boc4ever

For me, this was the album that made me a fan. It had raw energy, melody with an edge, and overall something to prove. No doubt, Pyromania and Hysteria are when they broke it wide open. These are both impressive releases in the own ways. I saw the "theater in the round tour" twice: First with Tesla, then with Queensryche opening up. However, IMHO, the sound shifted from guitar driven to pop metal and they lost a bit of their powerful sound. Nonetheless, I stayed a fan up until Adrenalize. Again, please post thoughts, arguments, memories etc. A few videos from the era:

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ZgCoH88s074" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/MGUWx3ocSdA" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6I6JGVjUPUU" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

<iframe title="YouTube video player" class="youtube-player" type="text/html" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/5irgYeDM2qU" frameborder="0" allowFullScreen></iframe>

I'll spare you the Bringin on the Heartbreak Remix.

Track listing
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Let It Go" Joe Elliott, Pete Willis, Steve Clark 4:43
2. "Another Hit and Run" Elliott, Rick Savage 4:59
3. "High 'n' Dry (Saturday Night)" Elliott, Clark, Savage 3:27
4. "Bringin' on the Heartbreak" Elliott, Willis, Clark 4:34
5. "Switch 625" Clark 3:03
6. "You Got Me Runnin'" Elliott, Willis, Clark 4:23
7. "Lady Strange" Elliott, Willis, Clark, Rick Allen 4:39
8. "On Through the Night" Elliott, Clark, Savage 5:06
9. "Mirror, Mirror (Look Into My Eyes)" Elliott, Clark, Savage 4:08
10. "No No No" Elliott, Willis, Savage 3:13
Bonus tracks on 1984 reissue
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. "Bringin' On the Heartbreak" (Remix) Elliott, Willis, Clark 4:34
2. "Me & My Wine" (Remix) Elliott, Willis, Clark, Savage, Allen 3:40

Jason

Great album. Nothing like a young, hungry metal band with something to prove.

kd5

I'm a BIG fan of older Def Leppard. My favorite 3 albums by them are High & Dry, Pyromania, and Hysteria, I think their all time best song ever was Foolin', but all 3 of those albums kicked ASS. I remember when Rick Allen lost his arm, and I remember how cool it was that the band was going to wait for him to recover. When Hysteria came out I couldn't believe my ears, it just sounded REALLY good to me. Like The Wall, I played that album so many times I ended up having to replace it because I wore the first copy out. My tastes in music may have gotten softer with age, but I'll always have fond memories of Def Leppard. -kd5-

nodeerforamonth

INCREDIBLE album. One of my favorites. Perfect production. Perfect songwriting. The riffs on "Let It Go" and "Saturday Night" are some of the best ever recorded. I often play "No No No" when djing at clubs.

PerryD

I was also an early Def Leppard fan, and when I finally got around to seeing them on the Hysteria tour, I was disappointed when they played only 1 song total from the first 2 albums (BotH), everything was from Pyromania and Hysteria.

hippie68

great album. Pryromania came up on my ipod on a recent long drive home. Still sounded just as good as it did 28 years ago. Wow, I feel old.

Rocketdog2000

Still THE BEST Def Leppard album in my book, and I'm a fan of pretty much all their stuff! UMG needs to get around to doing a two disc special edition of this, like they did with Pyromania, Hysteria & Andrenalize.

Fist of Doom

Agreed. "Let It Go" has a monster riff.

bunkaroo

I was just listening to all my DL stuff. God I love how Bringin' leads into Switch 625 - such a great instrumental.

kd5

For all the Def Leppard fans here, you should make plans to pick up the Historia / In The Round, In Your Face DVD when it goes on sale somewhere, all the best songs, all the best videos...

Posted the link to Amazon, but I'm sure it can be had for less $$$ somewhere. -kd5-

sniper007

[QUOTE=Rocketdog2000;10604866]Still THE BEST Def Leppard album in my book, Agreed

slop101

Metal? Really?

Phodg

Decent album, but "On Through The Night" is better.

Rocketdog2000

A good album, true, but one that only showed a band with promise. On High 'N' Dry they truly deliver upon it.

Imprint

It would be revisionist to not consider them part of the NWOBHM scene now. Sure they started becoming less metal during Pyromania, and they dived straight into pop metal for Hysteria, but they were still considered metal at the time in question.

B5Erik

Absolutely.

You've got to remember what Heavy Metal was back then. In 1981 heavy Metal hadn't yet morphed into the ULTRA heavy stuff that Slayer, Metallica, etc, played.

If you go back to the 70's bands like KISS, Aerosmith, and Thin Lizzy were considered to be, "Heavy Metal." The bar has just been raised decade by decade in terms of how, "Heavy," you have to be to be considered Metal.


As to High 'n' Dry, it is my absolute favorite Def Leppard album. It is an album of incredible energy and enthusiasm with some fantastic songs. Pete Willis was a big part of that, and they fired him during the making of Pyromania. While they wouldn't have become the multi-platinum band that they became without him, at the same time they did lose some of that raw, bluesy AC/DCish edge that they had on High 'n' Dry. Once Steve Clarke died they lost all of it, unfortunately.

nodeerforamonth

Back in '81? Definitely. Along with Iron Maiden, they were two of the biggest bands of the "New Wave Of British Heavy Metal" era.

slop101

I remember '81 just fine. DL was never metal.

JOE29

I love their first two releases On Through the night and high and Dry. But after these they sold out and i lost interest in them completely. Haven't bought or ever had the need to, anything after High and Dry. I'm still waiting for them to remaster these two they've remastered just about everything else I believe.

boc4ever

I'd be interested to hear more about how you would define metal then. They are listed on the following site, which I would consider a metal authority:

http://www.bnrmetal.com/v2/search.php?name=def+leppard

boc4ever

Yeah, that is one of the highlights of the album for me also. I love how Bringin' builds and builds, comes to a crescendo and then Switch 625 rises out of its aftermath. Ok, maybe that was a bit too dramatic, but I was also a fan of that segueway also.

I think the album has great flow in general. The songs are pretty diverse and more progressive than their later efforts. Other standouts for me are Lady Strange, Mirror Mirror, Let it Go and Another Hit and Run.

Fist of Doom

This album is metal through-and-through.

Rocketdog2000

Adding another confirmation that Leppard were definitely Metal back in the day.

slop101

Every hard rock band left in the wake of Zeppelin's vacuum was labeled "metal". Doesn't necessarily make it so.

Traxan

The credits illustrate why that band just isn't the same any more. Willis got booted for his own good and Clark is dead. Lep won't make an album like that ever again. They are comfortably rich in middle-age.

Oh, and one of the major shames most people don't mention about Rick Allen losing his arm is that he was a rare metal drummer who played traditional grip. Hardly anyone did that back then and no one does now.

(the audio and video on the Let It Go video are totally off, btw)