We celebrate their late arrival on streaming and more recently, the launch of the VAULT - an assessment of Def Leppard's journey and what makes them special. And the heroism of drummer Rick Allen. Rock on! Lina Moon’s cover is pretty out there too.
THE ANTIDOTE TO THE ALGORITHM
Some time in 2017, I was in attendance at a management conference at Spotify where, as part of the event, uber pop songwriter and human hit machine Max Martin joined CEO Daniel Ek for a ‘fireside chat’. It was fascinating to hear Max’s take on everything about the art and commerce of the song, but towards the end of that conversation, the quietly spoken Martin turned the tables: “I have a question for you actually...what the fuck happened to Def Leppard?”
One could see the picture zapping through Ek’s mind of an audibly-challenged big game cat but, ever cool and never flustered, he simply glanced the question off into the audience of let’s call them ‘music-tech execs’. Of course, no one had a clue. It was down to your humble author to raise a hand and volunteer the answer, for which Martin was not only grateful but so curious to know the ins and outs, we had a thoroughly enjoyable and engaging conversation afterwards. It is both delightful and reassuring when the most successful pop writer of his generation shows an interest in good, honest deep catalogue rock. From Yorkshire. Hand horns going out to you, Max.
To the more rock-musically inclined, the Def Leppard digital story is fairly well known. After a fall out with Universal (recently patched-up as we’ll see) Leppard withheld their digital rights up until January 2018. It’s incredible that the multi-million-selling Pyromania and Hysteria albums had never been streaming services until then. Inevitably, those two albums were the focus for that convo with Max Martin, since who could not admire those records on some level no matter what your musical preferences or cultural tastes. Take Hysteria. The process of its creation is one of those near-biblical tales of music industry toil & trouble. That process began in Dublin in February 1984 and before long the project got the better of not one, but two uber producers: Mutt Lange and Jim Steinman, who both abandoned ship.
However, things got much, much more intense. In December of that year, drummer Rick Allen was in a spectacular car crash on the A57 outside Sheffield. Allen’s Corvette careened off the road and hammered into a drystone wall. Def Leppard’s young drummer had lost his left arm. I remember seeing the incident on the local news (I lived and rocked in Hull then) and being shocked, like all Leppard’s other fans must have been. I knew that was it for Allen’s career as a drummer, but maybe that was it for the band, such a loyal unit as they were.
What transpired has become heavy rock folklore I suppose, and quite rightly so. Allen announced his intention to continue his role as Def Leppard's drummer. Should he pull it off this would make Black Sabbath’s Toni Iommi’s achievement of becoming a guitar god despite losing the tips of two fingers, something of a doddle. He did it though.
Rick figured out that he could use both legs to do some of the drumming work previously done with his arms. He then designed a custom hybrid electronic drum kit with manufacturer Simmons (clever lad). He took advantage of the fact that he’d never been a fancy drummer. Not one for elaborate fills and syncopated beats, Allen played the drums as a good old stomp and was part of Leppard’s signature sound in that regard. However, the electronics in his new kit ended up bringing a new dimension to the band’s sound on Hysteria - a key contribution to the magic formula.
The band never sought a replacement. Any time any member of the band talks about the moment Allen gathered them together to show them his progress, it’s a lump in the throat moment even now. I remember seeing Allen interviewed for the TV show ‘Fighting Back’ in 2007 and was mesmerized. He was understated, matter-of-fact, funny, polite and utterly charming:
“It was a case of channeling the beat I had in my mind to another limb, and wherever I couldn’t play consecutive beats with my left foot, say on one pedal, I would substitute that with another beat with another limb, and I could imitate what I did before”.
Resilience personified. Perhaps back in 1985 that was enough to persuade Mutt Lange to return as producer to finally get down to the business of recording what would be a world-beating clutch of blockbuster pop-rock songs. Released in August 1987 some three years after it started and with the recording budget blown by a gazillion, the pop-orientated Hysteria defines the power of the album as well as any other LP you can name. You might immediately think of Michael Jackson’s Thriller and indeed, Hysteria was designed to that album’s template - a collection of killer tracks that could each stand up as singles. Consider that it topped the UK, US, New Zealand, Canadian, Australian and Norway charts. However, the fascinating thing is that the album’s momentum only really went into overdrive following the release of its fourth single: ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’. It also begins with one of its weakest tracks (the choice of the band’s A&R at the time). Hysteria went to no. 2 in Sweden and no. 10 in Germany despite no Top 50 singles in either country. Fifth single ‘Love Bites’ (Joe Elliott’s mum’s favourite) ended up being a Billboard number 1. Hysteria was a pop-rock bandwagon that just wouldn’t stop rolling.
It is amazing to think that Hysteria landed on streaming services a full 10 years after streaming arrived but over 30 years since its release. A fair few anniversary moments got missed there then. After the dispute with their label, Def Leppard attempted to re-record some of their songs, in support of various projects that occupied them at the time. That didn’t work for The Police in 1986 either. When you’ve cut a classic and it took everything you had in the first place, and Mutt Lange, it’s highly unlikely you’ll catch that magic again. Lightning doesn’t strike twice. Def Leppard probably knew it and kept their re-recordings to just three tracks. Taylor Swift, take heed!
But look now, it seems the band has truly caught up with the times having just launched the Def Leppard Vault. Following the trend set by the Neil Young Archive and more recently, Radiohead’s Public Library, Def Leppard has realised that once you’ve made your catalogue available as a utility, it’s probably a good idea to add some depth with context, stories and archive material. It solves the problem too, of reducing music that can make your hair stand on end to the mush of ‘streaming music’ that has always been part of Def Leppard’s cautious approach to the format. Luddites they are not however. Back in 2015 Joe Elliott told Maxim magazine that “When you get on Spotify it’s very insular. It’s just Zombieland, and we’re all guilty of it”. In reality, the band’s approach was more balanced. Once the catalogue finally landed on streaming, Joe Elliott clarified with music & tech agency MusicAlly:
“Streaming was something that we were a little suspicious of at first because it’s brand new so there is no blueprint as to whether or not it is going to come and go like the Betamax. Is it really going to take off? Or are we going to go to a lot of effort and it turns out to be a waste of time?”
Given the controversies over the viability of the streaming model for artists these days, perhaps the band’s caution can be seen as prescient. Even Max Martin might agree, since he himself has expressed frustration with having to write ‘streaming optimised’ songs with no space for slow-build intros, and having to get to the hook within six seconds. Def Leppard’s style of songwriting very much involves slow-build intros and eventually, massive hooks. Quite a few of their songs seem to have two different choruses (‘Photograph’, ‘Animal’, ‘Gods Of War’, ‘Foolin’, all featured on this playlist). Max will be relieved to see that despite their slow start and slow intros, Def Leppard is now a fully paid up member of the 100m streams club, and rising fast.
Coming up on Def Leppard’s Vault, is a 38th anniversary of Pyromania, the forebearer to Hysteria and the band’s global commercial (and artistic) breakthrough. It was the album that first introduced me to the band. Probably like a few million others, seeing the video of ‘Photograph’ on heavy rotation on MTV was enough to persuade me that there might be something exciting here - a heavy rock band from the North of England that could punch its weight on the American scene (Joe Elliott’s star jump leap off the drum riser in that video almost matched David Lee Roth’s) with which I and my teen rocker mates were obsessed. It’s possible that with Pyromania and Hysteria, Def Leppard peaked early. But whatever they get up to always seems a worthwhile pursuit. Let it roll.
Playback notes: this playlist has been machine-tooled for segues, so play in order for full effect. Should you hit the gym or go for a run, you’ll find your energy levels somewhat boosted!