By JAY ROBERTS

The Cassette Chronicles is a continuing series of mini reviews and reflections on albums from the 1980’s and 1990’s. The aim of this series is to highlight both known and underappreciated albums from rock, pop and metal genres from this time period through the cassette editions of their releases. Some of the albums I have known about and loved for years, while others are new to me and were music I’ve always wanted to hear. There will be some review analysis and my own personal stories about my connection with various albums. These opinions are strictly my own and do not reflect the views of anyone else at Limelight Magazine.

DEF LEPPARD – ON THROUGH THE NIGHT (1980)

And the first shall apparently be last…

Nope, nothing cryptic about that. Def Leppard’s debut album On Through The Night is the fourth album I’ll have written about for The Cassette Chronicles series and it will likely be the last as I don’t have any other albums from the band on cassette. While I suppose it is possible a shopping trip to Purchase Street Records could yield another album of theirs on cassette, I’m not planning on doing that at this time. So this could very well be the last time I feature Def Leppard in the series.

And if that is what comes to pass, it makes sense to go back to the very beginning with the band. When I first started prepping this article I made note of the album’s release date. It was released just after I had turned nine years old and thus it was at least four years before I’d even become a rock and roll fan. It’s been just over 44 years since On Through The Night was released…how time flies, right?

I must confess that while I still own the original copy of the album I bought once I hit rock and roll fandom, it is not an album I’ve gone to back a whole lot. Yes, I’ve played it over the years but it is still rather rare that I do a full album listen. So as I got ready to listen I found myself wondering if it would hit me as differently as the High ‘n’ Dry album did when I wrote about that album here on the Limelight Magazine website.

Of the three official singles that came off On Through The Night, two led off the album. Those songs, “Rock Brigade” and “Hello America”, are likely the best remembered songs from this earliest period of Def Leppard’s history.

“Rock Brigade” is a hard-charging rocker from the start and “Hello America” is also full of that same kind of high energy rocking sound as well. As I was listening to both songs I found myself thinking that the two songs showed off how full of piss and vinegar Def Leppard sounded. You can chalk it up to youthful exuberance or what have you but even at this early stage, the band could craft a song that made you take notice. 

The production sound on the album sounds pretty dated in the here and now but you can’t help but like how it shows where the band was starting from. I know there’s a big divide between fans of the first two albums and everything Def Leppard has done since they came out but I like seeing how their sound has evolved from start to finish. One thing I noted on the song “It Could Be You” is how different Joe Elliott’s voice sounds. It’s kind of as if he hadn’t quite yet matured into his voice. While it works perfectly on the On Through The Night album, I am glad that his vocals have changed as the band has gone along.

The guitar soloing on each song features Steve Clark on some, Pete Willis on others. In the case of the track “Sorrow is a Woman”, they both are playing on the third solo in the song. There’s a more measured tone for the song’s main lyrical stanzas but that restraint gives way during the choruses and a more vibrantly effective rock sound takes over.

For “Satellite”, it’s pretty much a full throttle rocker. It downshifts briefly right before the guitar solo and then it ramps back up with a full-throated roar.

While the first five songs on Side One of the album are straight up get in and get out rock tracks with an undeniable melodic hook, the last song on the album side goes about things a bit differently. “When The Walls Come Tumbling Down” opens with a spoken word intro (recorded by Dave Cousins of The Strawbs) that sets the song up with a turn towards the dramatic. Soon after, Def Leppard breaks out into a fast moving rocker musical score but the lyrics sure made it seem like they were actually telling a kind of sci-fi story set in a disaster struck land. 

Assuming I’m not wrong about that, you could’ve won big money by betting that I never would’ve recalled that no matter how many guesses you gave me. It’s not storytelling on the level of Iron Maiden or anything but it sure made me sit up and take notice. Taking notice of that bit after owning the album for nearly forty years is a nice way to cast at least one song in a new and different light for me.

The second side of the album opens with the song “Wasted” which is the third of the three official singles off of On Through The Night. Aiming for accuracy, it’s actually the song that was released as the first single. The odd thing is that while I didn’t recall anything about the song as I got ready to listen to it, as soon as it started playing I remembered the track and how much I liked it. Sure, I haven’t heard it enough to have kept it in the forefront of my mind but once you hear the lyrics and the music, it strikes a chord all over again.

“Rocks Off” is not a song I remembered much either but I actually found myself enjoying it quite a lot. It’s got energy to burn to say the least. You can say the same about the song “It Don’t Matter” but I will say that I really liked the solo from Pete Willis in the latter track a whole lot.

Much like “When The Walls Come Tumbling Down”, the song “Answer to the Master” seems to have a lot more going on than you’d expect from a Def Leppard song. Again, this one sounds more like what you’d get from Iron Maiden or perhaps Judas Priest. But I love that again, I hear a Def Leppard song almost like its completely new to me and I see it from a different perspective than any time I’ve listened to it in the past.

While most of the songs on On Through The Night are relatively compact in terms of running time, Def Leppard really goes for the epic on the album closing “Overture”. It’s nearly 8 minutes in length and after looking through the band’s discography, I realized that it is the longest song they’ve ever recorded. 

Once again, it has a storytelling element to it and the music has peaks and valleys to coincide with that kind of song style. Moving fast with an in-your-face immediacy at times, the track can then pull itself back and give you a more deliberate sound all to serve the best interests of the song.

I have to say that much like when I wrote about High ‘n’ Dry, doing a new listen of the On Through The Night album for this article has given me a new sense of the release. Like I said in the early part of this article, it is an album I don’t play a lot. And after getting a bit of an eye-opening with this new listening session, it seems that lack of play over the years was to my detriment.

I’m not saying I now prefer this era over the Pyromania and Hysteria era where I came of age as a rock fan but it has made me look at Def Leppard’s first two albums with a renewed sense of appreciation. So maybe those who haven’t given this album its proper due should do what I plan to do from now on and that’s listen to this album a lot more…On Through The Night.

NOTES OF INTEREST: The songs “Rocks Off” and “Overture” are re-recorded versions of the songs that had appeared on Def Leppard’s E.P. The Def Leppard E.P. that was originally released in 1979 and later got a reissue in 2017. According to the album’s Wikipedia page, other tracks were re-recorded from previously issued singles.

The On Through The Night album has at last reported (May of 1989) achieved platinum sales status in the U.S. The album was produced by Tom Allom who is likely best known for his production work with Judas Priest.

Other than drummer Rick Allen, each of the remaining four members (Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Steve Clark and Pete Willis has songwriting credits on the album.