Def Leppard

Songwriter: Phil Collen

Producer: Def Leppard Pete Woodroffe

I am all destiny, a trade
A grain of sand
I am the lesson to be learned
I take the throat of innocence
And leave decay
I stain the way for all to see

No fear, no voice, no reason
In God no guiding light
When all the guilt that's in your head
Turns its back and plays for dead
You scorch the earth and torch the sky
Conscience low with head held high

Indulge and multiply
And sacrifice
As lack of breath chokes underground
Divulge degenerate
The darker side
From windows watch the screaming sky

No fear, no voice, no reason
In God no guiding light
When all the guilt that's in your head
Turns its back and plays for dead
You scorch the earth and torch the sky
Conscience low with head held high
When all the guilt that's in your head
Turns its back and plays for dead
You scorch the earth and torch the sky
Conscience low with head held high

From all the truth comes all the shame
The curse of flesh just takes its aim
On hallowed ground and tortured sky
Walk in fear with spirits high

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.

more tracks from the album

Slang

From the album

Slang (1996)

Def Leppard popular songs

Gift of Flesh (Phil vocal)Def Leppard

Def Leppard

Slang