My history with Def Leppard goes back to the very beginning. Not the EP, but On Through the Night. Drummer Rick Allen is only one year older than me, so we were both young teens then. I was still a freshman in high school when this album came out. How I even heard about it was interesting. As with many schools, we always received a one week break in the spring. Back then (in Texas) it was still called an "Easter break" (even in the public schools), then they separated the religious dates and event to the more secular "Spring break". I'm not quite sure when that happened, but I bring it up because the date of release for On Through the night is March 14, 1980. So right about the same time. Because of this yearly break, my Mom and I would join my Dad on his business trips. He was the consummate travelling salesman, working in the industrial uniform business. And he controlled his schedule, so San Antonio would be one of our favorites choices as a destination. He had a favorite motel (yes, that's mo-tel - old days here), that had a nice swimming pool and good places to eat. And my parents even had a social set down there, all related to the business. Anyway...
If you're wondering why I'm offering this background, think a bit deeper of what's happening. San Antonio, 1980. For those who know their metal history, San Antonio was ground zero for the metal movement in the USA (look it up). They had DJ's (Joe Anthony being the most famous) who played the newest albums by hard rock and metal groups. Coming from Dallas, it was much more scarce to hear anything like Def Leppard and Iron Maiden (actually we didn't - not back then anyway). So at age 15, listening to the radio was the new highlight of going south to San Antonio. I was at an age where playing in the pool wasn't so exciting anymore. Hearing Def Leppard for the first time, now that was eventful. Of course, upon arrival back home, I arm squeezed my Dad to stop at a record store so I could buy the album (now that I think about it - I was driving then on a permit. I made him wait in the car lol). Which I subsequently listened to 100's of times afterward. And, as luck would have it, I saw them open up for the Scorpions and Ted Nugent in the summer (at the new Reunion Arena), just a few months after first discovering them. It was one of the first concerts I ever attended. So yea, I was a bona fide Def Leppard fan.
One year later, during the summer of 1981, out came High 'N' Dry which I purchased on the spot. Had you asked me on Day 1 what I thought of the album, I would have told you it was great. But I knew it wasn't. Over the next year, my interest in the album had started to wane. As did my interest in the group in general. I was looking for heavier material, and more bands were cropping up to offer just that. Finding these albums were more the issue.
This is my personal setup for Pyromania. Instincts told me it was going to blow. And the fact that now the radio was all about Def Leppard, I knew something had gone awry. After hearing the album, played in full on its radio debut night, I about puked. Kiddie, pop metal. Music for wimps. I was a grizzled tough guy from the streets. I knew real metal... bla bla bla. We all have to be 17 at some point...
Of course MTV was now a thing, so Pyromania was inescapable. I went from a fan to now hating them. There were new "metal shows" popping up on the radio everywhere, and they all played this kind of crap. Where's Iron Maiden? And people wonder how Metallica was able to scorch the earth so quickly in 1983. Us hardened metal dudes were all starving for just that!
Are you actually going to listen to this CD now? Haha, yes, I'm getting there. 38 years on from my complete disdain of Def Leppard, I'm sitting down for an objective listen to Pyromania. Disc one of the set is the album proper. In hearing this, it's truly amazing how the band were able to tap into the psyche of the era. Hit after hit after hit. All the songs are very well crafted, and quite varied really. It's definitely pandering for a large audience, which they obviously succeeded at doing. Hard to blame a group for wanting to be megastars. And they most certainly did that. Overall, of course, my low rating for this album was not warranted. It was an emotional scoring from my late teen years. It's not something I would keep on its own, but yea, it's certainly good.
Then comes the second, live CD. Recorded in Los Angeles in 1983. OK, now I can really see the allure here. The tracks from Pyromania are much rawer than the polished Mutt Lange produced album, and they come alive in this set. And of course there are live renditions of earlier material from their first 2 albums, bringing me all the way back to my 1980 experience with the band. Ah shoot - I like this, despite my emotional pleas to the contrary. Ha. Yea, I'm keeping Pyromania as part of the collection. Sacrilege I would have decried in 1983. Sigh.
Ownership: 2009 Mercury (USA). Deluxe Edition. The CD comes in a fine multi-foldout digi-pak (in a slipcase) with a full essay about the band and the time. Recent thrift shop pickup (2021).
3/2/21 (new entry)
No comments:
Post a Comment