Def, Dumb and Rockin'

Just a bunch o' kids

Def Leppard rose to greatness amid the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the late 70's. Their early music was tough and even sometimes raw in sound and approach, but they were more melodic than their NWOBHM cohorts. Their vocal harmonies and often radio-friendly guitar solos were the perfect ingredients for financial success. I liked them right from the start, lapping up great rockers like Wasted and Let It Go. The band also showed some talent with the ballad - which the ladies liked, and thus drew an even bigger audience.

Fast forward to the 1983: Def Leppard is huge the world over, with their album Pyromania ruling the charts, not to mention multiple hit singles and music videos. Everybody knew who they were, even those who hated the music. I missed my chance to see them in Toronto, but as consolation prize, I treated myself to a Union Jack muscle shirt, just like the one worn by singer Joe Elliott. Even though I had no muscles to speak of. My dad hated that shirt.

Still riding that success, the band suffered a tragedy.... drummer Rick Allen lost one arm in a car accident (street racing, actually). You'd think that would have been the end of his career, right? Wrong. Instead, he had an electronic drum kit built so that he could still play one-armed, this time using pedals and drum triggers to simulate many percussive sounds. Close enough, I guess.

We got to hear this robotic style on Hysteria, the band's next album. At the time, I believe we all sort of scratched our heads at the methods, but hey, the music was still fine (at the time) so we stuck with it. Then Def Leppard came to Ottawa in June of 1988, so we could witness this cyborg drum kit in action. Interesting to watch, but no big deal. The tunes still rocked, but the super slick wall of sound began to bug me. 

I totally lost interest in Leppard after Hysteria. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Though these giants had reached heights that no metal band had ever reached before them, they had also succumbed to laziness and dropped out of the public consciousness. The songwriting became lackluster and uninspired and their sound burdened by far too much studio trickery. Not so rock and roll any more. Ah well, I can still savour those early days.