Def Leppard 'Hysteria': C/D?

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"All the saccharine-dripping fruitcake call-and-response pre-chorus shit in "Hysteria": the "I gotta know tonight/It's been a lonely night..."

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.

― kickitcricket, Wednesday, 19 May 2004 03:44 (twenty-two years ago)

"If you're alone tonight"

― kickitcricket, Wednesday, 19 May 2004 03:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Mutt Lange is a genius as I only recently realised/appreciated properly

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 09:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Dud. I'm as big a Chuck Eddy (and Ned Raggett!) fan as you'll find, but I just can't imagine why Chuck felt it deserved an entire book, because 90% of it absolutely refused to imprint itself on my memory. (Any one of their previous three, particularly Pyromania, is more worthy of praise.) Simply inferior to all its obvious sources of influence, and probably the single most lifeless "heavy metal" artifact I've ever tried to listen to (and once owned). Goes in one ear, and...nothing. I just don't get it.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 11:00 (twenty-two years ago)

27) *Weird guitar noises* "AN-I-MAL"

― Vinnie (vprabhu), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 12:48 (twenty-two years ago)

28) I need to go buy this album on my lunch break now.

― VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 12:52 (twenty-two years ago)

28) "Skin on skin ... let the love begin!"

― Conor (Conor), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 12:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm as big a Chuck Eddy (and Ned Raggett!) fan

! 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.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 13:16 (twenty-two years ago)

pour some sugar on me didn't go to number one??

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 13:49 (twenty-two years ago)

cuz it did at MY house!! i CAN'T see the flame, MFers

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 13:52 (twenty-two years ago)

so classic it bites

― 57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 15:24 (twenty-two years ago)

so classic it bites

no.. love bites.

― cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

C'MON STEVE

― 57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

31) Simply the fact that the drummer had one arm and that he stayed the drummer. What utter dedication. Give the finger to the god of fate.

― Gilles Meloche (Gilles Meloche), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 15:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know if this has been mentioned but the SINISTER REAGAN SAMPLES are what inch it even more towards classic

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

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know if this has been mentioned but the SINISTER REAGAN SAMPLES are what inch it even more towards classic

There's number 32!

"THEY COUNTED WRONG."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 15:53 (twenty-two years ago)

*missile sounds*

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 15:55 (twenty-two years ago)

28) I need to go buy this album on my lunch break now.

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.

― martin m. (mushrush), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Um, I think I've already written enough about this album. (= my whole second book, more or less.) That said, I haven't listened to it for years. (maybe because i wrote a whole book about it?) also, when i first heard it, i didn't like it at all. then i named the title (easybeats/raspberries/cheap trick as, er, muzak) ballad as a top ten single, and then the red light yellow light green light go crazy little woman in the one man show rap kicked in, then g.g. killer queen dizzy lizzy benny and the jets and all of "rocket"'s dub-metal, and then the rhinoceros in that one video and the t. rex riffs and everything. right now, i'd say i probably prefer pyromania, and if forced i'd maybe even be more likely to listen to either of the first two albums, just 'cause the songs are shorter (maybe punchier too?). but i'm still not martin popoff, who in HIS metal book loved the first three records and then gave hysteria 0.0 out of 10.0. Part of what makes the album so great, i think, is that metal guys DO hate it.
Plus it totally invented Shania Twain (among lots of other things).

― chuck, Wednesday, 19 May 2004 16:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Shania Twain was born when Rick Allen's lost arm was zapped with radiocativity!

― Gilles Meloche (Gilles Meloche), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 17:07 (twenty-two years ago)

There's good discussion on this thread:

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.

― Broheems (diamond), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 17:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Supa-Classic.

― Andrzej B. (Andrzej B.), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 18:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, I'm wicked late to this thread, but to answer the question:

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.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 18:55 (twenty-two years ago)

a vaguely metallic version of Wham

But that's brilliant!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 18:59 (twenty-two years ago)

ha ha

― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 19:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Alex NYC in hating fun shocker!

― Ricardo (RickyT), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 21:01 (twenty-two years ago)

There's only 92 albums that I know I like more!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 21:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Wham! were never nearly so prog; Human League makes WAY more sense:

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

― chuck, Wednesday, 19 May 2004 21:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Heh, nice. You included the quote about how Phil Oakey said that Def Leppard were a Sheffield synth group like the HL in one of the books, didn't you? Or so I recall.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 21:09 (twenty-two years ago)

"Fun" is a relative term. If you consider "fun" to be defanged, sugar-coated soylent green, then you just go right on ahead and choke yourself down some, Rickyboy.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 22:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Soylent Green is made of Leppard!

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 22:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Very inconsistent. I bet nobody can list all the songs on Side 2 in the correct order.

― dave q, Wednesday, 19 May 2004 22:51 (twenty-two years ago)

Okay, lemme try:

"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"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 22:56 (twenty-two years ago)

ok, production history yadda yadda, two great big hollow singles, one additional actual good song, better than Pyromania, but you do realize that this album sucks, right?

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 23:08 (twenty-two years ago)

hollow singles are good for smuggling drugs into the country.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 23:10 (twenty-two years ago)

you do realize that this album sucks, right?

It does?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 23:12 (twenty-two years ago)

wtf, I TOTALLY could name all the songs in order for side 2. And I knew "Hysteria" came right before "Excitable." I was a little uncertain about whether "Run Riot" or "Don't Shoot Shotgun" came first until I remembered how awesome the segue is between "Shotgun" and "Riot."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 23:15 (twenty-two years ago)

now Pyromania I'd be clueless about after "Rock Of Ages."

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 23:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I remembered how awesome the segue is between "Shotgun" and "Riot."

Reason 33!

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

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 23:35 (twenty-two years ago)

35):

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

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 23:38 (twenty-two years ago)

36) And to invoke T. Rex again -- oh "Armageddon It," how I love you. Those verses are pure Bolan but then they shift to Sweet on the first part of the chorus and THEN Slade for the title itself.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 23:43 (twenty-two years ago)

37) E-bow guitar mysteriousness to help start "Gods of War" -- and I do believe that's the first time I ever heard such a thing.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 23:48 (twenty-two years ago)

38) The way that the backing vocals for the third and fourth repetition of the title in "Run Riot" turn into this GORGEOUS hook on top of all the other ones.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 May 2004 00:02 (twenty-two years ago)

39)"[just] like a fire needs flame"

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 20 May 2004 00:06 (twenty-two years ago)

*mops Ned up off of the floor and puts him into a bucket so none of him dribbles away before he gets a chance to solidify again*

― martin m. (mushrush), Thursday, 20 May 2004 00:07 (twenty-two years ago)

man even if Hysteriawas dudder than dud, which it's definitely not, DL really lost it with Adrenalize which I've tried to erase from my memory.

― Gear! (Gear!), Thursday, 20 May 2004 00:07 (twenty-two years ago)

Let's not go there. But here's some alternate history to ponder -- they get it together (and maybe Steve doesn't die and all) and release Adrenalize a year earlier, before That There Nirvana Album came out. Remembered more fondly, or not?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 May 2004 00:08 (twenty-two years ago)

I dunno, it's still probably smoked by Slave to the Grind and Use Your Illusion 1&2

― Gear! (Gear!), Thursday, 20 May 2004 00:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Slave to the Grind probably as that was earlier in the year.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 May 2004 00:12 (twenty-two years ago)

'Promises' from Euphoria is pretty good, and probably better than all but three tracks on Hysteria.

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 20 May 2004 00:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Skipping 393 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

yeah it kinda squirrels its way to its chorus

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 30 March 2025 18:06 (one year ago)

That’s my fav one

― lil $CHUB (Spottie), Sunday, 30 March 2025 18:53 (one year ago)

I got in the car twice today. The first time “Hysteria” was on the radio when I turned on the engine and the second time it was “Pour Some Sugar on Me.”

― Iza Duffus Hardy (President Keyes), Sunday, 30 March 2025 20:01 (one year ago)

the guitar solo in the title track is kind of a curveball, right? you would expect some screechy pyrotechnics but it kinda sounds like it should be on a replacements or crowded house album or something.

― brimstead, Sunday, 30 March 2025 21:11 (one year ago)

Yah def more of a guitar break than a solo

― lil $CHUB (Spottie), Sunday, 30 March 2025 23:00 (one year ago)

Cranking this album today ... forgot how much "Armageddon It" rules.

― alpine static, Wednesday, 2 April 2025 20:14 (one year ago)

Yeah it's one of the more straightforward songs and yet probably also my favourite ?? After "Rocket" at least

― you can see me from westbury white horse, Wednesday, 2 April 2025 21:44 (one year ago)

C'mon, Steve ... get it!

― alpine static, Thursday, 3 April 2025 02:04 (one year ago)

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