Give It A Spin

That's Entertainment : Aerosmith [the Geffen years]

So, are we all back at work? All Christmassed out? Good!!! How has your summer been? It certainly was hot enough for me! Enough small talk? Okay…back to it!!

For the summer holidays 1989/90 I was lucky enough to travel to Moscow. It was still the Soviet era and the city shivered at -40 degree temperatures that winter. So imagine returning to Australia in late January to 35 degree heat and humidity! Anyway…to cut a long story short, I remember the immigration lady chaperoning me from the plane telling me about a song she was really liking called Janie’s Got A Gun. At this time, I’d never heard of the band that performed it - Aerosmith - but the song was giving The B-52’s Loveshack a good shake for the #1 spot on the ARIA charts.

I remember hearing it the first time. What immediately grabbed me was the ethereal, shimmery watery intro that led in to a plucked guitar suite with Steve Tyler’s mournful vocals layered over the top. Of course, I had to get the cassingle and seeing as pretty much every other person was loving the song in that Jan/Feb 1990 period, it quickly was a song played on my Walkman over and over and over and over (the beauty of cassingles were you had the single and the B-side on both sides, so you could listen to both, then flip the tape and not chew up battery). The outro, with it’s strings and glorious layered vocals are something that can be belted out any time its on and to this day - even right now - remind me of 14 year old me laying on my bed in a cubicle in a humid dormitory waiting for the summer rain.

Anyway. Janie’s Got A Gun is quite rightly one of those AMAZING rock songs that even now still sounds fresh and rocktacular. Eventually I would buy the album Pump, with the ‘naughty’ innuendo laced album cover, and Aerosmith firmly became one of my fave bands. It worked perfectly because these 'old guys’ [Old? They were my age now in 1989/90 - pushing 40!] who had inspired so many hair metal acts were now showing the whipper snappers like Motley Crue, Poison and Skid Row how it was really done. I learnt everything I could about the band, learning they had an enviable back catalogue and had fallen off the wagon and upon hard times in the early 80’s after a decade of debauchery during the 70’s. Rap wunderkinds Run DMC had taken Aerosmith’s earlier hit, Walk This Way, and covered it, giving Aerosmith a new lease of life, culminating in the massive return album in Permanent Vacation littered with gems like Rag Doll, Dude Looks Like A Lady and Angel.

But it was with Pump, with its impeccable blend of sleazy greasy rock - Love In An Elevator, Don’t Get Mad Get Even, and aching ballad What It Takes [could there be any better album closer than this?!?] and mystic mojo of The Other Side and Voodoo Medicine Man - that won them a whole new generation of fans. It quite seriously is an ‘album’ - play it from start to finish, no skipping tracks, no fast forward or rewind, no lulls. Of course, from there, it was world tours for these cleaned up lads whose singer and lead guitarist were once dubbed The Toxic Twins and were America’s answer to the Rolling Stones, The Who and Led Zeppelin all rolled in to one.

With all the touring and re-found vitality and two 5 million + selling albums, Aerosmith swaggered in to the studio and embarked upon their next album, which would eventually see the light of day in 1993. Get A Grip came out just as hair metal was waning and grunge and alternative rock was ascending but this didn’t dissuade listeners from buying it up with 7 million copies sold in the US alone. And as part of the pre-release, I nabbed a Ltd Edition cow hide cover which to this day, is a pride and joy in my collection. Always a band that meshed pomp rock and blues licks with a keen commercial pop hook, Get A Grip contained a fair mix of belters and ballads. In fact, it was Aerosmith who gifted Alicia Silverstone her acting career with three video clips off the album and again produced a slew of radio friendly rock that won over the boys and girls. Livin’ On The Edge started proceedings, followed quickly by Eat The Rich, but it would be the trio of rock ballads - Cryin’, Crazy and Amazing - that would garner them plenty of radio/video airings. So much so, later in the decade, it was hardly surprising to see them top charts with I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing from the Armageddon soundtrack [and singer Steve is actress Liv Tyler’s daddy too].

By the mid-1990’s, Aerosmith’s stay on the Geffen record label would finish up and they would return to their spiritual home of Columbia Records. Well, Columbia were smart enough to remaster Aerosmith’s first decade of hits and grandeur and cash in on the newfound Geffen success with a 3 disc set - Pandora's Box. Eventually, Nine Lives would follow in 1997 as did Just Push Play in 2001, two more brilliant pop-rock albums. But by the turn of the century, Aerosmith had become the granddaddies of rock, balancing lawyers, accountants, egos and everything else that gets in-between. They became an on again, off again affair, with a new tour and best of mining their past glories. Stuck between releasing new music that serves multiple masters and giving punters what they want, Steve Tyler became a host of American Idol and guitar god Joe Perry looks like a guy happy to be a guitar slinger when he’s not retired, and is the understated voice of reason to Steve Tyler’s whacky dude the gals all clamour for. And with two of Rock Royalties most dynamic showmen in the band, it’s often easy to overlook the backbone of the band in drummer Joey Kramer [voicing a former love interest of Mrs Krabappel on The Simpsons AND creating the name of the band] , guitarist Brad Whitford [an ace axeman] and bassist Tom Hamilton [the resident comedian and chatterbox who loves doing the band’s press].

Of course, this column has completely ignored the fact that the 10-15 years before the ‘come back’, Aerosmith released a slew of rock classics in Mama Kin, Dream On, Walk This Way and Sweet Emotion [easily one of the BEST EVER Southern fried boogie rock songs AND when re-released in 1991, a cool as film clip with a neat twist ending]. So balancing the 1970’s hey day, their ‘come back’ success and the fact they're now rock royalty with everything else that gets in the way would be a tough gig. That they’re all still alive is a minor miracle in itself. That they continue to record new albums and tour is of course, to rock music fans a privilege.

That said, Aerosmith will always have a special spot in my heart. Listening to Pump reminds me of being in Year 8, and in turn reminds me of Tecehnotronic, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Young Guns and hanging around to watch the end of RAGE, Video Hits and Countdown Revolution to see them air Janie’s Got A Gun just one more time. It was a wonderful carefree time and Aerosmith certainly was part of that soundtrack tapestry. And sure, Pump ushered in the commercial hit era as opposed to the raw rock of their early years, but I’m not complaining. Now owning all their gear, I can truly appreciate Aerosmith for their years of moving, groovin’ and rocking and a rolling. A tremendous act, if you don’t already have some tracks, check out the relatively inexpensive best of titled O Yeah / The Essential Aerosmith 2 disc. Or nab Pump for a tenner.

And since it’s one of those humid, rainy, warm and languid days [with both kids at school], I’ve got Aerosmith on loud and I’m screeching out Dude Looks Like A Lady and Sweet Emotion and Love In An Elevator and wondering where the hell 25 years went…much like the band members of Aerosmith do on a daily basis.

RAWK ON!!!