Hysteria – Def Leppard - Mott the Dog's Rock Music Reviews

956

5 Stars

*The excellent artwork for Hysteria by Andie Airfix who was starting a long, great relationship with Def Leppard.*

Audio CD (paid link)

Hysteria was released in 1987, almost four years after its predecessor Pyromania. To say a lot happened to Def Leppard during the four years recording this album would be one of the largest understatements in Rock’n’roll.

*Def Leppard always seemed half band, half gang. A band of brothers*
*originally from Sheffield, England.*

The album started with Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange producing. Citing exhaustion, Lange quit after initial sessions to be replaced by Jim Steinman (Of Bat Out Of Hell fame). This did not have the desired effect, so with Steinman removed, the band had a crack at producing some new material by producing themselves. No one knows what the results of these sessions were, as the band wiped these tapes.

Then, on New Year’s Eve 1984, drummer Rick Allen was involved in a terrible car accident costing him his left arm. As soon as he was allowed out of hospital, he started planning his return to the drum stool using specially designed electronic drums. The band to a man stood beside him, endorsing his decision. By the time Rick Allen had figured things out, Mutt Lange was ready to return to the control room as well.

*The Defs dressed to kill. They certainly knew how to appeal to their*
*public, never missing a beat.*

So, fired up and ready, it was full speed ahead. Well not quite, as then Mutt Lange had a car accident, Joe Elliott contracted mumps, and Steve Clarke who, after all, was chief songwriter and lead guitarist, was starting to suffer from alcohol and substance abuse, which meant trips to a rehab facility. Sadly, Steve Clark died of alcohol poisoning in 1991 at the age of thirty.

But when all six were finally together in the studio, the magic flowed. But costs were racking up to dizzying heights. The final total of the completed album was one million dollars, so the band would need to see sales of over five million to break even.

Although the album was an immediate hit worldwide, debuting at number one in the United Kingdom, it was not an immediate hit in the US of A. It took until the fourth single, the go-go friendly ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ that the record caught fire, speeding like a bullet to the top of the Billboard charts where it went on three separate occasions, topping the charts for a total of six weeks. It was certified Platinum x12 in America alone. Hysteria went on to dominate album and single charts for the following three years. The day was saved.

The band toured the album in every mega dome worldwide.

*The Defs showing their glam rock roots here.*

The music starts off with ‘Woman,’ showing off all Def Leppard’s trademark intentions. Gone are the shackles of The “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” which gave Def Leppard their start to be fully replaced by Mutt Lange’s sparkly “Glam Metal/Power Pop.”

All these songs have been played so often on the radio that you automatically know the words and rock along to them. From the raunchy ‘Pour Some Sugar on Me’ to the punchy ‘Armageddon It,’ and the retro heavy metal thunder of ‘Gods Of War,’ ‘Love Bites’ was Def Leppard’s only number one hit single and the infectious beat of the title track gives the album some gravitas.

*Steve Clarke the star, up and rockin’ the guitar.*

Def Leppard in concert 30 years later still predominantly features songs from this album, if not all of them.

Def Leppard have gone through further hard times since this album, but happily are on the crest of another wave at present, although album sales of the new products will never be what they once were.

*Mutt Lange, the sixth Leppard. Mutt Lange meant as much to Def Leppard as George Martin meant to the Beatles. He was that important.*

Hysteria has been re-mastered and re-issued many times since the heady eighties. There is a glorious two-CD version with the whole album, all sixty three minutes of it. Plus another hour’s worth of outtakes, filthy dirty live versions from the subsequent tours showing off that Steve Clark was still at this stage a master of his chosen instrument.