High ‘n’ Dry

It’s always driven my crazy, how Guns n’ Roses just apostrophes the truncated ‘d’ of their “and,” but just leaves us all wondering what happened to the ‘a.’ It’s a petty concern, granted, but it seems to me that, if you’re not going to go just with a straight, naked ‘n,’ then you’re kind of compelled to stash an apostrophe on each side of that lonely letter, so that we visually understand it’s really (a)n(d).

All of which is to say, quite possibly I was trained on Def Leppard’s High ‘n’ Dry. When in halfway doubt, just put apostrophes everywhere. Only thinking about it because, finally, after so many years of honest devotion and proselytizing and singing along, I saw them last night:

They put on a great show, and played everything I wanted, except the one song that was sneaked onto my old cassette of High ‘n’ Dry, as I recall: “Me and My Wine.” But it’s in my head, and my heart. Been singing along with that one since well before I’d ever tasted wine. And, even now—I don’t like wine, but I still love that song.

Really, though, Def Leppard was everything I imagined, live. And, man, Tesla was there too, opening. And Tesla still brings it. They were always so good, and still are. Here’s them from last year—same stage, same setup, same guys:

Next, I just need to see D-A-D. Somehow, someway.