Just a quick break from the everything else that is going on here at the PiercingMetal Command HQ to raise a few pairs of horns in honor of the Def Leppard debut album “On Through The Night” based on its being released thirty five years ago today. Now historically speaking in terms of my own Hard Rock and Metal years at the time, I was not following the band at the time of their debut. My own first go at them would come with the “High And Dry” album based on the song “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak” being in semi-regular rotation on the radio stations that played heavy music and of course the U68 video channel. As I think about that song, I think I also saw it a lot on MTV since the fledgling music video network was giving those who had it a solid introduction to bands like this but I digress. Despite the late introduction to the band I clearly remember heading into the West Village of NYC to scour the record shops because one of the girls in our circle was looking for one of the bands 12” releases and would not sleep until she found it. There were about five of us tagging along and she was very easy on the eye with her rocking self so there were no complaints from us lads as we walked up and down street after street. At one of these shops I picked up my own copy of “On Through The Night” and mostly because I had to learn the tunes “Wasted” and “Hello America” to jam with some other musicians who entertained playing it in a band. The cover of this album always made me smile since it was a great image of a truck hauling a guitar in the night sky. It reminded me a little of the Heavy Metal Magazine kind of stuff and that was a science fiction magazine that had nothing to do with music in case you wondered. Now let’s take a look at the complete track list from the album and pick up again after that.
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