Def Leppard Music Videos

In preparation for Def Leppard coming to town (!!!), Vero and I had a good laugh last night watching some old music videos from the band. Considering we’ve never seen any of them (wait, that’s not true…I was introduced to Def Leppard when they released When Love and Hate Collide which spearheaded their greatest hits album back in ’95. What can I say? I wasn’t musically conscious during the 80s), we were anticipating some killer 80s videos.

Well…they were killer alright. Here is some recaps on the videos in question.

Bringing on The Heartbreak – Alright, this video ain’t too shabby. Standard rock band music video fare with shots of them performing. This was actually the more decent of them.

Rock of Ages – “It’s Labyrinth!” proclaims Vero while watching the video for Rock of Ages. Yes indeed, it definitely had some Labyrinth details like an owl in the video as well as some mythical imagery. Let us not forget the knight who crushes a glass of wine only to see it reform in his hand minutes later in the video! Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find a screen shot from this legendary video. WAIT! Let us not forget when Joe Elliot grabs Excalibur and it transforms into a guitar. Sweetness. Let us also not forget the drummer appearing only in some Union Jack underwear.

Foolin’ – I remember us watching this one and can’t really remember what happened. I’m pretty sure the drummer appeared in his Union Jack underwear again. Was that his thing back in the day?

Pour Some Sugar on Me – This was definitely the cream of the crop. Everyone knows this song. So I expected an amazing video. What I received was Limburger cheese. The band appears playing in a house that is being demolished by women who are working in construction. They have sledgehammers with them, they have cranes, they have grubby old construction hats and boots, they are not a pretty sight. I guffawed at many a scene, especially when the building they were playing in was being destroyed and in one scene I’m pretty sure we saw a bag of flour fall from the ceiling (or was it sugar?) to emulate some dust. It fell into the category “It’s so bad, it’s good!” Highly recommended video to see your favourite Def Leppard in a new light.

Love Bites – Ah, this one we were excited for. With lyrics like “When you make love, do you look in the mirror?” we only assumed that there would be amazing imagery in this video. Not so much, but hey, it has classic 80s ballad video fare such as:

• singer singing into the microphone
• multiple angles of the singer morphing into one shot
• random women walking across the screen. The same shot used twice in many cases! Hey, was that Cindy Crawford walking by?
• classic full band shot once they hit the second verse. Stop hogging the screentime Joe!

We had to shut this one off as it was just getting worse and worse. You know, November Rain popped into my head right now and I love the stories that Guns N Roses told in their videos. Why can’t more videos be like that?

Anyhow, there’s my recap of some Def Leppard music videos from the classic 80s. Let us not forget the excellent outfits and hairstyles. OH! I almost forgot about Rocket. That was pretty good actually. Very forward thinking on that video…reminded me of the ZooTV tour by U2.

Later on, I’ll try and embed these videos into YouTube so you can see for yourself. Or do yourselves a favour…sit back with some popcorn, type in Def Leppard into YouTube and laugh at the grandness which was the Def Leppard phenomenon. I can’t wait to see them here in Ottawa on April 12.