July 7, 1997
I remember waiting with breathless anticipation for Def Leppard's greatest hits compilation to hit the stores because I knew there would be new material on it. It had been a long dry spell. Retro-Active had teased me with the spectacular "Desert Song" and I was thirsty for more. To me, "Desert Song" is about an after-death experience...a subject I had been moving towards as I approached my 35th birthday.
Def Leppard had been there in the background of my life for all my adult years...now I was turning 35 and started to ask serious questions. Really I started my search at 30, but 35 hit me especially hard, and it was coming up quick.
You can't imagine my dismay when "When Love and Hate Collide" came out. It wasn't what I wanted and sounded too much like something off Adrenalize. I didn't buy the cd. (My fellow Def Leppard lover got it for me, thank goodness, because it came in handy later.)
I was bored with the old sound. I wanted them to stretch, to grow. I didn't want the old "frat party" sound, nor big ballads... were they doomed to keep doing the same thing over and over like, oh, I don't know... Aerosmith, Journey, U2, INXS, etc, etc...???
The day I got Slang my aforementioned friend and I sat perfectly still under my loud stereo speakers and at first listened without the lyric sheet. Good God! The music was utterly fantastic! Fresh, innovative, blending in several influences into new form...I was captivated, snatched the lyric book from my friend and started it again. My mouth made silent "WOW" shapes... these guys had perfectly expressed the different phases I had been going through in the last five years! The lyrics were mature, deep, pregnant with meaning...I listened to the cd again, and again, and again.
Not only were the lyrics outstanding, but what I had been thirsting for the most was here in full force: transcendental electric guitars.
I jumped on the computer to share in the jubilation that I was certain was going on, and was hit with rejection and silence! So many posts were flaming the Leps! I couldn't believe it! Didn't they grow up too? Didn't they hear the message? But nowhere did I see anyone mention what I had heard...
What if I was wrong about what I heard? Just because I am a seeker did I hear things that weren't there? But everytime I listened it just became clearer and clearer. I decided to wait and see if anyone else mentioned it.
They didn't. Now came a real quandry: the stuff I heard was very anti-CHURCH (I use the word CHURCH to signify any religion that has been organized, edited, and disseminated by Man, and must be accepted in whole as if written in stone.). What if the guys really didn't mean it that way and I piss people off- maybe turn them off of Def Leppard!!! How could I risk offending someone who loves the band as I do? But what if others heard it too? So, with a wing and a prayer, I started sending out feelers.
I sent a note to Phil Collen via the Mercury records Def Leppard site. Of any of the group, Phil's personality seemed to be more akin to mine and he seemed the most accessable. But I never heard back, and my fingers were starting to itch...
I posted on the Def Leppard mailing list and was surprised- (I don't know why, all true Def Leppard fans are exceptionally open-minded and intelligent)-to get back only encouragement.
So here it is.
It is here along with my sincere prayer that someone else out there will identify with the story being told and will be comforted as I was. (God was I comforted!) How many times did I cry all through "Where Does Love Go..." and then, sitting in the posture suggested by the cd cover, close my eyes and float off with "Pearl of Euphoria"?
Fellow seekers everywhere....this one's for you.
Thanks, fellas, for coming through in my time of need.
You've proven once again that my devotion for you is not misplaced.
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