ZZ Top - Eliminator vs Def Leppard - Pyromania

I've been listening to a lot of Def Leppard this week, but Eliminator was one of the building blocks of when I first began getting into music and nothing ever sounds better than it. Not even that difficult a choice imo.

Eliminator.

Oh shit. This is going to be difficult.

Yeah, it does have an incredible sound to it! xp

Any other obvious rivals to these two? I guess that Quiet Riot was the other massive pop metal album that year, but it didn't really seem to have all that much of an impact in Europe iirc.

I dunno about Europe, but Huey Lewis's Sports is a 1983 rock album that was all over the place in the US (though I supposed most of its singles were released in 1984).

Def Lep.

I dunno about Europe, but Huey Lewis's Sports is a 1983 rock album that was all over the place in the US (though I supposed most of its singles were released in 1984).

― Johnny Fever, Friday, May 25, 2012 12:53 AM (44 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

When Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost.

I can't think of any 70s rock act that ever embraced New Wave better than ZZ Top (and Bill Ham) did with Eliminator. It's really unique.

Def Lep. "Eliminator" is really, really played out to me. Stagefright and Photograph just sound like pop-metal classics. Even Rock Of Ages has kept pretty well.

Nowhere on Pyromania is a lyric delivered as deliciously as "she likes cocaaaaaaine" is on Eliminator's "Got Me Under Pressure".

eliminator by a mile.

I've never understood the Pyromania thing. I get that it is really impressive from a production standpoint and all that, but the songs are so joyless and dull to me.

Eliminator.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, May 24, 2012 5:44 PM (4 hours ago)

love Pyromania, but no contest here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1nMC6kLOYA

i mean, just that sound

When Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost.

Isn't that a quote from American Psycho?

only one of these albums has "Photograph" on it so this was reasonably easy for me

^ exactly my line of thinking, so many different parts of that song to love, need to break it down later

Pyromania had some great songs, but only ZZ Top had that guitar sound.

Legend has it that Mark Knopfler ran into Billy Gibbons and said, "Hey, I love your playing. How do you get that sound?" Billy said, "Well, heh, I'd tell you, but I'd have to kill you."

Knopfler: "Haha! No, really, how do you get that sound?"

Gibbons: "No. Really. I would have to kill you."

Knopfler: (backs away slowly, but tried to approximate it on "Money for Nothing")

Nobody in Def Leppard ever threatened to kill anyone over their guitar sound.

I think ZZ Top is the better band -- I completely love them, have every album up through 'Afterburner'. 'Eliminator' was a huge album for me, listened to late at night on cassette on the walkman after my parents assumed I asleep for school next morning. I've seen em three times, and I'm trying to figure out where I want to see them this summer -- it'll either be @ Naperville Rib Fest or Milwaukee Summerfest. still figuring our my schedule and logistics -- lots of other stuff on that pre-4th of July weekend..

But 'Pyromania' was a complete mindfuck. a gateway drug to heavy metal. I loved the singles like 'Photograph' and 'Rock of Ages', and my sitter at the time (I was 9) mentioned that she had the 'Pyromania' cassette, so I asked if I could borrow it. "Rock Rock Til You Drop" completely blew my mind, it almost scared me it was so heavy, I'd never heard music that sounded like that (especially with that awesome dramatic intro bit.)

'Pyromania' wins it. What a great four album run the Lep had

I saw ZZ Top a few years ago and it blew my mind how awesome they were. It was just the three guys, locked in tight, blasting through these songs to a huge stadium full of people. What total and utter badasses.

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http://mlkshk.com/r/CNPJ

HOLY CRAP

wow

This thread got me to check out all of Eliminator for the first time. It's totally great!: some really nice guitar interplay and such a classic guitar tone.

Eliminator, not even close. but I have never really been a fan of Def Leppard who just come across as stupid beyond belief to my ears.

really dig Pyromania but have to go with Eliminator

I can't think of any 70s rock act that ever embraced New Wave better than ZZ Top (and Bill Ham) did with Eliminator. It's really unique.

yeah, it's pretty unexpected just how perfectly their biker-rock mixes with synthpop/protodance to create this perfect, dirty, Mad Max-y techrock. that's something that hasn't really been explored that much beyond the mid 80s - dystopian desert turbo-blues (well okay Industrial Metal did a bit)

Judas Priest totally went into that Mad Max-y territory for a minute on Turbo as well with Turbo Lover and Locked In

I mean...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhY9GOhFwN4&ob=av3e

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr6rChjsWgs

love how songs can so perfectly project a theme sometimes. didn't see those videos for years, but I could always tell Priest were on a big Road Warrior trip with those songs

I don't think of either of these as hard rock

I can't think of any 70s rock act that ever embraced New Wave better than ZZ Top (and Bill Ham) did with Eliminator. It's really unique.

i started a thread on this, though centered on 1981 as the year that 70s rockers tried out new wave. there are quite a few parallel examples, though perhaps none so commercial successful and seamless in their synthesis as zz top.

1981 = year of 70s dino rockers w modren/wavo comeback LPs

^excellent, was just about to ask if there were any good threads on that stuff. might have to start one on dystopian future (blues) rock/metal as well eventually

I'm not sure what would count as hard rock if not early-80s Def Leppard!

pre-pyromania stuff is for sure, iirc

Def Leppard sounded like hard rock at the time. It's pure hard rock candy in retrospect.

Voted for ZZT, for the WTFness of that album when it came out.

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http://gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs2/1195570_o.gif

^^^that's fuckin right

what about: Afterburner vs Hysteria

Hysteria by an infinite distance.

imo, Pyromania was a practice run at Hysteria, but Afterburner was the residue from Eliminator.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4h_OZ1F1BjQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoP1Q93Ja1g