When they are thought of at all, 80’s rockers Def Leppard are usually dismissed as pop-metal lightweights so devoid of chops or musical ambition that their drummer could lose an arm without affecting their sound. Such an attitude would be a mistake, though.
A sly appreciation of history and politics lurks just beneath the surface of many of their slick, over-produced tunes. For example, their early hit “Photograph” is loosely based on the life of Civil War photographer Mathew Brady. Similarly, their hit power ballad “Love Bites” retells the story of the Donner Party.
Another history lesson can be found in the band’s biggest hit, 1987’s “Pour Some Sugar On Me.” At first blush, the song seems to be about little more than a sticky encounter with some unfortunate groupie. But as lead singer Joe Elliot now admits, the lyrics are actually about the Battle of the Saintes, an important 1782 naval battle for control of Jamaica.
At the time, Jamaica was England’s most important colony. The island’s sugar trade accounted for 20% of total British imports, and the colony was actually much more important to England’s economy than its 13 American cousins. Tobacco never made England as much money as sugar. Thus, when French and Spanish forces combined to try and wrest control of the island from Britain, the ensuing battle was tremendously important.
Def Leppard’s seemingly silly song celebrates the stunning British victory. Right at the very start, the choral intonation of “Love is like a bomb” introduces the idea of a battle taking place. The verses themselves are all about specific incidents during the Battle of the Saintes. For example, the line “You gotta squeeze a little, tease a little, please a little more” echoes the actual instructions given to fighting men for firing their muskets. And who is the “Little Miss Innocent” who gets called out in a pair of lines? None other than Rear Admiral Samuel Hood, whose Royal Navy nickname was, in fact, Little Miss Innocent!
The chorus of the song reflects the post-battle celebrations held on the Jamaican beach. “Take a bottle, shake it up” refers to sailors breaking out champagne after winning the battle. The drunken British revelers then tore into a local sugar warehouse and capped off the evening by having native women dump the sweet granules over them as they sang “Hail Brittania!” When the song was released, British history buffs instantly recognized “Pour Some Sugar On Me” as the victory cry of Admiral George Rodney, but most who heard the song had no idea of its real historical background.
In the years since its release, some British scholars have quibbled with the way Def Leppard changed a few details to fit their song. For example, French naval hero Comte de Grasse was never described as “lookin’ like a tramp, like a video vamp.” At another point, Elliot sings “You got the peaches, I got the cream,” although it is a known fact that there were no peaches involved in the celebration at all, and it was the Jamaicans who provided the fresh cream. Elliot defended this choice by saying, “I just didn’t think the historically accurate line ‘I got the limes, the natives brought cream’ had the same sexy feel to it.”
The original U.K. 7-inch single of “Pour Some Sugar On Me” came in a sleeve that folded out into a diorama of the battle, but the band’s record label found the promotion to be too costly to continue for the U.S. release. Rather than focus on the gripping historical tale found in the lyrics, they marketed the song as a mindless blast of sexy fun. The song became a huge hit, but at the cost of a timely history lesson. As Elliot now says, “Americans just want the party. They don’t want to know why we are partying, or with which specific fruit.”
Related: Ladies’ Night: Kool & the Gang’s Unheralded Feminist History Lesson
Q: What has nine arms and sucks?
A: Def Leppard!