Gods Of War

This is as close to a protest song as you're going to hear from Def Leppard. Inspired by what he saw on the news, lead singer Joe Elliott takes on world leaders and their penchant for starting wars that others will have to fight. It's the only track from Hysteria with any political overtones, and it drew scoffs from some critics who dismissed it as silly coming from the band that gave us "Pour Some Sugar On Me." Elliott articulated his frustration in a 1988 interview with Q, where he said: "I can write 'Gods Of War' - 'Oh yeah, another Heavy metal holocaust song'! People won't look past the ends of their noses; they think we're all Spinal Tap or Bad News. Nobody will pick up the details of 'Gods Of War' like they do a Morrissey song."

Towards the end of this song, you hear recordings of US President Ronald Reagan addressing terrorists, telling them that they can run but can't hide.

MTV VJ Alan Hunter (one of the original five video jockeys from the early years) shares his thoughts about Def Leppard in the book MTV Ruled the World - The Early Years of Music Video: "Def Leppard was easy for me to embrace. They weren't just heavy rock 'n' roll. I didn't love the heavier stuff. I mean, look, I got into Motley Crue... but they were so lightweight, it just didn't get me going. It was fun to see a band like that, that had been kicking around for a while, that finally, across the ocean, found great success on MTV. And it was really only because of MTV. No one would have heard about them on radio. I don't think they were being played on radio at all at the time. So that was the other 'weirdo phenomenon,' that MTV was the first portal for so many bands, and they didn't even bother with radio."