January 29, 2025 | Awake & Dreaming

Retro Active is a compilation album by the English rock band Def Leppard, released in 1993. The album features touched-up versions of B-sides and previously unreleased recordings from the band’s recording sessions from 1984 to 1993. The album charted at number 9 on the Billboard 200 and No. 6 on the UK Albums Chart. After releasing only five albums over the course of a twelve-year period (4 years in between Pyromania & Hysteria, and then a further 5 years before Adrenalize) Def Leppard used Retro Active to break that habit, provide a treat for diehard fans.

Desert Song was an outtake from the songwriting sessions that produced 1987’s Hysteria. Self-produced, it became one of the last songs to be released by Def Leppard bearing the songwriting and guitar-playing of Steve Clark, who died on 8 January 1991. It was a hit on U.S. rock radio, reaching number twelve on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. Fractured Love sounds like it could have been on Pyromania. Up next is a cover of Sweet’s hit song Action. Originally a 1992 recording, it was released as a B-side to Make Love Like a Man. The music video was shot between June and December 1993; in Sheffield, Ottawa, and Joe Elliott’s home in Ireland.

Two Steps Behind is a one of their best ballads and included in the soundtrack to the film Last Action Hero. The gentle acoustic ballad reached number five on the US Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart, numbers 12 and 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100, and number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. Written in 1985, She’s Too Tough first appeared on the Helix album Wild in the Streets in 1987. It is a tough little rocker along the lines of mid-80s party rockers. The ballad Miss You in a Heartbeat, meanwhile, was first written and demoed by guitarist Collen in 1991 and was originally recorded by the Law, a band featuring Paul Rodgers and the Who drummer Kenney Jones, for their self-titled album in 1991.

Def Leppard later recorded their own version in April the following year, which they released as a B-side on the Make Love Like a Man single. Only After Dark which is a fun rollicking romp on the guitar is a cover of Mick Ronson’s single. A song that was written around the making of Hysteria, Ride Into the Sun is a rockier change. A surprise is the acoustic From The Inside which is a hate song and feels like the band wrote or recorded the song around a fireplace. Lyrically it is so different from their usual fun or love songs. Ring Of Fire is co-written along with the famed 6th Lep John Mutt Lange and is hard rock number, which would have been at home in Pyromania. The pleading I Wanna Be Your Hero as originally released on the 1987 singles Animal in the US and Pour Some Sugar on Me in the UK. T.

The albums closers are an electric version of Two Steps Behind and a piano version of Miss You In A Heartbeat, which is a hidden track.

If you could switch careers, what would you do? Why?

If I could make a change of careers right now I would choose to be a writer and ofcourse get paid lots and lots for it. I would love to have that as my passion and my livelihood that makes me a ton of money. I could stay in and write for a few hours a day or maybe take my devices and go and sit in a cafe for a few hours and relax there, drink some expensive coffee and write at a relaxed pace. This is the life!

I actually could work from a cafe on certain days if I wanted to as long as I don’t have to use public wifi and instead brought along a dongle for connectivity. I have a few colleagues who actually use one of these devices for work and they like the flexibility that it provides so they can work anywhere as long as they take their laptop with them. The purpose of getting away from the office or, in case of work from homers, from home and chillaxing with a cold one while getting some work done is awesome. As a writer, it would be easy to have this done.

Just a laptop and dongle or you can just bring in a bluetooth keyboard and your tab or phone and type away while you get a frappe or a latte and enjoy them with a sandwich or muffin. Take a pause in between and look at the fellow patrons, see the cars passing by, nod at the staff busy taking orders and making the coffee with a smile etc etc.