Def Leppard 'Hysteria': C/D?

Message Bookmarked
Bookmark Removed
Not all messages are displayed: show all messages (463 of them)
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 (nineteen years ago) link

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

Vinnie (vprabhu), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 12:48 (nineteen years ago) link

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

VengaDan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 12:52 (nineteen years ago) link

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

Conor (Conor), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 12:52 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 13:49 (nineteen years ago) link

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

Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 13:52 (nineteen years ago) link

so classic it bites

57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 15:24 (nineteen years ago) link

so classic it bites

no.. love bites.

cutty (mcutt), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 15:27 (nineteen years ago) link

C'MON STEVE

57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 15:29 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

*missile sounds*

Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 15:55 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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

Gilles Meloche (Gilles Meloche), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 17:07 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

Supa-Classic.

Andrzej B. (Andrzej B.), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 18:52 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

a vaguely metallic version of Wham

But that's brilliant!

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 18:59 (nineteen years ago) link

ha ha

The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 19:07 (nineteen years ago) link

Alex NYC in hating fun shocker!

Ricardo (RickyT), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 21:01 (nineteen years ago) link

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

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 21:04 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

"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 (nineteen years ago) link

Soylent Green is made of Leppard!

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 22:29 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

hollow singles are good for smuggling drugs into the country.

M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 23:10 (nineteen years ago) link

you do realize that this album sucks, right?

It does?

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 23:12 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 23:16 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

35):

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

Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 19 May 2004 23:38 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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

Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Thursday, 20 May 2004 00:06 (nineteen years ago) link

*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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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 (nineteen years ago) link

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

Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 May 2004 00:12 (nineteen years ago) link

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

gabbneb (gabbneb), Thursday, 20 May 2004 00:14 (nineteen years ago) link

those halcyon days of '91 pre-Nirvana, when all we wanted to do was rock out...

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

Gear! (Gear!), Thursday, 20 May 2004 00:14 (nineteen years ago) link

Ned! You put so much thought & effort into the dozens of posts on this thread (and indeed, HUNDREDS of posts throughout ILX) that there's no way I wasn't going to acknowledge you alongside Chuck! I'm still pretty sure that reading your respective musings re Hysteria is more enjoyable than actually listening to it. But I'm a bit of a weak-willed individual, so who knows? I see it in flea markets for $4, I may just give it another chance, see if my opinion's changed in 15 years. After all, I once gave up on Astral Weeks prematurely, then was intimidated into buying it a second time...and found it just as boring as before.

Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 20 May 2004 02:04 (nineteen years ago) link

I'm still pretty sure that reading your respective musings re Hysteria is more enjoyable than actually listening to it.

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

Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 20 May 2004 02:15 (nineteen years ago) link

Probably why it sounds like tissue paper

a blunt toothcomb (Matt #2), Thursday, 24 November 2022 18:20 (one year ago) link

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


Yes. This album is incredible, I really fell for it hard the last couple of years.

lets hear some blues on those synths (brimstead), Thursday, 24 November 2022 18:52 (one year ago) link

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.

Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Friday, 25 November 2022 20:20 (one year ago) link

"number of songs with puns in the lyrics"?

Vance Vance Devolution (sic), Friday, 25 November 2022 20:23 (one year ago) link


You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.