Welcome to the semi-regular feature where I reveal stunningly weird search terms that led people to mikeladano.com For the last installment, Heavy Porn Metal edition, click here!
WTF SEARCH TERMS XX: Questions & Comments edition
1.is john norum bald and wears awig(ask Jon Wilmenius, he knows everything about bald Swedish rockers!)
2.did pete woodroffe play in led zepplin (I sincerely hope nobody over the age of 15 needs to ask who was in Led Zeppelin.)
3.chad kroeger douche (yes.)
4.dave donato sucks(meh.)
5.styx goofy keyboard player (Lawrence Gowan is goofy?)
6.what would a record store smell like (as I said in Part 57, farts.)
DEF LEPPARD – Songs From the Sparkle Lounge (2008 Deluxe edition, Japanese version)
Could it be? The band who I once wrote off with the Euphoria album, followed by the dismalX, actually came back with something approximating a rock album! And not a bad rock album at that!
The band say that doing the covers album Yeah! revitalized them. Maybe. Personally I thought the covers album sucked, and that the dozen or so bonus tracks available elsewhere were way better than the actual album they released. Whatever. That was then and this is now, inside the Sparkle Lounge.
Terrible title, although I liked the single-disc cover art quite a lot. We know Def Leppard are more of a glam band than a metal band. The problem is, they were such a great metal band! High ‘n’ Dry is a masterpiece of riff-rock. Anyway, if you can forget High ‘n’ Dry, On Through The Night, or even Pyromania, you can get into Sparkle Lounge for what it is: A strong ballad-free return for one of the most beloved rock acts of the last two decades. Even Joe Elliot decided to show up this time, and sing to the best of his ability.
Very few weak tracks, lots of strong ones. “Go”, “Love”, “Hallucinate”, “Tomorrow”, “Only The Good Die Young”, “Bad Actress”…there is some serious fire happening here on these tracks! But the band saved the best new song for last. “Gotta Let It Go” has a riff and melody that fit right in with Def Leppard’s earlier sound. Only the occassional drum programs betray the thunder.
One song that I would call a weak track is the single “C’Mon C’Mon”. In my review from the 12″ vinyl single, I called it a “crap song”. It’s a shameless T-Rex rip-off, and also a Def Leppard rip off. Next!
Japanese bonus tracks are disappointing in the sense that they are not different songs, just different mixes. “Nine Lives” appears without Tim McGraw (this is my preferred version as nu-country is like kryptonite to me and would probably kill me if I was overexposed). “Love” appears as a powerful piano version, in some ways superior to the original, but turning it into a ballad dilutes the purpose of this album.
I have no comments as to the SHM-CD. It sounded the same to me. I guess these things are supposed to last longer? The DVD includes the music video for “Nine Lives” (yuck), an album commentary and a “behind the scenes” feature. For me, the all-region NTSC DVD contents and the lacklustre packaging don’t really justify the existence of a “deluxe edition”.
So, whatever went right, this is the best Def Leppard album since the criminally underrated Slang in 1996. It could be the heaviest album since Pyromania. It’s far from perfect, but the good news is you can play it in the car with the windows down and nobody will laugh at you.
Of all the Classic Albums DVDs that I own, this is one of the most frequently played. And I own a lot. In case you didn’t know, Classic Albums is a fantastic series of discs. Go back into the recording studio where the album was made, with the producer or engineer who recorded it, and the band themselves. You get to hear the original multitrack tapes deconstructed, and we get to hear the band talking about the genesis of the songs and what happened in the studio. Best of all, we get to see the band listening and discovering parts that even they forgot.
Hysteria is such a rich, textured, thick album with a long story so this DVD is an obvious slam dunk. The only thing it lacks is Mutt Lange’s knowledge (a notorious recluse). Otherwise, the band go back to the beginning with the early demos. “Animal” was sparse but remarkably recognizable while still in demo form, down to the false ending. Something like “Rocket” is deconstructed so you can hear the drum orchestra that was laid down, while Joe Elliott talks about how it was inspired. The backing vocals of “Gods of War” are laid out bare, virtually every single word sung and recorded separately! That’s the kind of album this is.
Along with that, Joe, Phil and Sav also perform bits live in the studio. This helps to illustrate the individual parts further. It is revealed to “Love Bites” was brought to the band by Lange as a country song; you can hear the roots on this DVD. Rick Allen is there to discuss his accident, an obviously emotional moment. Steve Clark is discussed too, and Vivian Campbell is on hand to talk about the numerous guitar parts that he inherited and has to play live.
My favourite feature of this DVD is actually in the bonus material. It’s the chapter that covers the first shows that Leppard played after Rick Allen’s accident. Originally, Jeff Rich from Status Quo was tapped to play a second drum kit alongside Allen on stage, just in case Allen got tired, slipped out of time, or couldn’t finish the show. There were so many variables that nobody knew what would happen during what really amounted to Allen’s comeback shows. Well, for one show in the middle of nowhere, Jeff Rich was late. If he had turned up on time, maybe Rick Allen would never have found out that he could play a full Def Leppard show on his own. Allen did the show with no help on the drums, and he nailed it. Rich told Allen that he didn’t need any more help, and that was it! Jeff Rich is there to talk about that day, which was a nice touch.
Of the whole Classic Albums series, this one is certainly my favourite.
Now that Pyromania, Hysteria, Slang and Adrenalize have been remastered and reissued with bonus tracks, it is High ‘N’ Dry that needs to be given the deluxe treatment next. The fact that Adrenalize has been given an elaborate deluxe edition, but High ‘n’ Dry hasn’t even been remastered yet, is injustice. Any time I listen to High ‘n’ Dry, I leave with one conclusion: This is Def Leppard’s best album. And not only that, it’s just one of the best by any hard rock band, period.
For High ‘n’ Dry, my g-to version is my vinyl US pressing. The CD is still in my collection, because it includes two songs not on the original LP: 1984 Remixes of “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak” and “Me and My Wine” (the versions that were used for the music videos). So that’s cool, good enough reason to own the CD, but the LP has one more gimmick that you can’t get on CD. The final track on side two, “No No No”, ends in an infinite loop of Joe screaming “NO!” I love vinyl gimmicks. I also love that the vinyl has inner sleeve photos that you don’t get on CD (even if one appears to be Rick Allen’s genitals covered in whipped cream).
This is one solid LP. Def Leppard teamed up with Mutt Lange for the first time and his influence is palpable. Def Leppard had been heavy before, but now they were channeling a serious AC/DC vibe. Mutt had just produced a little album called Back In Black. Surely it was no coincidence that High ‘n’ Dry has similar riffy and sonic qualities? Def Leppard’s edge had yet to be blunted in their search for hits. Instead, it had been sharpened. On Through the Night could have been better, more tightly focused. High ‘n’ Dry is as focused as a laser beam. Aside from one guitar-driven power ballad (“Bringin’ On the Heartbreak”) every song seeks only to scorch.
Although there is not one single throw-away or filler track on High ‘n’ Dry, everybody has their favourites, Mine: The melancholy vibe of “Lady Strange” and “Mirror, Mirror (Look Into My Eyes)”. The pedal-to-the-metal hard rock of “High ‘N’ Dry (Saturday Night)”, “Another Hit And Run”, and the instrumental “Switch 625”. And my personal favourite song, “You Got Me Runnin'”. I don’t know why that is so, but that’s the one right there that puts fuel in my tank.
Unlike the band that Def Leppard has become today, this album was all about the hot riffs and the Joe Elliott screams! Hard to believe it’s the same band. But, of course, today they have two different guitar players, so the meat of this band is also not the same. Having said that, the band acquitted themselves nicely on the recent live album Viva! Hysteria.
Every Leppard fan should own High ‘n’ Dry. Everybody who’s ever liked a Def Leppard song needs to check out High ‘n’ Dry. Actually, anyone who breathes should check this album out at least once. It’s on my desert island list for sure.
This is the second time I’ve reviewed a version of Def Leppard’s ill-fated Slang CD. As Joe Elliot says in the booklet inside, the band were considering calling it Commercial Suicide, such were the changes in sound. The mid 90’s was not a kind time for rock bands of Def Leppard’s ilk. Everybody had to adjust, and Leppard chose to do so by making their sound darker and more organic. That was fine with me. I’ve already reviewed Slang; a 4/5 star album in my books. For your convenience I’ll talk about the original Slang album at the end of this review. For now I just want to talk about the “Deluxe Edition” and the bonus tracks.
Like many Def Leppard albums before it, Slang produced a number of excellent B-sides. Some are on this CD. Some are only available on the iTunes version. I have all the singles anyway, but iTunes also have two exclusive unreleased tracks of their own. (You can buy these songs separately; you don’t have to buy all of Slang again to get them.) These two songs are early demos of “All I Want Is Everything” and “Move With Me Slowly,” the latter with Phil singing. While “Move With Me Slowly” is similar to its incarnation on CD 1, “All I Want Is Everything” is drastically different. It’s a much more standard “power ballad” at this stage, little resembling the song it would become. This take is not to be confused with the “first draft” of “All I Want Is Everything” on CD 2, which sounds a lot more like the album counterpart.
That’s one issue with the Deluxe Edition of Slang. There is a lot of repeat. Songs you will hear three times in one version or another include “All I Want Is Everything”, “Gift Of Flesh” (previously known as “Black Train”) and “Deliver Me” (previously known as “Anger”). Especially when you include all the different bonus tracks, the Deluxe can be a hard slog to listen to in entirety. I had to split it up over two nights.
But it is worth it. Although some demos barely differ from the album counterparts, some have different lead vocals by Phil or Vivian. There are some unreleased songs that I have never heard before. “All On Your Touch” is a nice ballad that was only finished in 2012. Then there’s Vivian’s funky-Zeppelin song “Move On Up” which is quite adventurous. Some of the demo versions, such as “Raise Your Love” (an early version of “Slang”) differ quite a bit from the album versions. Although listening to the Slang Deluxe is a long journey, it’s also a very interesting one in terms of hearing how Def Leppard wrote and recorded it.
Almost all the B-sides for Slang were included on one version or another, except for live B-sides. Songs included are the old-school sounding “When Saturday Comes,” and the instrumental “Jimmy’s Theme” which are only on the iTunes version. (See below for complete track listing including all iTunes bonus tracks.) “Move With Me Slowly” is a bluesy, ballady number that could have been a single in its own right. Ditto “Can’t Keep Away From the Flame” which could have been an acoustic single. “Burn Out” and “Worlds Collide” are also B-sides, but these two were not released until 1999 on the singles for “Goodbye”. Both are heavy, heavy rockers.
Let’s talk about the packaging. I’ve heard a lot of surprise and complaints when this CD arrived inside a big fat “double” CD case. That is kind of a surprise; you don’t even see these with 3 CD sets anymore let alone a double. The booklet inside is nothing to write home about. There are some words from Joe and lots of live photos, but nothing in the way of specific liner notes. If you’re wondering where these songs were recorded or released before, info inside is vague. There are track listings for all the Slang singles, but that only covers part of it.
As our friend the Heavy Metal OverloRd says, this probably doesn’t deserve the title “Deluxe Edition”. In fact, I asked HMO if he’d like to weigh in on this, since he has some strong opinions about it. For fun I asked him to comment in Scottish slang:
Def Leppard ur a bunch a fannybaws by the way. They hink the new edition of Slang is a “deluxe edition”. But it isnae. This widnae even huv been deluxe in 1995, never mind noo.
When it turned up I wis pure gutted. I thought the booklet had better be snazzy but it wisnae either. Just a wee hing where Joe tried tae mind stuff fae back in the day. Nae liner notes. Nae lyrics. Nuhin. Just some shite photies. My old copy had two discs, a slimmer case and lyrics. And some photies an aw! Gid wans. One of them oan a bus like they were aw goin doon the toon or somethin. How wis that no deluxe but this is deluxe? If they’d called it a “2CD Edition” that wid huv been awrite but they didnae. This is “deluxe”… cept it isnae. I don’t have a Scooby whit they’re playin at. Eejits.
Well said. Lastly, I want to leave you with a look at the actual original album, Slang. Here’s all the pertinent text from my previous review in case you’re too lazy to click the link. It’s a great album and I’m glad it’s getting a second look today.
DEF LEPPARD – Slang(1996)
“Truth?” is a thunderous opener, laden with modern sounding samples and rhythms. Even better is the hypnotic “Turn to Dust”. Although it moves slow, it has loads of exotic atmosphere and instrumentation. Neither of these songs sound like old Def Leppard. There are major changes, including acoustic drums, darker tones and a noticeable lack of shout-along gang vocals.
It’s still the same spirit though. There’s an obsessive attention to detail, layers of backing vocals, and tasty choruses. It’s just 1996’s version of those things. Listen to the title track, “Slang”, for example. It doesn’t sound like anything Leppard have done before, but you can see it as “Sugar” a decade later if you like.
“All I Want Is Everything” is another personal favourite, a great ballad but again unlike what Def Leppard has done before. It has a certain power to it, without being loud and obnoxious. It has a plaintive quality and a fantastic chorus.
Next is “Work It Out” , a contribution from “new kid” Vivian Campbell. It is absolutely loaded with cool guitar squeeks and squonks, no wankery, but a new kind of guitar heroism. These little adornments are there in the mix waiting to be discovered, under suitably thick drones of rhythm guitars. I love this song, which really proved to me that Leppard had successfully adapted their sound to the mid-90’s. A shame it didn’t sell.
Phil’s “Breathe A Sigh” is one that threw a lot of people for a loop. Either Spin or Rolling Stone (I forget which) compared it to TLC. Indeed, loops make up a large part of the percussion parts, and the band seem to be trying R&B on for size. What keeps it Def Leppard are the layers of droney guitars in the back of the mix, and the immaculate vocal choirs.
Interestingly, Slang was stacked with four singles in a row, “Breathe A Sigh” being the final single. This does not mean the album is out of ammunition. “Deliver Me” brings back the heavy. Leppard In Chains? Def Temple Pilots? Not one of the best songs, “Deliver Me” at least balances some of the softer material. Better is “Gift of Flesh”, a driving riff rocker with some slammin’ drums from Rick Allen. Phil wrote this one. I bet it would have been smokin’ live if they ever played it.
This fades directly into a lush but quiet ballad called “Blood Runs Cold”. I could imagine some old-timey fans running away in fear that their nuts would shrivel, at the sound of this one. I love this song, but I’m not sure it needed to be followed by yet another ballad, “Where Does Love Go When It Dies”. Although not a single, “Where Does Love Go When It Dies” was recently dusted off by the band as part of their recent acoustic medley. It is more upbeat than the previous song, and has a folky campfire quality. It also gives the album a sense of flow: an upturn before the dramatic closer.
“Pearl of Euphoria” is that dramatic closer, which returns the listener to the dark, powerful tones that we began with. Leppard don’t often reflect a strong Led Zeppelin influence, but you can definitely hear some “Kashmir” here. Not only is Rick Allen laying down a Bonham-esque groove, but some of the guitar bits flying in and out of the speakers remind me of the sound collage section in “Whole Lotta Love”. It’s a great closing song.
4/5 stars
iTunes bonus tracks:
1. “Truth?” (Demo Version) – Previously on “Work It Out” CD single. 2. “Work It Out” (Demo Version) – B-Side from “Work It Out” with Viv singing and completely different from the other versions on the Deluxe. Viv referred to it as his “Crowded House” version. 3. “All I Want is Everything” (Demo Version) – Exclusive. 4. “Move With Me Slowly” (1st Draft) – Exclusive. 5. “When Saturday Comes” From the film When Saturday Comes and “All I Want Is Everything” single. 6. “Jimmy’s Theme” From the film When Saturday Comes and “All I Want Is Everything” single. 7. “Cause We Ended as Lovers” (Solo track by Phil) From the Jeff Beck tribute album Jeffology: A Guitar Chronicle and “All I Want Is Everything” single. 8. “Led Boots” (Solo track by Viv) From the Jeff Beck tribute album Jeffology: A Guitar Chronicle and “All I Want Is Everything” single.
This one was a gamble. It was not cheap to ship. All I had to go by was the non-descript B-side “Rocket” (Live). No indication of where or when. It could have been the live version previously released on the “Rocket” single back in ’88. Or more likely, it could be the live version later released on the Mirrorball CD. On that disc, recordings are noted as “Recorded at various points around the world, in the not so distant past.” Thanks for the specifics guys.
I don’t know what prompted me to hit the “buy” button given the uncertain B-side and price. Maybe it was instinct. Maybe it was that Mrs. LeBrain was out of the house. Either way, in a couple weeks I had this rare 12″ picture single in my hot little hands.
Unfortunately it’s not much to look at: a Def Leppard logo on a black background. On the other side…the track listing on a black background with a grey clover leaf! Somebody at Mercury Records had no concept of what a picture disc can be!
Anyway, music trumps packaging. I don’t care about the A-side. It’s a crap song, let’s be honest. It’s Def Leppard trying be T-Rex for the umpteenth time. I care about the B-side. Upon first listen it was immediately obvious that this is an otherwise unreleased live version of “Rocket” and a great one at that. Unlike the mere 4:29 version on Mirrorball, this one is the fully extended version that Def Leppard sometimes play.
This extended performance of “Rocket” features an excellent Vivian/Phil guitar duel. At one point, Viv is positively in “Holy Diver” territory. It’s brief but it’s there and it’s unmistakable. This series of solos demonstrates one of the things I love about the guitar players in Def Leppard: they can shred when they want to! Then, after a brief segue, Joe Elliot breaks out “Whole Lotta Love” just as he did on the ’88 live version.
For the B-side: 5/5 stars
For the A-side and picture disc: 2/5 stars
Average: 3.5/5 stars
Welcome back to the WEEK OF SINGLES 2! Each day this week we’re look at rare singles. Today, we’re looking at lots and lots of them! WARNING: Image heavy!
RECORD STORE TALES Part 269: CD Singles (of every variety)
Featuring T-Rev
I’m going to take the blame for this. It was I who got T-Rev into collecting singles in 1994-1995. Oasis kicked his addiction into gear big time, but it was I that sparked his interest in singles. According to Trevor today, “I suppose it was Oasis that started that ball rolling…then Blur taught me the tricks…Metallica helped mix the sauce…and then I was almost a pro, like you!”
T-Rev was already familiar with the dominance of singles in Europe. “They’re so much cheaper in England!” he told me then. “They have entire walls of them, like we do here with albums, but with them it’s singles.”
He had seen me go crazy for some of the singles that came into the store in the early days. He saw me plunk down my hard earned pay for CD singles by Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, and many more. He didn’t get why I was spending so much money on so few songs. CD singles are much rarer here and commanded (new) prices similar to full albums.
“Why do you buy singles?” he asked me one day. “I don’t get it. The song is on the album, they come in those little cases, and they’re expensive.”
“I buy them for the unreleased tracks,” I explained. “I don’t buy a single if it has nothing unreleased on it, but I want all the different songs.”
“But the unreleased songs aren’t usually any good, are they?” he continued.
“Sometimes,” I answered. “But check out this Bon Jovi single here.” I handed him a CD single that I had bought recently at an HMV store. “This one has ‘Edge of a Broken Heart’. It’s a song that was recorded for Slippery When Wet, but it didn’t make the album. Sometimes you find these amazing songs that are totally worth having. Sometimes you only get live songs or remixes, but I still collect those because I try to get everything.”
When Oasis came out with (What’s The Story) Morning Glory, there were ample new singles out there to collect with bonus tracks galore. T-Rev got me into the band very quickly. Oasis were known not just for their mouths, but also for their B-sides. Noel Gallagher was passionate about giving fans good songs as B-sides; he wanted them to be as good as the album. Oasis had a lot of singles from the prior album Definitely Maybe as well, and one non-album single called “Whatever” that was absolutely marvelous.
Once T-Rev got onto the singles train, he had his own rules about what he wanted to collect and what he didn’t. Packaging was important to him. He hated CD singles that came inside little cardboard sleeves. He couldn’t see them once filed on his CD tower, because there was no thickness to it; no spine to read from the side. It didn’t matter what was on those CD singles; if the packaging sucked T-Rev was not usually interested. This applied when we both started collecting old Metallica singles. I found an Australian copy of “Sad But True” with the rare B-side “So What” at Encore Records for $20. This came in a cardboard sleeve; T-Rev didn’t want it. (He also already had a live version via the Live Shit: Bing & Purge box set.) Oasis started releasing their old singles in complete box sets, but T-Rev was only really interested in collecting the UK pressings. There were a lot of variables to consider. If you can’t or don’t want to buy everything, you have to set rules and pick and choose.
Once we understood each others’ needs, we were able to keep an eye open for each other. T-Rev knew if it said Bon Jovi, Faith No More, or Def Leppard on it, that I’d be interested. If it was a Brit-pop band like Blur or Supergrass, he’d want it (as long as it didn’t come in a paper sleeve). Foo Fighters too, or virtually anything with Dave Grohl. Our collections grew prodigiously with rare tracks, EPs we never heard of before, and loads of Metallica. I believe at one point, T-Rev and I had nearly identical Metallica collections, duplicated between us. More than half was singles and rarities. We used to joke that there were probably only two copies of some of these things in town, and we had both of them in one apartment.
T-Rev sold a lot of his singles but not all. He still has some treasures. Highlights include a Steve Earle tin can “Copperhead Road” promo (that he got from local legend Al “the King”). There’s also Megadeth’s uber-rare “Sweating Bullets” featuring the in-demand “Gristle Mix” by Trent Reznor Then there was a Blur thing, some kind of “special collectors edition” signed by Damon Albarn, in a Japanese pressing. Trevor’s seen one sell for upwards of $100. Then there was another band called “A”. As Trevor said, “Remember these guys? It was like ‘Britpop punk’. I liked it anyway.”
Also still residing in his collection: a Japanese print of Oasis’ “Some Might Say” that has two bonus tracks over the domestic version, and two versions of Foo Fighters’ “Big Me”. One is from Canada, the other from the UK. Both have different tracks. I’d forgotten about these until I saw the pictures.
Those were the glory days of collecting. I miss collecting CD singles. I preferred hunting the stores downtown to get all the extra tracks to the way it is now. Now, often you need to buy an iTunes download and several “deluxe editions” to get all the songs. CD singles were just better, period. Even just for the cover art of those Oasis singles, singles were much more fun to collect. I miss those days!
Music, movies, and books! I’ve been very occupied these last couple days.
I get the Guiness’ Book of World Records, and the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not books every year. I imagine my surprise when I discovered a friend of ours in both books! Apparently, Sweet Pepper Klopek holds the world record for “Most Baking Sheets Buckled Over the Head for One Minute.” This is a guy who has been on my living room couch! Lemon Kurri says:
“He’s in there a couple times. Most mouse traps sprung on a tongue in 1 min too.”
It’s time for THE TENTH installment of WTF! Like the others, this is a collection of strange/humorous/whatever search terms that somehow led people to mikeladano.com. If you missed the last one, “Top ten edition”, click here!
who was the hunchback on the vban halen pretty woman video (It was David Lee Roth himself)
joe elliott kissing phil collen (No.)
iron meiden son so seven son yu tube
mike patton quiet riot(I have no idea what these two things have in common.)
TESLA – “Call It What You Want” (1991 Geffen UK single)
Yesterday, I reviewed Tesla’s damn fine third album, Psychotic Supper. As part of that, I wanted to talk about this single, the album’s second. It’s an excellent companion to the album proper.
“Call It What You Want” isn’t a bad song. It has a great chorus even if I find the verses sub-par. Where Tesla have always excelled is in their rootsy but eloquent musicianship. Not only are there Lizzy-esque dual guitar harmonies, but there are other things that border on country style.
I also dig the lyric, dated although they may be:
“Heavy metal, hard-core, punk, pop, or thrash, You can call it anything, it don’t matter to me, Call it what you want, It’s all music to me.”
I think Tesla more than most hard rock bands around in 1991 were about breaking down boundaries between genres, and I’m sure this lyric was sincere to them. I know guitarist Tommy Skeoch had a thrash side project going at the time called Thrash Tandoori.
I hate when bands use a regular album track as a B-side! Nonetheless, “Freedom Slaves” is one of the best (if not the best) song from Psychotic Supper. This is the hard rock/heavy metal side of Tesla shining through. A Leppardy riff accompanies a song that boasts an anthemic chorus and dark verses.
The next two tracks are both previously unreleased, and both are covers. “Children’s Heritage” is what I’d call an obscure cover! I’ve never heard this, nor the band that wrote it, Bloodrock a 70’s band from Texas. It’s a good song, straight ahead riff based hard rock. It’s also self produced by Tesla, and is a lot looser than the album material.
More familiar is the old blues classic “Cotton Fields”, rocked up and slowed down from its CCR incarnation. It bares almost no resemblance to the classic Leadbelly version, but it does rock. Dirty slide guitars and wah-wah solos render this version almost as if Zeppelin were covering it. That’s the overall vibe anyway, and few hard rock artists were sounding this raw and authentic in 1991!
In a rare (I assure you) lapse of memory, I’ve forgotten where I got this CD. I think Trevor got it in used, at his store, and sent it to me. This would make sense, since one of his customers, Gord Taylor, used to sell him metal CD singles that he bought in Europe. So that piece fits the puzzle. Either way, whoever originally bought it paid £4.50 at HMV.
Tesla singles are rare in these parts, but thankfully both of these B-sides are now available on the compilation Tesla Gold.
My favourite feature of this DVD is actually in the bonus material. It’s the chapter that covers the first shows that Leppard played after Rick Allen’s accident. Originally, Jeff Rich from Status Quo was tapped to play a second drum kit alongside Allen on stage, just in case Allen got tired, slipped out of time, or couldn’t finish the show. There were so many variables that nobody knew what would happen during what really amounted to Allen’s comeback shows. Well, for one show in the middle of nowhere, Jeff Rich was late. If he had turned up on time, maybe Rick Allen would never have found out that he could play a full Def Leppard show on his own. Allen did the show with no help on the drums, and he nailed it. Rich told Allen that he didn’t need any more help, and that was it! Jeff Rich is there to talk about that day, which was a nice touch.
T-Rev sold a lot of his singles but not all. He still has some treasures. Highlights include a Steve Earle tin can “Copperhead Road” promo (that he got from local legend Al “the King”). There’s also Megadeth’s uber-rare “Sweating Bullets” featuring the in-demand “Gristle Mix” by Trent Reznor Then there was a Blur thing, some kind of “special collectors edition” signed by Damon Albarn, in a Japanese pressing. Trevor’s seen one sell for upwards of $100. Then there was another band called “A”. As Trevor said, “Remember these guys? It was like ‘Britpop punk’. I liked it anyway.”
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