Def Leppard

Released: January 20, 1983

Songwriter: Robert John Lange

Producer: Robert John Lange

[Verse 1]
I'm sick and tired of the damn TV
I'm gonna make my own movie
I wanna star in a late night show
And all I need is my video
Shock me, make it electric
Shock me, make it last
Curtain up let the camera roll
It's automatic, it's in control
Got no script baby, ain't no lines
Just me and you and a real good time, oh
Shock me, make it electric
Shock me, make it last
Shock me, gimme thunder and lightning
Shock me, oh babe I need it fast

[Chorus]
Because all I need is some
Action, action, action, not words
Gimme action, action, action not words

[Bridge]
Come on and shock me
Let the cameras roll

[Verse 2]
I'll be the hero, you be the star
With your wine and your caviar
No audition, a starring roll
I'll be your Bogart and you be Monroe, yeah
Shock me, make it electric
Shock me, oh bump and grind
Shock me, make a night to remember
Shock me, do it one more time
So cut me in on the action

[Bridge]
Lights, camera, sound
I need action

[Chorus]
Action, action, gimme action not words
Let the camera roll
Action, action, action not words
I need a little

[Chorus]
Action, action, action not words
Well, shake a little piece of your
Action, action, action not words
Come on, talk to me with your body

[Outro]
Action

In 1977, Rick Savage, Tony Kenning, and Pete Willis were students at a secondary school in Sheffield, England. They had a band called Atomic Mass. Lead singer Joe Elliott joined later that year, and suggested a new band name. Within 10 years, that name, Def Leppard, became one of the most recognised in English rock music. To date, they have released more than 40 singles.

Def Leppard was a definitive part of the new wave of British heavy metal bands in the late 1970s. Their first three albums had tremendous momentum, each outselling the one before. Then, after the release of Pyromania in 1983, drummer Rick Allen lost his arm in a car accident. The band stuck by him through his recovery and retraining.

When Def Leppard came back, they came back hard. Their fourth album, 1987’s Hysteria, was a hard rock masterpiece that took the world by storm. By then the music video had matured as a film style, and Hysteria’s singles and videos had enough pop, sex, colour, and glam to put it over the top. Hysteria was one of the biggest-selling albums of the 1980s.

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