High 'n' Dry might be my favorite Def Leppard album, or at least it's in a dead heat with Hysteria. It is the first of three Def Leppard albums produced by the now-legendary producer Mutt Lange. If you think about that, it's pretty crazy. Def Leppard's first album wasn't a huge hit by any means, but Lange –- who had already produced AC/DC's Highway to Hell, Back in Black, and For Those About to Rock We Solute You –- must have seen something special in Def Leppard. Of course, under Lange's tutelage, Def Leppard would go on to become the first artist -- and the only band -- to have two certified diamond (10x platinum) studio albums released in the 1980s (1983's Pyromania, which was certified diamond in 2004, and 1987's Hysteria, which was certified diamond in 1998). You read that correctly. In fact, Michael Jackson and Bruce Springsteen are the only other two artists with two albums released in the '80s that have been certified diamond (and one of Springsteen's was a live album).
But let's get back to High 'n' Dry. Lange was transitioning Def Leppard from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal to what would become '80s hard rock and hair metal. Some bands have a sophomore slump. Some bands do not. Def Leppard most certainly did not. This album has ten gritty hard rock songs. From beginning to end, it has energy and power. Joe Elliott's vocals really begin to shine on this album, and the guitar work of Steve Clark and Pete Willis (who would be kicked out of the band a year later for alcohol abuse, of all things, and replaced by Phil Collen) is phenomenal, and Rick Allen's drumming is right where it should be. (Incidentally, for those of you who are under the belief that Rick Allen always had only one arm, he did not lose his left arm until a car accident on New Years Eve 1984, so he was fully armed until Hysteria.) And, of course, Rick Savage's bass is always in the groove. All in all, High 'n' Dry is a really good hard rock album.
"High 'n' Dry (Saturday Night)" is a perfect exemplar song for the album. It's a gritty rock song that has one foot in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and the other foot in the band's future sound. Clark's fantastic opening riff gets the song going, and then from there, Elliott snarls about getting hammered on a Saturday night. This is basically the ultimate Saturday pre-party/warm-up song. VH1 named it the #33 metal song of all-time, but perhaps the most ridiculous accolade it ever received was being named one of the notorious "Filthy Fifteen" back in 1985 by the censorship-driven PMRC. It made the list because it has lyrics about drinking. They could have also gone with "Me and My Wine," the B-side to Def Leppard's "Bringin' On the Heartbreak," also off of High 'n' Dry -- or pretty much thousands of other rock songs, but for whatever reason, the PRMC went with this one. And I'm sure records sales shot up as a result. Thanks, Tipper!
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