It was when I admitted this to a few people that they came up with the brilliant idea of writing this in chapters (thanks guys, you know who you are), so here is Chapter 1.
I was inspired to write this blog by an amazing conversation I had a few days ago with a freelance composer that I'm lucky to be working with at the moment.
As often happens between people who are music geeks at heart, the conversation quickly turned from the project at hand to what bands we listened to early in our careers, and what has happened to them since!
One of the first things that popped up was Def Leppard. But not just any Def Leppard, but their ground-breaking and arguably career-making album Pyromania. Which was produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. Of course, being such music geeks, that led to a short conversation about Mutt himself, and what he's done to become one of the biggest rock producers in the history of the genre.
Growing up in Germany, and influenced mostly by country artists, and was able to produce some of the biggest rock albums of the late 70's and 80's before returning to his roots (after marrying Shania Twain) in the 90's.
What I want to get into though is a fascinating thread that I was noticing, which is that so many of the bands I grew up with hit their pinnacle while being produced by Mutt. But then were never able to reach that same point again.
Not that they all faded completely after that (though some did) but there was a distinct line, or decline, of quality and of pure hit-making sound.
As an example, we can take our first look into this phenomena with Def Leppard, who Mutt started working with on their second studio album, High and Dry. Not a big chartbuster album, but it DID define their sound, and established them as a band of note not only in their native U.K., but also in the U.S. This fact then led to his work on third studio album, Pyromania.
There is no arguing that this was their true U.S breakthrough album, and resulted in three top 40 singles and sold over 10 million copies worldwide. The torture he put the band through during these sessions is very well known(thanks VH1 for that), but the result was extraordinary.
That in itself was an amazing upward arc, but was nothing compared to the success of their next album, Hysteria, which sold 20 million copies worldwide, and spawned seven hit singles. This time, Mutt came in a few months into the project to produce after they had initially hired and then immediately fired Jim Steinman.
Then the downturn...
Now it must be said that Mutt DID executive produce their next album, Adrenalize, which was less successful than either of the previous albums. However it must ALSO be said that the album was actually produced by Mike Shipley and Def Leppard, and that Steve Clark died in the midst of recording. But after this, though Def Leppard has produced five more albums, but none have come close to the commercial success of the previous Mutt entries.
Now, all this being said, I'm truly a big fan of Def Leppard, as I am of the next band that has fallen into the Mutt Lange paradigm to a certain degree, which is AC/DC.
By producing Highway to Hell, Mutt put together arguably his first really huge rock success. Despite the fact that they were already a force in Australia, they didn't find commercial success in the U.S. until the release of this album. Unfortunately AC/DC's original lead singer, Bon Scott, died of alcohol abuse shortly after the release. This actually led to what I think could be Mutt's biggest accomplishment, which is the mega-hit, 1980's Back in Black.
The combination of a brand new singer in Brian Johnson, and the emotional state of the band after losing Scott could have been the downfall of any group. Instead, Back in Black has become one of the biggest rock albums of all time, selling an estimated 45 million copies, and making it the best-selling album ever released by a band.
But, getting BACK to our original idea, what happened after that?
AC/DC absolutely stayed in the mainstream of popular hard rock, but not until 1990's The Razor's Edge did they have another true commercial success, and even then, for comparison, it sold 5 million copies. Now AC/DC is STILL rocking, and has another big success with Black Ice, released in 2008 along with another major world tour. But, Back in Black it is not.
So far are you with me? Two things have made themselves extremely apparent.
Good news, you work with Mutt and your career will take on a completely new level.
Bad news, after that it's almost impossible to replicate that success, AND one of your band members will probably die.
Stay tuned for Part 2...
Great stuff bro and congrats! That year (1982) was amazing. I remember all the guys listening to Def Leppard and all the girls listening to MJ's Thriller. One of my favorite summers of all time.
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