Thrifty Tunes 08.29.09: Def Leppard - Pyromania

Posted by Paul Hollingsworth on 08.29.2009

In the early 80's, a band of English musicians began their conquest of the musical planet. The opening blitzkrieg was an album full of classic tunes about cool things like setting fire to buildings and stalking former lovers. This week's Thrifty Tunes is gonna set this place to light with Def Leppard's Pyromania.

Rock Of Ages (The Forum 1983) - Def Leppard

Other hair bands of the 1980's may have been more dangerous, more ground breaking, more outrageous, maybe even more talented, but none of them could write better songs or create hooky, arena-ready riffs like Def Leppard's Steve Clark and Joe Elliott. The band's third release, Pyromania, may, in fact, be the best sounding album of the decade, and not solely because of producer (and future Mr. Shania Twain) Mutt Lange . If one record could be used to illustrate the state of rock in the 80's, you'd be hard pressed to find a better example than this 10-song extravaganza.

The record opens with "Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)", which wastes no time getting to Leppard's trademarks of sing-along choruses (usually about nothing in particular) and some furious dual guitar leads, courtesy of Clark and Phil Collen. While this isn't one of the band's bigger hits, its could never be mistaken as a song by any other band. Toward the end of the 80's, all the bands in pop/hair metal started to look alike and sound alike, (many of them trying to sound Leppard-ish), but Def Leppard knew they had a strong and unique sound and never strayed far from the source. "Photograph", follows, and is one of the band's earliest hits. (It's the song that replaced Michael Jackson's "Beat It" as the most requested video on the then new MTV.)

"Too Late For Love" is another highlight of the first side of the record, a blueprint for many of the metal ballads which followed in its wake for the rest of the decade. One of the things Leppard did better than any of its followers, however, was keep the edge and the melody of the song at the forefront. (Probably due to Lange's production.) If any band of the 80's could be said to write songs in the style of The Beatles, I think Leppard would be the band. If you take away the guitars and thick bass, what you're left with is a simple, easily follow able chorus and very direct, simplistic lyrics. Writing a simple, hit song is one of the hardest things on the planet to accomplish, but Leppard had the chops to do it from the beginning. Some musicians have an instinct for melody and harmony, and it's Leppard's fortune that five of those people ended up in the same band.

Side two begins with two of my favorite Leppard tracks ever. (My favorite track is "Bringing on The Heartbreak" off their debut "On Through The Night".) Both "Foolin'" and "Rock of Ages" are so intertwined with my teenage years, it's impossible to hear either of them with anything approaching fresh ears. By the time I discovered this album, shortly before the release of 1987's gazillion selling Hysteria, I was convinced that rock music could never sound better. When I think of rock music, my first thought is of the opening riff from "Rock of Ages." It's a song that demands to be heard as long as you can stand it, and if you'd don't sing a long to the chorus, you're obviously a terrible person who takes no joy in listening to a well crafted pop song.

Lange's production fingerprints are all the album, but there's something to be said for a band that sounds like it's in a studio instead of sounding as though it was recorded in someone's basement. This is polished music with a professional sound. While I may give grief to bands for sounding too perfect, not raw enough, Leppard walked the very fine line between overproduction and roughness like no other band, before or since.



Complete Track Listing: (1983 on PolyGram/Mercury Records)

Side One:
1. Rock! Rock! (Till You Drop)
2. Photograph
3. Stagefright
4. Too Late For Love
5. Die Hard The Hunger

Side Two:
1. Foolin'
2. Rock Of Ages
3. Comin' Under Fire
4. Action Not Words
5. Billy's Got A Gun



Def Leppard still tours, still releases new stuff, (sometimes with questionable merit. . . Tim McGraw, really?) but the double fisted ass kickery of this album and Hysteria is something no band, not even Leppard, will ever be able to top or recapture. Some may think that Bon Jovi, Motley Crue or Ratt is the metal band of the 80's, but its tough to argue that any band of the era had a better sound or wrote better pop metal songs.

Pickett Stars: Four out of Five

Next Week: Rubber Soul by The Beatles