10 Forgotten Rock Music Gems From The 80s You Need To Rediscover

Looking at the Def Leppard of today and the Def Leppard of the early '80s feels like talking about two separate bands. Ever since the era of Hysteria, these lads out of Sheffield have traded in their rock and roll attitude for some pristine level of sonic polish, both of which suit them equally well throughout the years. If you go back before the albums ending in - i.e., these guys had a lot more in common with a band like AC/DC than anyone else.

Across High N Dry, the riffs blaring out of the speakers paint Leppard more on the same level as bands like the Scorpions from around the same time, albeit with more of an attention to pop melodies. For the greatest song on the record though, You Got Me Runnin feels like the bridge between the tuneful Leppard that they were going to become and the dirty rock and roll act that they still were.

There's a lot of bad boy bluesy riffs in between the verses here, but the actual chorus is a lot more ready for radio than you might realize, almost sounding like it could have come off of some power pop record in the '70s. These guys were beyond ready for prime time, but with just a little bit more polish, they were about to become something amazing.