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Retro Review: Def Leppard - High n Dry

Def Leppard
High n Dry
My Score: 8 out of 10

I've been catching a bunch of flack from some of my friends for not posting reviews of CDs that would be considered part of my "roots" (aka stuff I grew up listening to), so I'm going to start another category called Retro Review, and periodically review the CDs that I grew up listening to.

There are 3 bands that I consider the cornerstones of my early listening years, Kiss, Queen, and Def Leppard, and I could have picked any one of the 3 for the first Retro Review, but this one CD has influenced me the most over the years.  By far the hardest CD Def Leppard has ever released, and it was heavily influenced by the burgeoning New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) scene that was going on in England at the time.  A friend of mine in Junior High (I think it was 7th grade) turned me onto Def Leppard's first album, "On Thru The Night", and I've been a Def Lep fan ever since.  I think I got the first album within about a month of its release in the US, and I bought High n Dry as soon as it came out in 1981.  This album totally blew me away, and lead me down both the metal trail, and the catchy rock riffs that became prevalent in the mid to late 80's.  Side A is know "the" side, an almost perfect side from start to finish, but I like the 2nd side as much as the first.  The only song that hasn't faired the test of time well is the last original song "No, No, No".  If you like the 80's bands that were influenced by the NWOBHM scene (Metallica, Megadeth) or the simple riff masters like AC/DC, and you do not have this CD, I'd highly recommend picking this one up.  Don't expect the gang chorus stuff like on Pyromania or Hysteria, this one is much harder, and a bit rawer.

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Published Sunday, February 29, 2004 11:00 AM by donxml
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Chris Sells said:

I never was a big Kiss fan (although Matt Pietrek is), but I *love* Queen and Def Leppard!
February 29, 2004 9:24 PM

Toby Henderson said:

KISS I can handle. Queen is cool. But Def Leppard, uugghh dude what happened, this is unforgivable I'm distraught :-P
March 1, 2004 5:39 AM

DonXML Demsak said:

Chris - I can understand why you were never a big Kiss fan. You are a couple years younger than me, and were too young for the craziness that surrounded the 1978 era Kiss.

Toby - I can understand why you aren't a big Def Lep fan. They have never gotten the respect they deserve from their fellow countrymen. Most English seem to consider them and American band, even though they are from England. What does surprise me is that you were not a fan of this album, but I'd guess that you were not into the NWOBHM thing.

March 1, 2004 9:13 AM

Toby Henderson said:

Dom I do know, me and def lep just never got on, the hole NWOBHM (Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Motörhead, Saxon, Venom, Incubus etc.) scene was my first steps into the world of Metal from been brought up on Pink Floyd and 70's rock by my parentage. My Power Metal days where quickly over taken by Speed/Thrash metal. Maybe it was to much headbanging, moshing or stagediving, to me Def Lep where always Power Rock not Power Metal not enought ggggrrrrr. You are right, the English did treat them as American and not really part of the whole NWOBHM thing.
March 1, 2004 9:45 AM

Steve said:

HEY!

YES I FUCKIN LOVE HIGH N DRY! *BOWS TO DEF LEPPARD*
June 26, 2004 10:02 PM

ryan said:

High and Dry doesn't get nearly the credit it deserves. It is the perfect mix of early '80s British heavy metal and the then embryonic LA hair band scene. The songwriting is brilliant, and the chemistry between Steve Clarke and Pete Willis is phenominal. Joe Elliot's raspy voice grinds over sleazy riffs, spewing sordid tales of sex, drugs, and booze that would make Gene Simmons nostalgic for his youth. A good number of these tunes received regular radio rotation, but there are also many hidden gems among the "album tracks." This release is a glimpse into what Def Leppard could have been, had they not wasted their careers with drug overdoses, alcoholism, and horrible car accidents. It's material just begging to be remastered! Every song is catchy, and the guitars and vocal melodies still manage to be phenominally impressive. The rhythm section isn't much to write home about, but I could say the same for some of the greatest rock bands ever. The bottom line is that when Def Lep pressed this to wax, they seemed ready to assume control of rock's direction for the next ten years. It's a shame that reality and the fast livin' of the rock n' roll world got in the way of those ambitions. They certainly had the talent to pull it off. Sadly, echoes of this futility would later be heard in Guns N' Roses.
August 11, 2004 2:11 AM

尖锐湿疣 said:

Pretty cool! Thank you!
December 30, 2004 8:23 AM

Zetor said:

I bought the vinyl couple of days ago and just now got into listening it... blows me away, had to start googling for some info and ended here. I previously have leppard's first album and the Hysteria. I like the first one very much and I absolutely hate the Hysteria. I just thought to buy this one to see whats in between. At least the A-side of this rocks so hard that now that I'm listening this for, I guess, 4th time in a row I don't know when I'm ready to turn the record and try the B-side...
March 18, 2005 6:16 PM

Blistering Metal said:

Phenomenal album. This album rocks hard!!

Ryan, you hit the nail right on the head and drove it through the wall when comparing Def Leppard and Guns N Roses. Both these bands could have been larger than life. Maybe even as big as KISS was in 1978. Sadly alcoholism, drugs, car accidents, etc somewhat derailed Def Leppard's career. In addition to that Def Leppard and Bon Jovi are with the same record label (Island Records). Island continued to support Bon Jovi once the mid to late 1990's arrived. They did not do the same for Def Leppard. Axl Rose is the one who kept Guns N Roses from becoming larger than life. I do like Pyromania and Hysteria as well.

The new Def Leppard CD "Rock of Ages- The difinitive collection" features songs from the High N Dry album such as Hit and Run, Mirror Mirror (Look Into My Eyes), The Instrumental "Switch 625", Let It Go, Bringin' On The Heartbreak, Saturday Night (High N Dry),One song that doesn't appear on the Rock Of Ages colelction is "Lady Strange" Great Song, High N Dry is also a great album!! Man it felt good to hear those songs again. It's also nice to see that Def Leppard is playing alot of the High N Dry album early in their live set.
December 10, 2005 5:58 PM

SARAH BETH said:

The Leps are my boys. I love 'em, no matter what they put out. High 'N' Dry, however, is my number one, absolute favorite. They rock out with their cocks out, and that is what I love most about my Leppards. They are the quintessential rock band of the late 70s, the 80s, the 90s and the 00s for me. Whether it's the hard-rocking hits of HND, or the melodic new Lep sound of Euphoria, or the BSB-produced tunes on X, I love them. In 2003 I told this radio station dj dude to play HND before they were getting ready to go on in Indy. He was all, "I think I'll play the album that sold 20 mil. copies." I was cool with that, of course, but I let him know that HND was the absolute best album they ever put out, which he obviously disagreed with. Funny thing was, the first 5 songs of that concert was the A side to HND. Ironic, eh, tell me I don't know my boys. High 'N' Dry made me who I am. Mirror, Mirror, Switch 625, Me and My Wine, Let It Go, Lady Strange, are you kidding me? Lady Strange, there is no stranger lady, yeah. Dig that song. Anywho, the Leps are the "Wild Stallions" of the new century. I've calling their "comeback" since '96, but it will happen. Oh, yes, it will happen. "Rock, rock, 'till you drop, rock , rock, never stop!"
January 21, 2006 2:42 AM

Armand said:

def leppard was a part of the nwobhm they werent influenced by it they were influenced by british glam
October 12, 2007 9:40 PM

donxml said:

Yes, I guess my wording is a little confusing, but they were infulenced by the NWOBHM, which was going on at the time.

October 13, 2007 3:32 AM

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About donxml

I’m an independent consultant, specializing in .Net solutions architecture, based out of New Jersey who also doubles as an evangelist for XML, Domain Driven Design, enterprise architecture and .Net. I do not work for Microsoft, the W3C or any other big company that you may know of (at least not yet). I’ve been an indie for over ten years, and although I’ve been tempted a couple times to take a job with companies like Microsoft, I’ve haven’t found something better than my current situation. I work mostly with the large pharmaceuticals that are based here in New Jersey, and usually find myself on long term contracts. Definitely not the prototypical indie consultant, but it lets me dedicate time to my non-income generating activities like the developer community stuff, plus financing open source projects like XPathmania and MVP-XML. If you would like to talk to me about doing some contract work, just contact me via the contact page. My rates vary widely, depending on lots of different variables, but mostly distance from Jersey, and type of work. Plus, I’ve been known to donate some of my code for various projects.

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