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The Lyrics in These 3 Def Leppard Songs From the 1980s Make Zero Sense, but We Still Keep Listening to Them
In the 1980s, Def Leppard had hit after hit at rock radio. Fans fell in love with their sound and their songs, regardless of the message in the music. Based in England, from the beginning Def Leppard was determined to make music their own way.
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“We didn’t want to be like a lot of the American bands,” band member Phil Collen explains (via Songfacts). “Which we thought were great – Journey, Foreigner, and stuff like that. We still wanted to have that hard-edged thing that AC/DC had, but we still wanted to have the harmonies, a bit like Queen. … It’s just an absolute hybrid.”
These are three Def Leppard songs that are worth listening to again and again, even though the lyrics make zero sense.
“Pour Some Sugar On Me”
In 1987, Def Leppard had a massive hit with “Pour Some Sugar On Me”. From their Hysteria album, “Pour Some Sugar On Me” is written by band members Joe Elliott, Collen, Steve Clark, and Rick Savage, along with their producer Robert “Mutt” Lange.
“Pour Some Sugar On Me” says, “Pour some sugar on me / Ooh, in the name of love / Pour some sugar on me / C’mon, fire me up / Pour your sugar on me / I can’t get enough / I’m hot, sticky sweet / From my head to my feet.”
“Armageddon It”
Also on Hysteria is “Armageddon It”. Written by Elliott, Savage, Collen, Lange, and Steve Clark, the song uses a clever play on words in the lyrics. A fan favorite, “Armageddon It” became a Top 5 hit for the heavy metal band.
“Armageddon It” says, “Give me all of your loving / Every little bit / Give me all that you got / Every bit of it / Every bit of your loving / Oh, come on live a bit / Never want to stop / Yeah, but are you getting it? / Armageddon it / Ooh, really getting it? / Yes, Armageddon it Come on, get it / Yeah.”
Songfacts: Armageddon It | Def Leppard
This song is a play on of words: “Our you getting it”/”Armageddon it.” Like the other songs on the Hysteria album, it was written by the band with enough contributions from their producer Mutt Lange that he also got a songwriting credit. Lange took over for Jim Steinman, whose sessions were scrapped in 1985. With Lange, they created songs with a rock bombast and commercial appeal, and this one also played great in stadiums. Def Leppard became the first major rock band to play on a stage in the middle of the stadiums when they did so on the American leg of their Hysteria tour, which allowed them to sell more tickets and set them apart from other bands with long hair (that’s you, Bon Jovi!) that were after their thunder.
“Rock Of Ages”
Def Leppard’s second No. 1 in the United States, “Rock Of Ages” is on their third studio album, Pyromania. Elliott, Clark, and Lange are the song’s three writers. “Rock Of Ages” is an uptempo smash, with lyrics that are easy to sing along to, even if the message is unclear.
“Rock Of Ages” says, “Rock of ages, rock of ages / Still rollin’, keep a-rollin’ / Rock of ages, rock of ages / Still rollin’, rock and rollin’ / We got the power, got the glory / Just say you need it / And if you need it, say yeah / Ooh, yeah.”
The premise of the song came from a hymnal that was in the studio when Def Leppard was recording.
“We came in the next day, and there was a couple of hymn books left behind, and one of them was in the control room — and it was open to the hymn ‘Rock of Ages,’” Elliott recalls (via Ultimate Classic Rock). “I remember picking it up and looking at it, and Mutt must have been playing the chorus. It went past and I looked at this thing, and I went, ‘How about this?’ I started singing ‘Rock of Ages’.
Photo by Jeff Hochberg/Getty Images
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