"Rocket" is a song recorded by English rock band Def Leppard in 1987 from the album Hysteria. It was released in January 1989 as the seventh and final single from the album and reached the Top 15 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart.[3] It is the band’s final single to be released with guitarist Steve Clark before his death in 1991.
Background and composition
Singer Joe Elliott came up with the idea of "Rocket" after he overheard a friend's cassette of "Burundi Black" by Burundi Steiphenson Black, which had previously had an influence on such UK bands as Adam and the Ants and Bow Wow Wow. Elliott then borrowed the tape to make a rhythm loop and overlaid guitar chords over it for a rough draft on the song. When he brought it to Lange and the band, they re-recorded and developed Elliott's idea in a higher key. The song was nearly developed as a near-instrumental with only a short chorus ("Rocket! Yeah"), but after the lyrics "Satellite of Love", which referenced the song of the same name by Lou Reed in 1972, were added to the chorus, the band expanded on the concept of the song and added musical influences of the 1960s and 1970s as lyrics for the verses, including the vocal melody to "I Feel Free" by Cream as part of the guitar solo.
During one break in the production of the song, the band were surprised to find that Lange had added the extended breakdown, complete with the vocal sampling, to the middle of the song. Lange also instructed the band to record monk-like chants, that were also similarly used by Adam and the Ants in their song "Dog Eat Dog", to emphasize a guitar solo during the breakdown.[4] Although the drumbeat samples, played at the beginning of the extended and edited version after audio from the Apollo 11 Moon landing[5] and again during the first half of each verse and the breakdown, are widely mis-attributed to be taken from the Royal Drummers of Burundi, they are actually a series of drum machines programmed by Lange and drummer Rick Allen to play slightly out-of-sync with one another to provide a tribal drum effect within the song.
Release and promotion
The song features nods to other tracks on Hysteria. Producer Mutt Lange used backmasking effects to feature the line "We're fighting with the gods of war" (from "Gods of War") sung backward throughout the track, though this sample was omitted from the single version of the song. The words "Love" and "Bites" (from "Love Bites") are also used as a sonic effect midway throughout the song, in order to replicate the sounds of a rocket launch through musical samples.
In its single release, "Rocket" was heavily edited from its original length of 6:34 for radio airplay. The band alternate between the album version and the single edit in live performance. UK versions of the single release featured a cover of the Engelbert Humperdinck song "Release Me", credited to "Stumpus Maximus & The Good Ol' Boys", which was actually Malvin Mortimer, the band's future tour manager, backed up by the band members themselves.
Critical reception
Reviewing the single in the 4 February 1989 edition of Record Mirror, Phil Cheeseman chided the song for lack of class and supposed that the band "caught lethargy bug".[6]Stuart Maconie of New Musical Express echoed by saying "this thing sounds like a vile mating of Whitesnake. Actually, it doesn't since that sounds quite fun in a tasteless sort of way". B-side cover song, "Release Me", was called as "scuzzbucket".[7] In turn, Mick Mercer of Melody Maker left more positive response on single. He found the title track "more amenable than their recent singles" and called it "positively trivial in parts".[8]Cash Box said that "the song structure in 'Rocket' relies on stacked vocal harmonies that build to an almost facetiously simple chorus."[9]
Guitar World magazine voted Rocket's guitar solo the 17th worst of all time in a countdown published in December 2004's issue. The magazine commented that "[Rocket has] a solo that any four year-old with a rack-mounted effects unit could play."[10]
Music video
The music video for this song was directed by Nigel Dick.[11]
The video is the band's last with Steve Clark before his death in 1991.[citation needed] It was filmed in the same warehouse in the Netherlands used nearly two years earlier for the "Women" clip in 1987.[citation needed] The lyrics and video are centered around the 1970s with various newsreels including Richard Nixon's disgrace, Edward Heath's fall from power to Margaret Thatcher as leader of the Conservatives, the Apollo 13 crisis, and a variety of clips/newsreels of 70's music icons. Clips of the classic rock names from the lyrics (see below) are flashed during the video, along with footage of the various artists performing live or on BBC TV's Top of the Pops. The 1971 FA Cup Final, won by Arsenal, also features; particularly goal scorer, club legend and crowd favourite Charlie George.
Lyrics
For its lyrics, the names of classic rock artists, songs or albums are dropped as a tribute to the music of the band's youth.
