Hysteria

"I gotta know tonight
If you're alone tonight"

I wanted to hear "Hysteria" in hi-def. So I fired up my Wimp app and searched, but didn't find it, other than in its live iteration.

That's right, Def Leppard is at war with Universal.

"Can't stop this feeling
Can't stop this fire"

The album is twenty seven years old, the band's barely had a hit since. They're too old for classic rock and they're too old to die. But if you were there, back before the internet, back before MTV became all pop, you remember the utter joy of listening to this album.

I too lament the passing of the good old days. The at least weekly journey to the record store to finger the new releases, planning what to buy based on what I could afford. Replacing key albums with CDs, and then doing it again with remasters. Being able to comprehend the music scene. Buying the latest release by your favorite because you believed they had something to say, and that they would deliver, when the bands were unique and the producers were secondary.

Then again, here we're talking about mid-period Mutt.

He's not in the R&RHOF, but he's more worthy than most of the recent inductees. Because he could not only twirl the knobs, but play and write. He put his heart and soul into these records, when music was a calling, when it wasn't just a vehicle to become rich.

Oh, don't protest. You're not in that slot. You don't have major label support, you're not on the radio, you don't have eight figures of YouTube views. Because up there the air is rarefied and the game is completely different. Inequality reigns in music as it does in economics. You're either a winner or a loser. Some cross over. But most are kept down. But an exalted few ascend into the stratosphere, and are hated for it, just listen to Taylor Swift, but when you get up there it's all about lifestyle, who you hang with, where you vacation, when it used to be about...

Better drugs. Better sex. Multiple partners. More frequent sex. Remove sex from the equation and almost nobody wanted to be a rock star. Yup, you could be homely, you could barely be able to have a conversation, but if you were responsible for a chart topper the world was your oyster. And there were no cameras. At best your behaviors were a rumor.

And we all truly wanted some of that.

And in the late eighties, fresh-faced Def Leppard was at the peak, they were the apotheosis, the biggest rock band in the world, and they partook of all the warm and moist goodness.

That's one thing we loved about them, they didn't deny it, they were in it for the perks.

And those perks were nothing without the music.

And the music was great.

Sure, it all started with "Photograph." The "Royals" of its day. Something so indelible you couldn't wait to hear it again. Melding metal with the Beach Boys? Who came up with that?

And "Pyromania" was huge, seven times platinum in the U.S., a peak neither Adele nor Ms. Swift can reach today. And sure, the game was different, today we stream, but with so much less music at our fingertips we spun it again and again.

And then came "Hysteria."

Fraught with trouble, going through multiple iterations, at first listeners were nonplussed, there was no obvious hit, no "Photograph."

But then you played it.

And the first cut that stuck out for me was "Animal." And then came "Armageddon It" and "Rocket," but after I knew the album by heart the one I always came back to, the one that became my favorite, was the title track.

The intro is like a walk in the park, with a bounce in your step.

And then Mutt adds accents in each speaker.

And then Joe starts to sing:

"Out of touch, out of reach, yeah
You could try to get closer to me"

And there you have it. The rock star giving the green light.

"I'm in luck, I'm in deep, yeah
Hypnotized, I'm shakin' to my knees"

Where his pants were.

"Hysteria" is like sex. Intercourse doesn't work unless you build up a rhythm, get in the groove and sustain. And that's what so special about this track, it locks on and keeps going. More like a ship than a freight train, with no system sticking out, but all firing together, sliding together, through the water, up the canal.

"Oh, I get hysterical, hysteria
Oh can you feel it, do you believe it?"

That's what it was, hysteria, and we were all hysterical, music ruled the world, you just had to tune in to Live Aid for proof, sound ruled.

"When you get that feelin', better start believin'
'Cos it's a miracle, oh say you will"

Belief. We believed that music could change our lives, if not the world. That if we just cranked the tunes up loud enough not only would we squeeze out the rest of the universe, our lives would work while we bonded with the sound. That's why we wanted to meet our heroes, that's why we wanted to screw them, because they were the makers of the magical mysteria, the elixir that thrilled us and made our lives complete.

So, say you will. Buy my record. Not because I told you but because it's irresistible, because you heard one track and needed to hear more, because without it not only would you not be a member of the group, you'd be incomplete.

"Hysteria when you're near"

That's what we're all searching for. Used to be you had to go outside to get it, preferably to the gig. But now technology has put the world at our fingertips, music is not the only connection, everybody with a device is a star, of their own movie even if they're not internationally famous, and the people who make music are trying to compete. But that's a fool's game. Anybody will tell you you get attention by following your dream, by being yourself, by being unique. It was what drew us to not only the Beatles, but Bowie, never mind Def Leppard.

"Out of me, into you, yeah"

Out of their mouths, into your...

"Open wide, that's right, dream me off my feet
Oh, believe in me"

That's why Justin Bieber was so successful, people believed in him. Unfortunately, he believed in himself. And then the public turned against him. The truth is he was just a vessel. A channel to our hopes and dreams.

But Justin was more about image than music, one step away from the Kardashians.

But Def Leppard was different.

An average band without Mutt Lange, they were the best in the world with him.

So I gotta know...

Are you alone tonight?

You know loneliness, don't you? The incredible urge to connect? To feel part of humanity, to hopefully be listened to and be rubbed up against.

Can't stop that feeling of loneliness easily. It builds into a fire.

And said combustion is the opposite of connection. That's life, it's all about the yin and the yang. You can't be happy without being sad, you can't be fulfilled without desire.

And in the interim, you put on a record. To get you through.

And if you're lucky, and we all get there, just wait, you'll get older, you'll get wiser, you'll learn how to play the game, you'll bump into someone who gets it, who understands you, who feels the power too. And just like a rock star, you'll strip down to your skivvies, you'll put your hands on them and then...

"You get that feelin', better start believin'"

Don't stop. The world's a crazy confusing place. But there are some constants. These tracks may be decades old, but that does not mean they've lost their power.

"'Cos it's a miracle, oh say you will"

Say yes! Not to Bono and the money machine, but to that exquisite feeling of having your favorite track playing not only through your earbuds, but your mind.

Because at the end of the day that's what it comes down to, the hysteria of listening.

You remember listening, don't you?

Close your eyes. Picture it in your mind. It's built into your DNA. Let the blood rush. Feel your power. Come together. In and out.

"Ooh babe
Hysteria when you're near
COME ON!"


--
Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/
--
http://www.twitter.com/lefsetz
--
If you would like to subscribe to the LefsetzLetter,
http://www.lefsetz.com/lists/?p=subscribe&id=1

If you do not want to receive any more LefsetzLetters, http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=unsubscribe&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25

To change your email address http://lefsetz.com/lists/?p=preferences&uid=0eecea7b60b461717065cbde887c8e25




-- powered by phpList, www.phplist.com --