(MSN article) Def Leppard's Elliot: We deserve the same respect as Bono

[brooklynmike]

ahem...


def leppard....

You're right, we took this thing way off topic.

Back to Def Leppard...

Their argument was dead as soon as GirlsAloudFan said

"And re: Def Leppard. That is just sad. They've tried desperately to regain a bit of relevance, and have flat-out failed. It just ain't gonna happen, brother. Sorry. Your most famous song is most widely known as "Hey! That's the song I heard at the titty bar last night!""

 

[Bonoa]

Def Leppard!!

Joe Eliott can whine about it all, but it is common for the press to bash rock and metal bands. They released their last album in 2008, but they will never be as successfull as they were in the '80's.

And re: Def Leppard. That is just sad. They've tried desperately to regain a bit of relevance, and have flat-out failed. It just ain't gonna happen, brother. Sorry. Your most famous song is most widely known as "Hey! That's the song I heard at the titty bar last night!"

Your user name says it all....

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

You gotta love guy cat fights

 

[Jim]

He's a big U2 fan too.. RHMT is one of Joey's all time favourite songs.. Baah he's passionate about his band he can let off steam if he wants.

 

[65980]

So it looks like we agree...

Like I said, I get it- REM were pretty good and you're a huge REM fan.

I'm actually not that big of an R.E.M. fan. I'm just trying to clarify some points.


As somebody mentioned, Bono talked about Def Leppard -- it was in U2 By U2. He said he was driving across Arizona or Texas or somewhere with Adam Clayton, when they heard a fantastic sound from the car's radio. They were thinking, "Wow, who's this?" It was "Pour Some Sugar On Me".

Thank God they didn't hire Mutt Lange...!

 

[corianderstem]

I really like Photograph.

And while as a whole, the song Rocket is damned mediocre, I do love the chorus. I like a lot of the choruses of their 90s stuff - good harmonies.

 

[UberBeaver]

Hysteria is a really good album, and I'd still rather listen to that than whatever album has that god-awful Everybody Hurts song it. That songs gives me cramps. Def Leppard was my favorite band when I was 12-13.

 

[corianderstem]

I love REM, but hate Everybody Hurts. So there's that.

 

[UberBeaver]

I love REM, but hate Everybody Hurts. So there's that.

You're not helping Joe Elliot at all with comments like this.

 

[U2387]

U2 have worked to make their new material relevant.

That is the difference as has already been pointed out here.

I quite enjoy Def Leppard, but they had a niche and that was 80s hair metal gone party/mainstream.

I have seen 3 or 4 of their shows since 2006, they still put on a great show, but I haven't seen any conscious effort to represent themselves as anything but an 80s nostalgia run. I am talking image, set lists, etc.

So basically, Joe's question is answered right there

My highlights are Photograph and especially Hysteria! Boston has a "Back to the 80s Friday Night" radio show on our mix station that I have listened to since High School. Hearing "Hysteria," Duran Duran's "Hungry Like The Wolf" and "Drive" by the Cars is always enough to make me wish I had been more than 3 years old in the 80s! I just flat out love Hysteria. Even though I was only a toddler in the late 80s, I can listen to that song driving around my town and picture exactly what the place would have been like in the 80s before it became a crime ridden shadow of its former self.

The DJ on back to the 80s is amazing, Joe Cortes. Someone will call and ask for U2, probably expecting NYD or Angel of Harlem, and he cues up Two Hearts Beat As One, Wire or Out of Control!!

Anyways, way off topic there.......

Def Leppard-great band, its not like the Gene Simmons comments from a band that was a theatrical joke in anyway. They do good music, put on a great show, and they respect their fellow musicians. I have long know about Joe and RHMT, and I think I have seen various comments over the years from the Def Leppard camp praising U2.

Bottom line, no effort to move on from the 80s will lead to the perception you are stuck there. Only Def Leppard themselves can alter that perception.

 

[LemonMelon]

Unless Camera is the answer song to Photograph (Stipe was too incomprehensible at the time for me to tell), I don't understand the relevance of R.E.M. to this thread.

 

[corianderstem]

Elliott referenced "Bono and Michael Stipe being on every magazine cover" (or words to that effect), and everyone was all LOL about Stipe/REM still being on magazine covers nearly as much as U2.

It grew from there.

 

[Fernando-]

Maybe they would get the same respect if they wouldn't have spent so much time at the beauty salon and more time writing better songs.

Glam rock...

I mean, how long does it take to make a mullet?

 

[65980]

Ask The Mullet Family:

I guess if they had a son, he would be "Larry Mullet Jr."...?

 

[Fernando-]

^

 

[jphelmet]

Reminds me of the article recently in RS where Billy Corgan was crying about not being given enough respect. Although I think Corgan has more of a case, they both sound really sad, and desperate.

 

[BluRmGrl]

Whining about how you can't get any respect is a sure sign you will likely never understand that respect has to be constantly earned & re-earned.

/thread

 

[financeguy]

I think that Joe has more of a point regarding Depeche Mode, a band he mentions in passing as also under-rated, than as regards his own band.

I do think Depeche Mode are under-rated in the UK music press as compared to bands like U2.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

.

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

I think that Joe has more of a point regarding Depeche Mode, a band he mentions in passing as also under-rated, than as regards his own band.

I do think Depeche Mode are under-rated in the UK music press as compared to bands like U2.

i love Depeche Mode. I saw them in concert for the first time last year, August 30th to be exact, in Dallas. They were great. Fun fact, a lot of the kids in my high school who were really "into" DM (moreso than i and i was a fan) back in the day had the crazy hair, trenchcoats, and all seemed to smoke cigs. I dont know what you call that because it was the late 80's. But even more fun, actually being at the concert last year and seeing those same type of people all grown up 20 years later.....some of those people (most, actually) hadn't exactly aged very well. The fat lesbian with green & purple hair and an ankle bracelet to meter her alcohol intake comes to mind....not exactly the glory days i had remembered from my youth. At least i have kept myself together with hard work and good genes.

Still...DM rocked and we loved every minute of it! I could not believe that i had lived my life 20 years into the future, having survived the Army, war, Bush-Clinton-Bush, the current idiot president, Music for the Masses, Violator, Ultra, etc, and Sounds of the Universe, and had only now just seen these boys live in concert. FUCK! Whoo Hoo!

And i told my companion that night in Dallas, after the show and over some "beverages", basically, "as good as that was you haven't seen shit yet...just wait till u2 comes to norman". Turns out I was right.

OH yeah, Def Leppard, they are not so bad? I kind of liked them back in the day + 80's music, or 90% of it anyway, is 100 times better than the bullshit played on the radio now days. WTF? <->

As an aside, i love grilling on a friday afternoon after work. All the activities that go along with grilling are just....superb....blissful...etc.

Ask me how i know?!?

Sicey

 

[Bono's shades]

This reminds me of guys who are always whining about how they can't get dates, while failing to realize that probably one of the biggest reasons they can't get a date is they are petulant whiners.

 

[No spoken words]

i love Depeche Mode. I saw them in concert for the first time last year, August 30th to be exact, in Dallas. They were great. Fun fact, a lot of the kids in my high school who were really "into" DM (moreso than i and i was a fan) back in the day had the crazy hair, trenchcoats, and all seemed to smoke cigs. I dont know what you call that because it was the late 80's. But even more fun, actually being at the concert last year and seeing those same type of people all grown up 20 years later.....some of those people (most, actually) hadn't exactly aged very well. The fat lesbian with green & purple hair and an ankle bracelet to meter her alcohol intake comes to mind....not exactly the glory days i had remembered from my youth. At least i have kept myself together with hard work and good genes.

Still...DM rocked and we loved every minute of it! I could not believe that i had lived my life 20 years into the future, having survived the Army, war, Bush-Clinton-Bush, the current idiot president, Music for the Masses, Violator, Ultra, etc, and Sounds of the Universe, and had only now just seen these boys live in concert. FUCK! Whoo Hoo!

And i told my companion that night in Dallas, after the show and over some "beverages", basically, "as good as that was you haven't seen shit yet...just wait till u2 comes to norman". Turns out I was right.

OH yeah, Def Leppard, they are not so bad? I kind of liked them back in the day + 80's music, or 90% of it anyway, is 100 times better than the bullshit played on the radio now days. WTF? <->

As an aside, i love grilling on a friday afternoon after work. All the activities that go along with grilling are just....superb....blissful...etc.

Ask me how i know?!?

Sicey

It's probably safe to say that at this point, everyone here assumes your stories involve you being drunk, and that you're drunk while telling us about your stories.



Grilling FTW.

 

[Thanksandy]

That was the weird thing. In the '90's REM was everywhere, now not so much. If you were to compare a current band, I'd say Muse or Coldplay right now.

Still love REM.

REM were okay, just drastically gone downhill now and there's not much publicity about them nowadays.

As for Muse vs Coldplay, I think Muse win that battle hands down, mainly for being a lot more talented, technically better, incredible live, much better singer who isn't a t***, for their performance with Edge at Glasto and supporting U2 on the 360 tour. I won't get into Coldplay's negative points, but a good way to sum it up is "Bland, Boring and Mind Numbingly Dull".

 

[Diane L]

Their first few albums were cool in that heavy metal sort of way.. But then they did that Pour Some Sugar on me song and it was downhill from there.

Conan O'Brien and Stephen Colbert used that song for their dance-off at Radio City Music Hall. I was there...best thing I've ever seen in my life! And because of that, and allll the times I've watched fan videos of this epic event on YouTube, Pour Some Sugar on Me has been frequently in my head!

 

[financeguy]

i love Depeche Mode. I saw them in concert for the first time last year, August 30th to be exact, in Dallas. They were great. Fun fact, a lot of the kids in my high school who were really "into" DM (moreso than i and i was a fan) back in the day had the crazy hair, trenchcoats, and all seemed to smoke cigs. I dont know what you call that because it was the late 80's. But even more fun, actually being at the concert last year and seeing those same type of people all grown up 20 years later.....some of those people (most, actually) hadn't exactly aged very well. The fat lesbian with green & purple hair and an ankle bracelet to meter her alcohol intake comes to mind....not exactly the glory days i had remembered from my youth. At least i have kept myself together with hard work and good genes.

Still...DM rocked and we loved every minute of it! I could not believe that i had lived my life 20 years into the future, having survived the Army, war, Bush-Clinton-Bush, the current idiot president, Music for the Masses, Violator, Ultra, etc, and Sounds of the Universe, and had only now just seen these boys live in concert. FUCK! Whoo Hoo!

And i told my companion that night in Dallas, after the show and over some "beverages", basically, "as good as that was you haven't seen shit yet...just wait till u2 comes to norman". Turns out I was right.

OH yeah, Def Leppard, they are not so bad? I kind of liked them back in the day + 80's music, or 90% of it anyway, is 100 times better than the bullshit played on the radio now days. WTF? <->

As an aside, i love grilling on a friday afternoon after work. All the activities that go along with grilling are just....superb....blissful...etc.

Ask me how i know?!?

Sicey

Yes.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

Anyway, I know a lot of people here are huge REM fans and that's cool. They were a very good band. Point is at their very peak they came close but did not topple U2.

Um, R.E.M.'s peak was 1983-1987.....and yes, they were a much better band overall in the 80's than U2....their IRS catalog is far, far better than any run of consecutive U2 records. You'd be hard pressed to find a single hardcore music aficionado or critic that thinks otherwise.

 

[last unicorn]

^ I love REM and I have all their recordings, but I don't think that their IRS catalogue or any other album they've done is better than U2. I think it's very different and you cannot really compare them, I like both but given the choice I'd say I enjoy U2's work of the 80s more then REM's work. In fact it took me some time to be even able to really appreciate REM's vintage stuff. I found myself enjoying their later music much more and I still like what they're doing, I loved the concerts I went to, but I'm not such a big fan of their IRS stuff as a whole.

 

[65980]

Um, R.E.M.'s peak was 1983-1987.....and yes, they were a much better band overall in the 80's than U2....their IRS catalog is far, far better than any run of consecutive U2 records. You'd be hard pressed to find a single hardcore music aficionado or critic that thinks otherwise.

I don't agree with this.

The American music press gave a lot of kudos to Murmur back in 1983, showering it with critical praise. Reckoning was also well received. Fables of The Reconstruction was not a particularly strong album, relatively. Lifes Rich Pageant and Document were breakthroughs commercially, and generally well received critically, but none of them as well as Murmur, I think.

But in the same period, U2 had its commercial breakthrough with War, another coup with Under a Blood Red Sky, and then a giant leap forward with Unforgettable Fire -- a record so unexpected (remember when groups could do that?) that it caught the American press napping. The Joshua Tree was almost indisputably the rock album of 1987. The critical praise for U2 in this period was very strong. As early as 1985, Rolling Stone in the US called them "maybe the only band that matters". They way outsold R.E.M. in this period (even before Joshua Tree), too.

 

[65980]

I forgot to add -- the earlier points in this thread were more about R.E.M.'s commercial peak, which was clearly 1991 to 1995.

And by they way, there are a lot of people who think R.E.M. reached its zenith in 1992-93, not back in the mid- to late 80s.

 

[corianderstem]

U2 in the 80s and REM in the 80s is apples and oranges.

Both bands had critical acclaim ..... that's about as far as you can go with it, I think. Both became massive with their late 80s release (JT and Green).

But yeah, apples and oranges. Different bands, different sound, different goals as bands.