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Def Leppard Re-Recording Old Hits Hadn't seen this here, it'll seem familiar to Prince fans:
http://www.billboard.com/news/def-leppard-recording-forgeries-of-old-hits-1007484752.story#/news/def-leppard-recording-forgeries-of-old-hits-1007484752.story Def Leppard Recording 'Forgeries' of Old Hits To Spite Labelby Gary Graff, Detroit | July 02, 2012 6:15 EDT
New music and new versions of its old hits are marking Def Leppard's recording plans these days.
With newly recorded "forgeries" of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" and "Rock of Ages" now available, the quintet has begun a series of re-recordings of its catalog material and "wrestled control of our career back" from the Universal Music Group, which frontman Joe Elliott says the band refuses to deal with "until we come up with some kind of arrangement" over compensation, especially for digital downloads.
"When you're at loggerheads with an ex-record label who...is not prepared to pay you a fair amount of money and we have the right to say, 'Well, you're not doing it,' that's the way it's going to be," Elliott tells Billboard.com. "Our contract is such that they can't do anything with our music without our permission, not a thing. So we just sent them a letter saying, 'No matter what you want, you are going to get "no" as an answer, so don't ask.' That's the way we've left it. We'll just replace our back catalog with brand new, exact same versions of what we did."
While the business side seems cut and dried, Elliott says the creative part of recreating songs that date back 25 years or more is not. "You just don't go in and say, 'Hey guys, let's record it,' and it's done in three minutes," Elliott notes. "We had to study those songs, I mean down to the umpteenth degree of detail, and make complete forgeries of them. Time-wise it probably took as long to do as the originals, but because of the technology it actually got done quicker as we got going. But trying to find all those sounds...like where am I gonna find a 22-year-old voice? I had to sing myself into a certain throat shape to be able to sing that way again. It was really hard work, but it was challenging, and we did have a good laugh over it here and there."
The two new versions, meanwhile, got a "total thumbs-up" from one important quarter -- original producer Mutt Lange, via guitarist Phil Collen. "Phil sees Mutt a lot," Elliott says, "and he played him the re-records and (Lange) couldn't believe how brilliant they were. He was like, 'Wow guys, incredible job!' Phil was just raving about how much Mutt was raving about them."
The veteran band is one of the few mega-selling acts without the bulk of their catalog for sale digitally. None of its albums studio albums are currently available as downloads -- and haven't been in years.
So far, the 2012 re-recording of "Pour Some Sugar On Me" has sold 21,000 downloads in the U.S. according to Nielsen SoundScan. The "Rock of Ages" redux has moved 5,000.
Elliott says Def Leppard plans to re-record more of its older material after finishing its just-started Rock Of Ages tour with Poison and Lita Ford, which wraps in mid-September. The group hasn't decided what it will take on next, but Elliott predicts that "someone will pull a song out of the ether and the five of us will stand looking at each other and go, 'Yeah, why not?' If we're gonna do them, it really doesn't matter what order we do them in. It'll be something you've heard of, no doubt."
Meanwhile, Elliott promises that doing the "forgeries" hasn't dampened Def Leppard's desire to get some fresh music together. "We're constantly thinking about it," he says. "We're going to write on the road, and it'll likely be, 'Hey, I've got this idea for a song' and we'll play it around in the dressing room, and then when the tour's over we'll get together in short bursts and record a song or two, and then we'll start piecing stuff together." The group's last new music was three studio tracks on the live "Mirrorball" album, and Elliott says Def Leppard might also consider "just releasing a song or two and then put an album out when we've got 10 or 11 songs we've been releasing over time. But we'll see; we come from that old school that follows in the paths of the Eltons and McCartneys and Beatles and Stones and etc. You have this built-in thing that you should be making another album, but the world's moving on and going, 'You don't really need to.'"
Elliott, meanwhile, is also working on a second album of Mott The Hoople-related covers with the Down 'n' Outz, his side-band project with members of the Quireboys that he expects to release in 2013. Don't hate your neighbors. Hate the media that tells you to hate your neighbors. |
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I guess the band are in a tight spot and are just doing what they feel they need to but I'm not in favour of these kind of re-recordings. | |
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I've never understood the purpose of re-recording the songs. Surely it doesn't trump where the money goes when the original versions are bought by a customer. Or is it to confuse new listeners into buying the re-recorded versions instead of the originals? Andy is a four letter word. | |
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To me, it seems like a lot of people don't know the difference.
As for the artist, it is a way for them to regain some type of control of their music while making more money than they would have off of the original.
If you think about it, they are doing the same thing Prince did in the late 90s. Prince claims to have re-recorded his back catalog. Boy am I glad that idea was scrapped. **--••--**--••**--••--**--••**--••--**--••**--••-
U 'gon make me shake my doo loose! http://www.twitter.com/nivlekbrad | |
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Yes, that is it exactly. Apparently the originals are not available for purchase as downloads due to a dispute with their label. These new re-recorded versions are available. Presumably Def Leppard get a bigger cut and the label receives nothing. Unfortunately it is unsuspecting listeners that are "punished" by buying inferior versions. | |
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Just downloaded them
She Believed in Fairytales and Princes, He Believed the voices coming from his stereo
If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me? | |
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sound exactly like you'd expect them to sound. To the trained ear nowhere as good as the original, to the casual Rock Of Ages newbie fan won't know the difference. This has been done a few times now. Kiss, Foreigner, Journey and now Def Leppard.It all depends on the band, and since Def leppard now all of a sudden are being marketed to some new audience, i can see their poiint somewhat. STYX did this last year with Re-Generation Volume 1 and 2 recording about 20 of their hits again, which is more understandable since Dennis Deyoung has been out of the band since 1999 and the band has been a major touring draw and has a whole new audience since 1999 so shaw went back and redid it and honestly with the new drummer who joined in 1995 and larry gowan who replaced DeYoung in 1999 its a huge plus, not better than originals but on par and just like new recordings "We went where our music was appreciated, and that was everywhere but the USA, we knew we had fans, but there is only so much of the world you can play at once" Magne F | |
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Hysteria: The New Master | |
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Another Mutt Lange catalog. How can he be honestly expected to give the thumbs up? He doesn't make any money off the new versions.
Don't worry about Mutt. He produced and co-wrote nearly every song on Shania Twain's three big albums, I'm sure he is doing fine. | |
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I'm sure he is but for Def Lepp to be like "what do you think of the new master" | |
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autopilot  | |
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I hate the idea of artists re-recording their old songs | |
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I bought a few 'Best of' compilations in the past that,unfortunately,featured re-recorded versions of the songs.I promptly got rid of those CDs.
I've been "tricked" into buying compilations that feature re-recorded versions | |
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Artists could at least have the decency to put a sticker on the front of the CD,letting people know that these are re-recorded versions.
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Many artists have been doing this the past few years. They do it for basically the same reason Prince did it with 1999. They do it so they can make $ off a classic track without dealing with whatever record label or publisher has the rights to the original recording. Most of the music video games like Guitar Hero are full of re-recordings...
Guess Prince was a pioneer in this too. Don't hate your neighbors. Hate the media that tells you to hate your neighbors. |
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I wouldn't mind some GOOD re-recorded versions of songs like Rock of Ages, Women or Love Bites, with less synths/electronic drums and more HEAVY guitars and deep, organic basslines/drums
for many, the first AND LAST! good-produced Leppard album was "High & Dry" (1981)... | |
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Nope. Fats Domino, Little Richard and Chuck Berry did something similar in the sixties when they re-recorded their fifties hits when they switched to a different label. | |
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I'm glad that Prince didn't follow through on his plans to release re-recorded versions of all his albums. | |
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I too dislike this re-recording garbage. Don't get me wrong, I understand the business reasons to do it but from a fan perspective don't mess with the original cause it will never sound as good. Plus, has anyone heard Elliot's voice lately? It's g-o-n-e. they used synths and crap to cover up how bad it was last year when I saw them live. The greatest live performer of our times was is and always will be Prince.
Remember there is only one destination and that place is U All of it. Everything. Is U. | |
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Blues acts did this too. John Lee Hooker re-recorded songs for different labels under different names (Texas Slim, Boogie Man) to get around contracts. Others re-recorded songs with different arrangements, song titles, or altered lyrics, like B.B. King & James Brown. Some small record labels used the same backing tracks more than once, but had different singers singing different lyrics over them to save money. You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
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Forgot about that! Johnny Cash did it too.
I stand corrected. Don't hate your neighbors. Hate the media that tells you to hate your neighbors. |
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Well, give yourself at least partial credit, Prince was probably one of the first artists to re-record a hit song in the "modern" era. | |
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I think George Michael beat him. He re-recorded Wham!'s I'm You Man. You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
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You're so right. He did it for Freedom also. I think he has 3 or 4 versions of Freedom now. **--••--**--••**--••--**--••**--••--**--••**--••-
U 'gon make me shake my doo loose! http://www.twitter.com/nivlekbrad | |
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Freedom 90 is not the same song though, unless you're talking about the single remix for the Wham! version. He did re-record Monkey with Jam & Lewis for the single version. Wham! Rap had 2 versions with different lyrics, but they were recorded at the same time. Then there was a version on the Edge Of Heaven album, but I think it's just a remix. George redid Heal The Pain with Paul McCartney though. [Edited 7/11/12 16:42pm] You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
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Not the same song, but he re-used the original Wham "Freedom" as the opening for the song "Faith." Then we got "Freedom 90." He then re-recorded it in 94. **--••--**--••**--••--**--••**--••--**--••**--••-
U 'gon make me shake my doo loose! http://www.twitter.com/nivlekbrad | |
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Sting has re-recorded Police songs like Demolition Man (for the movie) and Roxanne (with Pras & Puff Daddy). There was also a Roxanne acoustic and some songs re-recorded with an orchestra. You can take a black guy to Nashville from right out of the cotton fields with bib overalls, and they will call him R&B. You can take a white guy in a pin-stripe suit who’s never seen a cotton field, and they will call him country. ~ O. B. McClinton | |
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Def Leppard re-recording old hits is what happens when you snort all yo' duckets away.
~Chuck | |
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