Joe Elliott: The 10 Records That Changed My Life
Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott goes back to the 1970s to pick the 10 records that shaped his taste and changed his life.
"When we initially started out this band, we had literally no idea that there would be any band ever that would last for 40 years, or have an album that was 30 years old," says Def Leppard's Joe Elliott."
"Zeppelin were still together when we formed. The Beatles had only been spilt for seven years. The Stones and The Who were probably only 15 years older than us at the time."
In 2017 Def Leppard's mammoth-selling Hysteria joined the ranks of 30-year-old albums, and the 58-year-old Joe Elliott is 14 years older than Bob Dylan was when he appeared onstage at Live Aid. But the eternal youth of rock stardom now lasts much last a lot longer than it used to, and Hysteria has proved to be timeless.
Below, Joe picks the 10 Records That Changed His Life.
Mott The Hoople - Wildlife
This actually came about via a compilation called El Pea. It was a double record put out by Island records that had 24 tracks by 24 of their artists. Island Records in those days was phenomenal: Mott the Hoople. Free. Cat Stevens. Jethro Tull. Spooky Tooth. Jimmy Cliff. A crazy, brilliant, eclectic collection of people. And that's where I originally heard this song called Original Mixed Up Kid by Mott the Hoople. That was my big intro into Mott, alongside Radio Luxembourg.
But I don't want to go with a compilation record, so I'll choose the record it came from, which is called Wildlife. It was a Mott the Hoople studio album and it was very mild. There were many rockers on it, but it was different from their first, and from everything that came afterwards.
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
When I was 10, my friend Nigel — who lived down the road from me — was 14. He liked King Crimson and Jethro Tull and proggy rock like uriah Heep. I used to go round to his house and listen to his records, and whenever Aqualung came on something resonated with me.
You start with the title track and its brilliant riff, all the way through to nearly the end with Locomotive Breath, and there's so much great stuff in between. There's so many great tunes: Mother Goose; Cross-Eyed Mary. It's such a great album, and I still play it a lot these days.
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