Pyromania (album)

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Pyromania
Pyromania cover
Studio album by Def Leppard
Released January 20, 1983
Recorded 1982 at Park Gates Studios in Battle, Sussex, England & Battery Studios in London
Genre Hard rock
Length 44:57
Label Mercury
Producer(s) Robert John "Mutt" Lange
Professional reviews
Def Leppard chronology
High 'n' Dry
(1981)		 Pyromania
(1983)		 Hysteria
(1987)


Pyromania is the third album by British hard rock band Def Leppard, released in 1983. It broke the band across North America and in Japan, and would sell over 10 million copies worldwide. It featured new guitarist Phil Collen and was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange.

The album is credited for paving the way for a new generation of hard rock bands in the 80's, and set the standard for albums of the genre through its combination of multi-layered vocal harmonies and heavy guitar riffs.

Three songs from Pyromania, "Photograph", "Rock of Ages", and "Foolin'", became Top 40 singles in the US, benefiting from their popularity on the 24-hour music channel MTV and attracting a large group of female followers.

Contents

[edit] Album history

After first working with Mutt Lange on 1981's High 'n' Dry, the band were very happy with the results, even though the album had fared only moderately well on the charts. Lange also saw the potential for even more improvement. Therefore, they teamed up again at Battery Studios in London in January 1982 to start work on what was to be their make-or-break album.

Lange's perfectionist production style would be taxing on the band, in particular Joe Elliott with the stratospheric vocal ranges he was being asked to reach. It also worsened guitarist Pete Willis' alcohol problems, causing growing tension between him and the rest of the band.

The point of no return for Willis came in July 1982 after another night of heavy drinking. The recording session the following day was so poor that Lange suggested the problem was irreparable at this point. A band-only meeting followed and it was agreed that Willis should be fired. The dismissal was made by the band members, although they'd asked manager Peter Mensch to perform the duty (he refused to do it).

Although Willis had co-written most songs on the album and finished backing tracks on all of them, the band still needed another guitarist. Luckily, Elliott already had in mind London native Phil Collen, lead guitarist in the glam rock band Girl at the time. Since Girl's own success had stalled, Collen eagerly accepted the offer to learn and play 10 songs on short notice.

Collen's audition of the solo on the track "Stagefright" ended up impressing Lange so much that he not only approved the choice of replacement, the solo ended up on the album itself. Unhindered by the distractions caused by Willis, a new chemistry was born between Collen and Clark (and the other members) and the album was completed by November 1982.

Released in January 1983, the album took off when the video for lead single "Photograph" became a massive hit on MTV, unseating Michael Jackson's Beat It as the most requested clip. "Rock of Ages" would achieve the same level of success, as would "Foolin'". At the end of the year, Pyromania had sold 6 million copies in the US, behind only Jackson and The Police. However, that success did not cross over into other parts of the world, most glaringly in their home of the United Kingdom.

The popularity and influence of Pyromania has been so enduring that in 2002, the premiere episode of VH1's "Ultimate Albums" series was on the making of the Pyromania album.

In 2004, the album was ranked number 384 on Rolling Stone Magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (Def Leppard's highest ranking on the list).

[edit] Miscellanea

  • The line "Gunter glieben glauchen globen" at the start of "Rock Of Ages" came about when Lange uttered the phrase after getting bored of saying "one, two, three, four" in the studio. The band thought it to be so amusing that it ended up on intro of the final recording. The phrase is not proper German and actually doesn't mean anything. The line was later used by punk band The Offspring as the intro on their 1998 single "Pretty Fly (For A White Guy)".
  • Thomas Dolby was brought in to record synthesizer parts, and is credited under the alias Booker T. Boffin.
  • The closing track, "Billy's Got A Gun", is immediately followed by a repeating drum machine and synth loop, which is unofficially titled "The March of the Dreaded Zultrons".
  • The tour for Pyromania and the "Photograph" video introduced fans to the popular Union Jack tank top shirt, a symbol that would be associated with the band to this day.
  • Pyromania was the last album by the band to be considered a "heavy metal" album, but still ranks high on many Top Metal Album lists.
  • The band started the Pyromania tour by opening for Billy Squier on his Emotions In Motion tour in early 1983.
  • Lange's production techniques on this record accounted for its unique guitar sound as well as lengthy production time. Rather than recording standard rhythm guitar tracks, Lange recorded Clark and Collen playing chords note-for-note on multiple separate tracks, often spending weeks on just the guitar parts for just one section of a song. The resulting mix of those individual notes gave the composite rhythm guitar sound much more punch and clarity than ever heard before, blurring the distinction between guitars and synthesizers that were becoming popular during the music of the early 1980s. Pyromania has since become cited by industry professionals as the longest production time for any rock record because of such experimentation within the popular rock medium.
  • Lange also was responsible for creating the signature heavy-processed drum sound. This sound (complete with gated reverb, digitally detuned drums, and compression) became a very popular 80s style drum sound, and was heard for years to come on many albums of the time.
  • As of 2005 this album was certified diamond meaning it sold over 10 million copies in America alone. This was the band's second diamond award, they received their first for Hysteria's 14 million sales in America alone.

[edit] Track listing

  1. Rock! Rock! ('Til You Drop) (Clark, Elliott, Lange, Savage) – 3:52
  2. Photograph (Clark, Elliott, Lange, Savage, Willis) – 4:12
  3. Stagefright (Elliott, Lange, Savage) – 3:46
  4. Too Late for Love (Clark, Elliott, Lange, Savage, Willis) – 4:30
  5. Die Hard the Hunter (Clark, Elliott, Lange, Savage) – 6:17
  6. Foolin' (Clark, Elliott, Lange) – 4:32
  7. Rock Of Ages (Clark, Elliott, Lange) – 4:09
  8. Comin' Under Fire (Clark, Elliott, Lange, Willis) – 4:20
  9. Action! Not Words (Clark, Elliott, Lange) – 3:52
  10. Billy's Got A Gun (Clark, Elliott, Lange, Savage, Willis) – 5:27

[edit] Personnel

Def Leppard

Additional personnel

Backing vocals were credited to "The Leppardettes (courtesy of themselves)". The Leppardettes were, of course, Def Leppard themselves.

[edit] Production

[edit] Singles

  • "Photograph", February 1983
  • "Rock of Ages", May 1983
  • "Foolin'", August 1983 (US only)
  • "Too Late For Love", October 1983 (UK only)
Def Leppard
Joe Elliott | Vivian Campbell | Phil Collen | Rick Savage | Rick Allen
Steve Clark | Pete Willis | Tony Kenning | Frank Noon
Discography
Studio Albums: On Through The Night | High 'n' Dry | Pyromania | Hysteria | Adrenalize | Retro Active | Slang | Euphoria | X | Yeah!
Compilations and extended plays: Def Leppard EP | First Strike | Vault: Def Leppard Greatest Hits (1980-1995) | Best of Def Leppard | Rock of Ages: The Definitive Collection
Singles: Bringin' on the Heartbreak | Rock of Ages | Animal | Pour Some Sugar on Me | Love Bites | Armageddon It | Rocket | Let's Get Rocked
Concert Tours
Early Tours 1978/79 | On Through The Night World Tour | High 'n' Dry World Tour | Pyromania World Tour | Hysteria World Tour | Seven Day Weekend Tour | Slang Tour | Euphoria World Tour 1999-2001 | X World Tour 2002/2003 | Rock Of Ages Tour 2005 | YEAH! Tour 2006
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Robert John "Mutt" Lange | Terror Twins
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