The song Phil Collen called “the pinnacle” of Def Leppard
Many artists can pinpoint a specific moment where everything fell into place for them. Despite the initial belief in their own magic when starting out, there’s often a single song or album that marks a transformative shift, turning them into something entirely new upon its release. For Def Leppard, despite already making significant strides with Pyromania, Phil Collen believes that ‘Rocket’ was the defining moment where the group realised they were moving forward and never looking back.
When the band started working on what would become Hysteria, they had a daunting task ahead of them. Since they had already spawned three central singles from their previous album, they needed to make one of the biggest albums of their career if they even hoped to break even from all of the touring they had just done.
Producer Mutt Lange offered them the opportunity to do more than just the same record over again. Michael Jackson had just spawned nearly every one of his songs into the hit parade with Thriller, so why couldn’t they? That sounds nice, but how the hell were they going to top the perfection they had already done? Simple: do something else.
While many of the core songs on Hysteria have the same emotional flair as the old Leppard, like ‘Animal’ and ‘Pour Some Sugar On Me’, ‘Rocket’ was practically an experiment once they entered the studio. Built off of a strange drum loop that Joe Elliott had stumbled upon when visiting a club, the entire band latched onto the crazy rhythm, eventually throwing everything they could at the wall to get something to stick.
Rather than try to make something that sounded contrived or the traditional lust-filled rock song, ‘Rocket’ became a love letter to their greatest influences. When putting together the lyrics, the band practically made a competition by squeezing in as many references to classic glam rock as they could, namechecking everyone from Elton John to Queen to David Bowie in every bar.
Outside of their favourite outfits, they also reference themselves throughout the track as well. During the song’s midsection, various samples are played throughout the track, including the layered harmonies from ‘Love Bites’ as well as bits and pieces of the anti-war track ‘Gods of War’ played backwards.
Whereas Pyromania may have had the choruses left over from the band’s heavy metal days, Collen thought that ‘Rocket’ best represented where they came from, telling MusicRadar, “I feel that ‘Rocket’ is the absolute pinnacle of Def Leppard. It sums us up in a nutshell: massive drums, massive guitars, big choruses. So you’ve got all of our influences and elements right there.”
Leppard wouldn’t be shy about their influences later down the road, either. Throughout their album Yeah, they would cover many of the groups that they namechecked in the song, covering everyone from Mott the Hoople to Bowie to even pulling off a decent cover of ‘Rock On’ by David Essex. Def Leppard may have had a distinct wall of sound backing them up half the time, but even when they were at their peak, they were still children of their influences.
