Don’t you hate people who think a group’s best album came out during a particularly significant period in their life? I mean, it’s as if the whole world is nothing but backdrop to their life. Good grief.

That said I will tell you now why Def Leppard’s Hysteria is their best album because it became popular the first summer I worked at Cedar Point.*

Pyromania was Def Leppard’s real break through album. Everybody heard it, but it was Hysteria that made them a force to be reckoned with. It would have cinched them as a new Rolling Stones league player if it hadn’t come out 4 years after Pyromania. Fate, however, has it in for Def Leppard and in the middle of recording their drummer, Rick Allen lost his arm in a car accident (as well as other bad stuff I won’t bore you with just because I have a book on it.) It’s produced by Mutt Lange who’s so good he managed to make Shania Twain a star. Mutt Lange is like the Steven Speilberg of music, he’s got an ear for popular like nobody’s business. But on to why the album, this album, is so good.

Women
Joe Elliott got attacked in the press for this song. It was seen as degrading to women. Elliott defended himself by saying that there are things you say about "women" and then there are things you say to your woman. He was talking to an individual woman, not referring to womankind. I have spent the last (ugh) 14 years trying to figure out why he had to defend himself in the first place. First, there’s nothing all that offensive to womankind and second, most of what’s actually said is complimentary ("women, we can’t live without them," " one part love, one part wild, one part [something], one part child, a whole lotta fire, a little bit of ice." Even if it’s one part wh-re, I don’t have a problem with it, Freud said it first.) And besides, he’s right, I say things to my husband that I wouldn’t say about all men.

The music is great. The drumming is powerful, more so than many unhindered drummers. There’s also a great guitar solo at the end that blends both guitars in a great harmony.

Rocket
Another hard rock offering with a great, energetic beat. The tempo remains consistent throughout the song but they drop to half time in the singing which gives the whole song an interested flavor. Plus most of the lyrics are just lists of song titles and albums that it’s fun to listen for (Benny & The Jets? Sgt Pepper?)

Animal
Vaguely, this song is about the circus. It seemed quite appropriate to our situation at the Point. It also captures that feeling of setting up for the day’s crowds. It’s also a very sensual song without being particularly sexual. It’s definitely a leap forward in the maturity level of the song writing. Another example of powerful, driving beat holding everything together.

Love Bites
This one is slightly painful because it sounds like what it feels like. You know, that moment when you’re sure love has gone sour. Even now, 10 years into a stable relationship, it brings back the feeling of love gone off. Surprisingly, I wasn’t breaking up with someone and mourning over this tune, it’s just a really good at what it’s trying to convey. Dare I compare Def Leppard to a romantic poet? I dare. This song does for post relationship blues what Matthew Arnold’s The Buried Life does for true love. (I’ll wait while you go looking for the poem. Arnold wrote around the time of Keats, Shelly and Byron, if that helps.) Sample lyrics "When I’m with you / are you somewhere else? / Am I getting through / Or do you please yourself? / When you wake up / Will you walk out? / It can’t be love / If you throw it about." I’m also suddenly reminded of Paul McCartney’s (um, the Beatles) "I’m Looking Through You."

Pour Some Sugar On Me
Now, when I worked at the Point (also known as the Enslavement Park) I had a couple of friends who ended up working in a food stand making cotton candy. It’s really hard not to laugh at a person when they walk into the apartment after a long hard day with cobwebs of cotton candy strung through their hair. This song was their theme song. It made us all very happy to walk down the midway to the bus singing it at the top of our lungs. The song is really about sex, not cotton candy which is a shame. It makes for great dance metal too. You know, that kind of stripper – show off dancing. Well, it was fun anyway. "Pour some sugar on me / In the name of love / I’m hot / sticky sweet / from my head to my feet/ Yea." You can see the cotton candy references surely.

Armageddon It
Oh yea, um, it’s another song about sex. It’s still tightly arranged, strong beat, intoxicating rhythm. Not what you would call a weak tune.

Gods Of War
I have no idea what this song is supposed to be about. It is another paean to sex? Is it an antiwar song? What is it? I think it might be the weakest song on the album, but for just about anybody else it would be their lead track. It has a bit of pub sing-a-long to it in the chorus and the tempo switches from 4/4 to 2/4 for the Reagan / Thatcher sound bites. Maybe I don’t like it because of that. It really is a fine song over all, it just doesn’t stick with me long.

Don’t Shoot Shotgun
Is it a coincidence that the first lyrics following the last track are "Run for cover / Don’t shoot / Shoot"? I don’t know. Ostensibly, this song is about a woman who’s too much for the singer. I think. It’s strong, and driving. It’s easy to sing along to, and easy to remember the lyrics.

Run Riot
Fun, energetic, happy tune. At least as happy as this genre of music ever really gets. Good guitar solo too.

Hysteria
Ok, in 1987 the power ballad was a finely crafted art form and despite Joe Elliott’s well documented hatred of Journey (originators of said art form) he knew a good thing when he saw it. He imbues the song with enough ache that you believe that the moment they finish recording, he’s off the to girlfriend’s because he misses her so much. Therefore, it’s a wonderful song for 3 unattached girls working at a demanding, but dull job far from home and parents to pine over, wishing someone, anyone, would miss them that much. How many Oreos were dipped in milk to this one?

Excitable
Yea, it’s another song about sex. There had to be at least one more you know. It’s a requirement. This one is high in the tension department, easily surpassing G’n’R but not quite trumping Hurricane. I’m just trying to figure out how Rick Allen keeps his legs in good enough shape to carry on the bass drum beat. It makes my legs tired hearing it.

Love and Affection
This one has a little too fast a tempo to be a power ballad and it’s not really the herd rock classic. Still a great song. Well written, excellent guitar work. What’s not to love? Or have affection for?

Hysteria is one of Def Leppard’s best albums, my experience and reminiscing not withstanding. It’s got strong musicianship and maturing songwriting. Oh, and Mutt "I can spin straw into gold" Lange. It should be a good album, they spent 4 years making it. if you liked Pyromania and for some reason have not bought this one then by all means, you will like it more.

*(I don’t really think this is their best album, I’m actually more partial to Slang, but the joke was too good to pass up.)


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Getting ready to go out