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Def Leppard - now THIS I can get excited about!


tommy p

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/30/2019 at 10:45 PM, devrock said:

Every time I hear anything off HnD or Pyro, I feel so sad after what they became. They were SO damn good. 

THIS.

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On 10/17/2019 at 11:36 AM, tommy p said:

HnD is by far my favorite Def Leppard album.

It's my favorite, as well. I remember spinning the Pyromania LP over and over and over when it charted...

...then a friend brought over HnD and I was floored. Less polish and less hi-fi, but damn...some of the best rock riffs ever committed to vinyl. Me and My Wine was a cool bonus track on the post-Pyromania U.S. reissue, to boot.

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22 hours ago, Ed Rechts said:

If you recall, Me & Wine was the last song on the album and Joe Elliot's voice rings out "THANK YOUUUUUU!!!" and echos until the record needle literally runs off the vinyl into the paper label.

My stoned ass thought THAT was rock A.F. when I heard it the first time the day that disc was released. Brilliant closer,  and not  even mentioned in the track list. Then the video came out and you could tell, these guys were more off-the-chain authentic than just about any of the other NWOBHM bands making noise at the time.

As a huge fan of the early Def Leppard days, let me get you straight on your hazy memories.  Hey, YOU said you were stoned, not me!

Me and My Wine was not included on the original High n' Dry release.  It was added a few years later along with the keyboard-heavy remix of Bringin' on the Heartbreak when HnD was re-released on CD after the huge popularity of Pyromania.  The song that ended the original HnD release was No No No which did end as you remembered; Joe Elliot screams one last NO! which then repeats all the way through the runout groove on vinyl.  On CD, they just cut it off cold after a while.

What really cheesed me off at the time was that they made new videos for both the Heartbreak remix and Wine that featured Phil Collen.  Back then, I really liked Collen and thought he fit in on Pyromania but that still didn't sit right with me.  Ever since then with each successive album and the constant shirt-off ridiculous playing, I've liked him less and less.  I still own the first 4 Leppard albums plus Retroactive and Yeah!, their covers album, but only the first two get regular spins, with Pyromania next, and then the others pretty rarely.

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2 hours ago, tommy p said:

 

What really cheesed me off at the time was that they made new videos for both the Heartbreak remix and Wine that featured Phil Collen.  Back then, I really liked Collen and thought he fit in on Pyromania but that still didn't sit right with me.  Ever since then with each successive album and the constant shirt-off ridiculous playing, I've liked him less and less.  I still own the first 4 Leppard albums plus Retroactive and Yeah!, their covers album, but only the first two get regular spins, with Pyromania next, and then the others pretty rarely.

He did a great job on Pyromania, but I agree with you on the rest. I have such mixed feelings about Phil. On the one hand, every person I’ve met that knows or has met him says he is THE nicest guy. I know that he goes out of his way to treat the folks at Jackson really well, even holding private shows for them every year at the factory, no matter how small the audience. I’ve talked to someone who works there and they just love the guy to pieces. He’s very humble and kind.

But....from a playing perspective? I think he’s sort of a hack. Outside of Pyro, nothing he’s done has ever impressed me (which fits, as Leppard hasn’t done jack shit since then, either, IMO). I’ve even seen some YouTube vids of him playing solo and it sounds like me wanking on a guitar - and that’s not a good thing. He’s simply never impressed me as a player at all. 

OK, I’m done ranting on him. 

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1 hour ago, devrock said:

But....from a playing perspective? I think he’s sort of a hack. Outside of Pyro, nothing he’s done has ever impressed me (which fits, as Leppard hasn’t done jack shit since then, either, IMO). I’ve even seen some YouTube vids of him playing solo and it sounds like me wanking on a guitar - and that’s not a good thing. He’s simply never impressed me as a player at all.

Call it wanking or whatever.  As much as we criticize, most people listening to the radio do not care how good someone plays as long as the tune is catchy.  Phil plays to his live audience, and Def Leppard has a lot of radio hits. 

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2 hours ago, Ed Rechts said:

Speaking of wayward stoned thoughts: Has anyone ever seen Phil Collen and Matthew McConaughey together? Would that kind of pretentious or presumptuous over-50 bullshit even be allowed?

Not 100% sure if they've ever socialized, but if those two ever did go out on the town together, I feel confident they'd attract a robust female audience.

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25 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

Call it wanking or whatever.  As much as we criticize, most people listening to the radio do not care how good someone plays as long as the tune is catchy.  Phil plays to his live audience, and Def Leppard has a lot of radio hits. 

Which is why Phil could help the cause by not shitting all over their classics with non-stop harmonic squeals and chirps. Kind of detracts from the tunes' catchiness.  

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1 minute ago, Biz Prof said:

Which is why Phil could help the cause by not shitting all over their classics with non-stop harmonic squeals and chirps. Kind of detracts from the tunes' catchiness.  

Putting a shirt on wouldn’t hurt either..,

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One more comment on Phil - I didn't always feel the way I do now about him.  I had an Ibanez DT155 (the cheaper dot neck black 3-pickup Destroyer) and there is actual photographic evidence of me wearing camo pants and suspenders from that era.😲😜  I read his book, and I have his albums with Girl too.  He was a very melodic player with chops he could deploy when needed at one time.  Maybe he still plays with restraint in the studio, but live and in every demo video you see of him he's doing that "play as fast as you can from the elbow, not the wrist" wankery that I absolutely hate.

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On 11/3/2019 at 8:51 PM, Steve Haynie said:

Call it wanking or whatever.  As much as we criticize, most people listening to the radio do not care how good someone plays as long as the tune is catchy.  Phil plays to his live audience, and Def Leppard has a lot of radio hits. 

They haven’t had a hit since 1988. So, I disagree. 

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