Random Record Review:

Rock In A Hard Place - Aerosmith [1982]

In 1977 and 1978 Aerosmith was America's Favorite American Band. But on the inside the cancer of drugs was killing the individual members and the band itself. Suffering from burnout and tired of the constant fighting lead guitarist Joe Perry left Aerosmith late in 1979 shortly before the release of Night In the Ruts. As he walked out the door, he told the band that they were not ready for the 80s. In the Aerosmith bio Walk This Way, bassist Tom Hamilton admits that it was hard to hear because it was very [very, very, me emphasis] true.

Perry was replaced  by Jimmy Crespo but the touring Crespo was supposed to do in 1980 was cancelled by Steven Tyler's motorcycle accident which left him in a cast for much of the year. Sessions for what would become Rock In A Hard Place started sometime in 1981 with producer Tony Bongiovi. A few tracks were laid down but after a break in the fall of 1981 second guitarist Brad Whitford snapped and stayed up in Boston leaving Crespo on his own with the bare bones of the band [Hamilton, Tyler and drummer Joey Kramer] who decided to soldier on. But things ground to a halt as Tyler's drug use kept him from adding lyrics and vocals. Hamilton notes that for about a year the album was always “two months form being ready.” It took the return of Jack Douglas [producer of the classic Aerosmith records Get Your Wings, Toys In the Attic, Rocks and (unfortunately for him) Draw the Line] and getting the band to Miami's Criterion Studios [i.e. away from well-established connections] to finish the album.

Not to say that the finished product is a masterpiece. But I will hold this up as more authentic than anything I heard after 1989’s Pump. [And Pump hangs in as the last good to great Aerosmith by default because repeated listenings of Permanent Vacation reveal how weak the second side is.] Admittedly this is only owning [for a time] but not really digging the overly polished Get A Grip, a tasting of  the disappointing as Draw the Line album that was Nine Lives and the singles off of Just Push Play – of which Jaded was a fucking great song! Anyway, Jack Douglas manages to pull together the bits and pieces and make a good record out of the train wreck of what one was Aerosmith in 1982.

Let me state at the top and for the record – while Jimmy Crespo is not Joe Perry or Brad Whitford, Jimmy Crespo lays down a TON of amazing guitar work here. It’s ABSOLUTELY 110 % NOT HIS FAULT that the singer and lyricist Tyler was unable to match what he laid down. Two listens to Jailbait [maybe the best track here] and the layers of Joanie’s Butterfly and Jimmy Crespo should be off the hook and spoken of in the admiring tones of Vinnie Vincent bringing Kiss back from the near dead on Lick It Up. And credit where credit is due, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer rise to the challenge here and put in some really, really good work of their own.

The first three songs of side A [Jailbait, Lightning Strikes and Bitch’s Brew] are a pretty good salvo of American Hard Rock circa 1979. Unfortunately, it’s 1982 and rock has a new energy and a new guitar hero two or even three steps removed from Chuck Berry, Keith Richards, Jimmy Page and Joe Perry. Aerosmith has been usurped as "America's Favorite American Band" by the band from California that opened for them at the 1978 Texxas Jam called Van Halen. Bolivian Ragamuffin is dragged down by Tyler’s lyrics, which don’t allow this to rise above being a really good riff but ultimately mediocre track. The side closing cover of Cry Me A River [Tyler admits in Walk that it is there only because he could not come up with anymore lyrics for whatever remains in the can] is a good cover with only Tyler’s vocal holding it from being damn good.

The second side opens with Tyler on a Vocoder with some nonsense Prelude To Joanie leading into Joanie’s Butterfly. What is he talking about? I don’t know but hell it’s a kick ass track. The title track Rock In A Hard Place [Cheshire Cat] finds the band rocking the fuck out of a funky riff that is not far off anything from Rocks or the few highlights of Draw the Line or Night In the Ruts. Jig Is Up seems to be a twisted version of the Bolivian Ragamuffin theme: great riff, mediocre lyrics. Again, the side ends with a downer. Push Comes to Shove seems be an unsatisfying leftover from the Draw the Line album. It's not as heavy a downer as Mia from Night In the Ruts but damn that song [and album] ends with fucking funeral bells tolling!

Is this a classic Aerosmith album? No. But it is a very listenable album for the most part and it’s one I reach for more than Draw the Line or Night In the Ruts which do feature Perry and Whitford and one I wish more people would take for a ride.