The album process was marred by several different incidents that caused the lengthy delay between albums. Firstly the band’s successful producer and collaborator, Mutt Lange, pulled out of the album early on, citing exhaustion from a never ending schedule he had been keeping. This meant a change that the band hadn’t been expecting, and they went through several producers in a short space of time – Jim Steinman (of Meat Loaf’s ‘Bat Out of Hell’ fame), Neil Dorfsman (of Dire Straits’ ‘Brothers in Arms’ fame) and Nigel Green (a future co-producer of Iron Maiden albums) were all brought in, and all three were found not to be conducive. All of the initial recording sessions were eventually scrapped.
Secondly, drummer Rick Allen flipped his Corvette on a country road on NYE 1984, and eventually had to have his left arm amputated as a result. This was a massive trauma for Allen and his bandmates, but from the outset he was adamant that he would return to his drumkit and continue with the band, and the band was fully supportive of this. Along with the time it would have taken for his convalescence, it meant coming up with a combination acoustic and electronic kit that he would be able to play to trigger snare and tom beats that he would normally have played with his left arm. All of this took time and tweaking, which slowed up the actual writing process as well. In some ways this was fortunate, as because of the length of time taken to get the album underway, Mutt Lange reappeared on the scene and agreed to produce the album again. Of course, this couldn’t be the end of it, and Lange then was away for a period of time due to his own car accident, and then singer Joe Elliott contracted mumps which put him out of action for another period as well. This might all seem like a normal time period of albums in the modern age, where bands can go 3-5 years between releases. But in the 1980’s, record companies were pushing bands to release albums every 12-18 months in order to get their vial of blood from their contractors. So for a band to go four and a half years between albums was almost unheard of. And the hype for the release of the album was real, and the first single “Animal”, that came out the week before “Hysteria's” release, was pushed on music video shows heavily to promote it. Now it came time to wait for the fans response to what they had been waiting so very long for.
One of the most interesting quotes from the band in regards to how they wrote “Hysteria” came from Mutt Lange, who was quoted as saying that the band wrote every song as though it was going to be a potential hit single. So not just writing songs and riffs and lyrics, but the actual aim for each song to a chart topping single. In the end, seven of the 12 songs on the album WERE released as singles, so I guess they succeeded in their plan. But it does actually explain a lot about the album and the songs it holds, when you listen to them both collectively and on their own. Because there are similar qualities in each of the songs that bind them together to this album and this era of the band, and then if you throw them into a playlist and press random, you can actually here them as individual songs that have those qualities to be released as singles.
The album can be divided up into three sections, in my opinion at least. You have the pop songs, the ones that are specifically designed to be attractive to the radio-listening public, and in the majority the female fans. Because they are the pop ballads, or soft rock songs that are inoffensive to those kinds of fans. And you know what those songs are - “Love Bites”, the full on soft rock ballad, “Pour Some Sugar on Me”, the more rock variant of the genre, and the final song written for the album, the title track “Hysteria” and the closing track “Love and Affection”. All but “Love and Affection” were released as singles for that radio-friendly market. They are evenly spaced throughout the album so that they don’t dominate it but are obvious in their appearance. Then you have the middle ground songs, the ones that stretch that ground between the soft rock tracks to the hard rock tracks. And again, know which ones they are – the opening track “Women”, the follow up “Rocket”, the last track on side one “Armageddon It”, and the side two track “Excitable”. All but “Excitable” were released as singles, no doubt to counteract the soft rock singles to show their older fans that they still had the ability to write the kind of songs they had in the past. And then there is the final group of songs, the ones that for the fans of “High N Dry” and “Pyromania” are probably still their favourite songs from this album – the first single “Animal” that hinted at the album being as rocking as the first three albums, the brilliant “Gods of War” that combined the brilliant atmosphere of the bass and drum beginning into the guitars riffing in and Joe’s vocals combining to create such as great song, “Don’t Shoot Shotgun” that picks up the energy immediately following it, and then “Run Riot”, the fastest, heaviest song on the album that truly proves that def Leppard still had plenty to offer that side of music. Is it a coincidence that these final three songs start off Side 2 of this album, picking everything up and driving you through the middle of the album? I don’t know, but as I said, the track list does have a hot and cool kind of vibe throughout, with high octane thrills followed by cool down vibes, and then back again. Perhaps this is part of the reason that it has held its charm for all of these years.
I guess in some ways I’ve been fortunate in that I was involved in the great Def Leppard love-fest that occurred with the release of this album back in 1987, and was one of the people that pushed my non-heavy metal loving friends into enjoying it too. And I am also the older, slightly more cynical listener of the album today, having experienced what has followed this album in the past 35 years. Time and insight can certainly provide different perspectives, or at least allow those perspectives to change through that passage of time.
From the perspective of the 17 and 18 year old back when this was released, I thought it was just brilliant. It wasn’t as heavy as the other bands I was infatuated with at the time, and it was certainly different from their earlier releases, but hey, they’d had a few dramas in recording the album, and their drummer had lost an arm, so give ‘em a break! Still, even then it was the heav(ier) tracks that grabbed my attention, and the softer ones I tolerated because I loved the album so much. Again, perhaps because they had made that track list so well that it managed to cover up any real qualms that I may have had with a couple of the songs, I eventually owned all three formats of this album – cassette, vinyl and CD, and it was played on rotation for probably a good 12 months before it finally found other material replacing it. It was a gem.
That is the retrospective.
Swing back to the present, and the two dozen or more times I have again listened to it over the last few weeks, coincidently along with their brand new album that I reviewed a few episodes ago, and one from 20 years ago that will have its own episode coming up shortly on this podcast. And there are a few things that still stand out for me now, 35 years later. There is no denying that the album is still catchy, and that a few of the songs still hold their own after all these years. “Rocket”, “Animal”, “Gods of War”, “Run Riot” and “Don’t Shoot Shotgun” are still my favourite songs from the album, which was the case back in the day as well, and given they are what I have classified earlier as the hard rock tracks on the album I guess that is no surprise.
If one was to try and pinpoint when the slide for this band began, perhaps it was the super success they had with the slower and sugary songs that came from this album – “Pour Some Sugar On Me”, “Love Bites”, “Hysteria” and “Love and Affection”. Sure, they are fine in their place, but they certainly don’t rate in the higher bracket on this album for those that enjoy their music hard and heavy. But their success must surely have directed the band down the path that their music has taken in the past 35 years, and in many ways that is a real shame, but that direction can be seen occurring here on “Hysteria”, and if that’s what the band wants... well... you can only admire them for sticking to their guns, so to speak.
Back to Hysteria however. I know I now rate this album slightly lower than I did all those years ago – partly through a change in the style of metal I prefer, and partly through my disappointment in the direction the band has taken since. Would Steve Clark’s head be spinning? I don’t know. "Hysteria” still brings back great memories of the band and the time for me, especially as yet another album from the year of 1987, where every listen brings back great memories of that time of my life. And having seen them play this entire album live prior to covid in Sydney, with my then 11 year old son singing every word beside me... well, you can’t argue with that, can you...
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