking Hysteria - it has some of that nationless (Australian? Canadian?) global pop Celine Dion sound (along with the standard easy-translate lyrics, though I admit to T. Rex ignorance). I'm no NWOBHM fan, but Alex in NYC suggests a point - on Pyromania, at least they're from somewhere.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:31 (twenty years ago) link

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

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:40 (twenty years ago) link

that's an interesting angle, ok

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:42 (twenty years ago) link

No it's not. It's a stupid generalization.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:43 (twenty years ago) link

I mean, you'd had to have cared in the first place. I guess my point re the production is yes it has that huge candy-coated drum sound, but it's filtered through the same place "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" came from.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:47 (twenty years ago) link

so is Back In Black!

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

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:56 (twenty years ago) link

Personally the Def boys looked a lot more cute in the "live performance" scenes in those Pyromania videos than in the Hysteria era ones (where they dressed down so people wouldn't think Mutt had replaced them with cyborgs). Though the sword stuff in those old videos was pretty silly. Their best video, which I saw once but SADLY didn't get to tape was for "Me & My Wine."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 21 May 2004 00:58 (twenty years ago) link

Back In Black sucks too (though it's a better album than Hysteria)

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:00 (twenty years ago) link

well at least you're being consistent.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:00 (twenty years ago) link

Though the sword stuff in those old videos was pretty silly.

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.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:00 (twenty years ago) link

"Me & My Wine" is just them playing in a house, drinking a lot, if I remember correctly.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:01 (twenty years ago) link

That's true, re: lyrics. Though I'm not sure what "Die Hard The Hunter" was about.

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

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:02 (twenty years ago) link

but it's filtered through the same place "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" came from.

DON'T BE HASSLING BRYAN ADAMS!!!!

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:04 (twenty years ago) link

and I don't necessarily hear the same thing on the 7-years-earlier Back In Black - I mean Mutt Lange produced Pyromania and High 'N Dry too.

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.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:09 (twenty years ago) link

I will admit that without Lange's guiding hand they haven't known what to do with themselves since.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:16 (twenty years ago) link

I take "D&D Bullshit" to mean the sort of lyrical/visual aesthetic as preferred by Iron Maiden and Dio. For the most part, Def Leppard never really embaraced they mythological medieval dragonslaying occult vibe.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:16 (twenty years ago) link

Yay! I knew Lady Ms. Lurex would be here, and her reasons are the best of all!

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?)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:16 (twenty years ago) link

3340: i think the chorus of armageddon is an explosion of rainbows and stars and all things lurex.

― The Lady Ms Lurex (lucylurex), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:37 (twenty years ago) link

Actually, it's a viscous mushroom-cloud of needlessly syruppy glop that could send a diabetic into a sugar coma.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:43 (twenty years ago) link

YAY!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:44 (twenty years ago) link

(I mean, there really is nothing at all wrong with that description, aside from 'needlessly' and 'glop.')

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:44 (twenty years ago) link

Mutt Lange, yesterday:

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

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:47 (twenty years ago) link

BEST COMPLIMENT EVER!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 May 2004 01:49 (twenty years ago) link

46) The layers of guitars at work in the chorus of "Animal," specifically how after each gang-shout part of the chorus there's this subtle but essential little extra chime.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 21 May 2004 02:04 (twenty years ago) link

DON'T LET THIS THREAD DIE OMGWTF!

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 23 May 2004 19:38 (nineteen years ago) link

Gotcha.

HYSTERIA SUCKS A BIG BAG OF GREASY DICKS!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 23 May 2004 19:42 (nineteen years ago) link

Then add more reasons to love, Eisbar ya punk.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 23 May 2004 19:42 (nineteen years ago) link

i can't believe when forced to choose between this and grunge, "we" chose grunge.

i weep for my generation.

― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 23 May 2004 20:13 (nineteen years ago) link

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