The drums, rhythm guitar, and bass accent the D to C to D power chord motif as stated in the chorus, but this time the 8th note chugs are left out. The prechorus and chorus then are played again, nearly verbatim to the first appearance. This, if anything, serves to add additional instrumentation to give the 2nd verse more dynamic separation from the first verse. An additional synthesizer is heard in the right channel playing a short melodic motif.
The instrumentation for the second verse again returns to the acoustic guitar, the synth pad, bass guitar, and half-time drums. Joe Elliot then sings in a somber tone akin to the first verse “won’t you stay with me a while?” transitioning the song into the 2nd verse.
Harmonized vocals state the motif “fa fa fa foolin” a number of times in a sort of call and response fashion with the guitar riff. The bass follows the rhythm guitars, although it opts to play simply the root notes instead of playing both the root and 5th. The rhythm guitars again chug 8th notes on an D power chord and accent this with a D to C to D power chord motif. This serves to add some forward momentum to the drum track. A cowbell is heard playing steady quarter notes. The chorus is rather straightforward yet powerful and effective. At the tail end of the prechorus, the rhythm guitars chug again an 8th note pulse serving to connect the prechorus to the chorus. The second half of the prechorus consists of the same instrumentation with the addition of a guitar ostinato multitracked on top of the existing 2 rhythm guitar tracks, creating an effect similar to the one I described in “Rock of Ages”. “Is anybody out there? Is anybody there? Does anybody wonder? Anybody care?” Here, 2 distorted rhythm guitars play a riff, the drums move to a 2 and 4 back beat pulse, the bass follows the guitar, and the lead vocals, supported by harmonized backing vocals cry out This musical effect segues quite satisfyingly into the prechorus of the tune.
The flying brick of the drums is then reinforced by the steady palm-muted 8th note “chug” of a distorted rhythm guitar. This is called a “flying brick” in the world of rock music. The first verse continues with this instrumentation until the drums begin playing an 8th note pulse crescendoing on the snare and floor tom. By this, I mean that the snare drum back beat is moved to beat 3 of the 4/4 measure, instead of the usual 2 and 4 backbeat associated with rock music. The synth pad and acoustic guitar continue and are augmented by bass guitar and drums playing a half-time rock feel. Crash cymbals crescendo signaling more instruments to join the mix. Vocalist Joe Elliot begins singing the first verse of the song. Boffin – a nickname Lange was calling keyboardist Thomas ‘She Blinded Me With Science’ Dolby at the time.The song begins with an acoustic guitar playing arpeggiated chords against a backdrop of a synthesizer pad. Its success was also impressive in Canada (#4 album/ two top 30 singles) but only modest in their homeland the UK (#18 album/three minor hits).Ī final note of trivia, synthesizers on the album are credited to Booker T. Pyromania went on to sell over ten million copies in the US, thus being certified diamond by the RIAA. This helped propel Pyromania to #2 (held from the top spot by Michael Jackson’s Thriller) and achieve 6x platinum certification in less than two years. Released in early 1983, seven of its ten songs got strong US rock radio play that year, with three of them crossing over to pop and reaching the top 30. The album took a year to write, record and mix. Frontman Joe Elliot’s voice ‘was in shreds’ after two songs and founding member Pete Willis was fired for being so drunk he couldn’t play the songs. The band struggled to keep up with Lange’s ambition. He sat down with us as a sixth member of the band and participated in the whole thing. They weren’t written songs that he changed. We gave Mutt songwriting credits because this time he actually helped us structure the songs. Lange was ‘a perfectionist’ who insisted on ‘so many takes that the tape is falling apart’ and contributed so much to the songs he was given songwriting credit: The album was a shift away from the band’s ‘riff metal’ roots towards more radio-friendly glam/hard rock. Pyromania is Def Leppard’s third studio album, the first to feature guitarist Phil Collen and second produced by Robert John “Mutt” Lange.
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