In the Rock of Life series I will be recounting my music listening history throughout the years. Each year, starting with 1982, I will describe what I was listening to at the time and then pick my “Album of the Year”. Some (arbitrary) rules: the album will have been released in that year, although some could be from late in the prior year. It must be an album I actually listened to back then, not an album I discovered later. It can’t be a “greatest hits” album.
With my portable cassette player and my portable transistor radio, I continued to listen to a lot of music, however looking at my current Apple Music Library for music from 1983 does not reveal a lot. I see these bands listed:
Def Leppard
Dio
Quiet Riot
ZZ Top
Loverboy
Yes
Kiss
Metallica
Billy Idol
Bonnie Tyler
Dokken
Slade
Stevie Nicks
John Cafferty & The Beaver Brown Band
Some of those band had some great songs that still enjoy to this day. I just love Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler. The 90125 album by Yes got a lot of radio play and I remember hearing Owner of a Lonely Heart and Leave It a lot.
Run Runaway by Slade is just wonderful.
Most of those other bands I really didn’t discover until after 1983.
But the two that were biggest for me in 1983 were easily Def Leppard and Quiet Riot. Both had huge albums in 1983, with Quiet Riot’s Metal Health actually hitting #1 on the Billboard 200 in November, helped by their #5 hit Cum on Feel the Noise (a Slade cover). Def Leppard’s Pyromania peaked at #2.
My favorite song that year became Rock of Ages by Def Leppard.
As Christmas approached I had two big things I wanted: a boombox and Def Leppard’s Pyromania. My parents came through and I got both, the boombox being a Panasonic RX-1650 cassette radio:
Although this was not stereo, it had a big speaker (and a tweeter) so it actually sounded really good and could get very loud. It’s size made it a little easier to carry around as well.
Although both were huge albums and have since each sold over 10 million copies, overall Pyromania was a much better and more consistent album than Metal Health. Since then Def Leppard has grown to become my all-time favorite band.
My pick of album of 1983 goes to Pyromania by Def Leppard.
The Rock of Life list so far:
1983: Pyromania by Def Leppard
Rock of Life makes me think of Rick Springfield. I feel the big beat. Rock of Life. Those tunes, that list. Takes me way back.
I grew up listening to normal rock for a white kid in the suburbs: Fleetwood Mac, Doobie Bros., Eagles, Steve Miller Band. In college, started getting into harder stuff: UFO, AC/DC, Rainbow.
But most importantly to me in 1983, my mom gave me and my roommates passes to the San Diego Zoo - with the stipulation we go on the day Count Basie & His Orchestra were playing as part of the Zoo's Summer Big Bands series.
Changed my life. Learned that 12 men hitting a note as one possesses an energy and power that no stack of Marshall amps can touch.
Been on a serious jazz and blues bender ever since ... ;-)