Aerosmith ~ Honkin' On Bobo (album review) ... Blues on speed!

Style: blues-rock, cover, tribute
Label: Columbia
Year: 2004
Home: n/a

Members: Steven Tyler ~ lead vocals/harmonica/piano/percussion
Joe Perry ~ lead guitar/vocals
Brad Whitford ~ guitars
Tom Hamilton ~ bass
Joey Kramer ~ drums

Additional: Tracy Bonham ~ b. vocals
Johnnie Johnson ~ piano
The Memphis Horns ~ brass
Paul Santo ~ piano/electric piano/organ

Aerosmith turns in a balls to the wall blues album covering classic blues cuts ... which ends up sounding like a rock band that knows the blues, but hasn't played the real blues & in turn creates a train wreck that succeeds in a few places almost by accident.  They have one foot in the blues, but Aerosmith is firmly a rock band. Its honorable that they want to recognize their roots by making a blues album with classic songs, versus writing a bluesy rock album like Merzy or Cinderella, but what was their goal? Was it to play great blistering blues? Was it to interpret old songs? Was it to give a rock feel to blues songs? Was it to have fun? I think they did have fun, but as for the other questions I can't give much answer. I heard this when it came out & never wanted to hear any more from them. Listening to it years later I still don't like it for the same reasons, & I say this having changed my listening interests over this time. I found & now find again this album to not be bluesy, but just noisy. It wasn't particularly great rock, but filler songs on the B-side. This is farther away from the blues than they've ever made. Its blues for people who don't know the blues, thus they won't know how bad it is. While its an example of a bad blues album by a great rock band. While this album is full of wonderful blues classics, but I doubt anyone will walk away knowing this. I doubt anyone will hum "You Gotta Move" or want to hear the original. I hope they don't want to hear the original, as they'll realize how Aerosmith jettisoned everything great about the song & turned it into rock filler fluff. For example, "Road Runner" is a classic song with a great memorable riff. The riff is completely drowned out here & doubtful anyone will come away humming it. While, is that an excess of cymbals in the song, as the rhythm section just feels like a wash of indistinct sound ... or was this album poorly mixed? Likely a bit of both, as what blues song has a drum solo? This sounds like a no talent bar band trying to play a song one drunken night. I feel bad that Aerosmith likely worked hard to sound this bad. The Jeff Beck-esque guitar solo that uses all the foot pedals to create lots of sounds just demonstrates what a mess this is. We know its a mess, but thanks for driving the point home. Whose idea was it to break the solo up into numerous sounds? Is this an attempt to have emotion knowing the blues is all about feeling? Complete failure to do anything but twist knobs in the studio & make the biggest wall of sound ever. Every instrument in this bad bar band is trying to play over each other. Nobody is listening to each other. No instrument stands out. Its amateur blues hour. The fact is, "Dream On" had more feeling than this entire record, so there's no need for this to be a train wreck or a show off situation of how many sounds your instrument can make. "Shame, Shame, Shame" features wild guitar playing that might be interesting if the rest of the band was giving it a platform that was interesting. Not a mess of everyone trying to play the blues as fast as possible with no groove, not letting any instrument breathe, not giving any hook a moment to shine, not caring about any sense of melody. Were they on speed when they recorded this? What drugs were they on? I can just imagine Willy Dixon with his big upright bass telling his band to play as fast as possible. Actually, no, I can't, as it defies reality. When jazz pianist Bill Evans started playing fast near the end of his career it was because he thought that's what people wanted in jazz - flash over substance. Only before he died did he slow down again & realize he had it wrong, & that playing fast isn't better. The album ends with "Jesus Is On The Mainline", which attempts to be Delaney & Bonnie's Motel Shot in a big rollicking gospel choir with acoustic guitar, but it couldn't sound more out of place, not to mention contrived. There's nothing gospel or choir-like about Aerosmith, & having a female lead the group made it more out of place. Its like if the next AC/DC album was promoted as retro & closed with an all female a cappella doo-wop outing. If this is an experiment in music making, than I'll give it some points, as it has more in common with drugged out albums of the '60's & '70's for me than anything remotely like the blues. I should say, in high school & college I was a super jazz and blues fan. My life changed the day I heard Robert Johnson & I started learning guitar to play him. I love the blues. I can't get into this. I've seen reviews praise this album, but after a couple listens both at the time of release & over a decade later I don't believe the reviewers are listening to the same album. Maybe they just refuse to acknowledge the fact Aerosmith made a stinker after two decades of great albums. They are a great band & it hurts to confess they failed, but confess it. There are a few decent moments. Two, to be precise. "Never Loved A Girl" has the music is slowed down, the Hammond organ is given space, the guitars subtle, the drums laid back, the band knows when to play & when not, Tyler sings his heart out as one of rock's most iconic singers, & there's even a horn line. If the entire album was like this than it would be one of their greatest albums ever, hands-down. This song was crafted & is wonderful blues. The song is golden & worth including on hits compilations by them. For Joe, who sings, it might be one of his greatest songs on record. "Back Back Train" is an interesting moment with Joe & Tracy Bonham on backing vocals. It is sincerely haunting & raw. Though, I begin to think maybe Joe should have been in charge & not Stephen. But, that's it. Nothing else on this album I found anything but disturbingly bad & embarrassing. Though, points to Stephen singing his heart out in wonderful form. He's one of our most emotive singers, but the material doesn't do him any justice.

Aerosmith ~ Done With Mirrors (album review) ... What did Steven say?

Style: classic rock, hard rock
Label: Geffen
Year: 1985
Home: Boston, Massachusetts

Members: Steven Tyler ~ vocals
Joe Perry ~ guitar/b. vocals
Brad Whitford ~ guitar
Tom Hamilton ~ bass
Joey Kramer ~ drums


Joe Perry & Brad Whitford's return to Aerosmith got the boys reinvigorated & facing the right direction for a big comeback that would keep them flying high for years with more certified hits than they'd ever had, though this wasn't the comeback they were hoping it would be & has since fallen into obscurity pushed there as much by critics/fans as the bandmembers who feel it incomplete. Done With Mirrors, most famous for being originally released with everything from the liner notes to the music being reversed & essentially unlistenable & unreadable, may not be the planned comeback they wanted, but it's a good strong step away from where the immediately previous albums sank. Standout "Darkness" hearkens back to the successful early days of Aerosmith with its soft vocals, piano & snapping fingers cool cat opening, while also foreshadowing what was on the horizon in future albums with a strong memorable melody line & musical variety. Aerosmith rarely gets credited with having one of the great rock singers or one of the top guitar heroes or the most amazing rhythm section, but they do get credited with having good weaving guitars & grooves & a powerful vibe where the whole is stronger than the parts. Their secret is in interesting uncluttered melody lines, musical variety & sing-a-long memorable lyrics. "Darkness" is a perfect example of the band on a creative high. If this album fails its due to the fact that the songwriting isn't always really that interesting (for example, "My Fist Your Face") with the band throwing out lyrics that sound good because of the way they're sung not for what they say, much like what Marilyn Manson does. While the arrangements are trying but not quite the memorable grab your ear riffs that Aerosmith would later put out. The band would become too experimental & throw too much into the pot with albums like Music From Another Dimension, but here things are still quite the opposite being a bit too restrained if anything. "Let The Music Do The Talking" is a superior cleaner version versus the original that was the title track of a Joe Perry Project album that suffered from being cluttered. Aerosmith would later get cluttered with their albums & the results would suffer with feeling like a personality crisis with too many sounds, solos and dynamics, but those days are still in the distant future for 1985. Done With Mirrors is Aerosmith getting their footing again, but what would make their later albums better is the experimentation that would happen, the variety beyond just guitar rock which basically this album is. The synthesizer heavy "The Reason My Dog" is an interesting song for its non-guitar focus. This album would be followed by Permanent Vacation that would put the past behind the band & make them bigger than ever with the hits "Rag Doll", "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)" & "Angel", while that would be eclipsed by Pump with the standout "Janie's Got A Gun" & "Love In An Elevator" where Aerosmith's particular brand of tongue-in-cheek raunchiness would turn them into one of the biggest band. Done With Mirrors is a nice little effort that will be interesting for fans that came later to the band, but probably more of interest to early day fans.

One Way Street: A Tribute To Aerosmith (album review) ... Aerosmith should be worried about competition!

Style: hard rock, heavy metal, classic rock, tribute
Label: Shrapnel
Year: 2001
Home: n/a

Members: Joe Lynn Turner, Tim "Ripper" Owens, Jeff Scott Soto, Whitfield Crane, Glenn Hughes, Bobby Kimball, Jack Russell, Doug Pinnick, Robin McAuley, John Corabi, Fee Waybill ~ vocals
Doug Aldrich, Al Pitrelli, Reb Beach, Steve Lukather, Blues Saraceno, Bruce Kulick, Stevie Salas, Craig Goldy, Richie Kotzen, Elliot Easton, Waddy Wachtel ~ guitars
Jeff Pilson, Tony Franklin, Carmine Rojas, Michael Porcaro, Tim Bogert, Jason Scheff, John Alderete, Jimmy Haslip, Marco Mendoza, Jimmy Bain, Phil Sousson ~ bass
Carmine Appice, Eric Singer, Frankie Banali, Pat Torpey, Rick Morotta, Tony Thompson, Aynsley Dunbar, Brian Tichy, Vinnie Colaiuta, Gregg Bissonette, Vinny Appice ~ drums
Derek Sherinian, Paul Taylor ~ keyboards

Additional: David Glen Eisley, Alex Ligertwood ~ b. vocals
Bob Kulick, Bruce Bouillet ~ guitars
Scott Walton ~ keyboards

With guitarist Bob Kulick producing & former Yes member Billy Sherwood doing some engineering, this is an all-star tribute album in every way. As for the musical way ... some tribute albums call upon bands to submit tracks by a particular artist or to submit songs that come under a theme. Other tribute albums, quite often with Kulick in the production chair well by choice or label favorite, take the different & more exciting approach of bringing together musicians & randomly pairing them up to record a single track. The unpredictability factor is exponentially increased, as while we may know how a certain musician, such as a recognizable singer or guitarist, is with a certain backing band or producing their own music, the question now is how are they with musicians they may or may not know, with someone else producing & with someone else's material that may or may not be a good fit? The outcome isn't always pretty, but certainly interesting. In this case the album on the whole has as many highs & lows as any other tribute album - tribute albums generally being like concept albums in that the idea is often better than the uneven output - but at least here you can never predict what will come next & more than once the outcome is shocking & sometimes on par with the original songs. That being said, should a tribute album aim to be better than the originals it is copying or is that even a silly question to ask, let alone egotistical? Or, should it aim for duplication of known songs but with different musicians in an attempt to recreate the original song? Or, should it aim for reinvention of old songs & brave bold new directions? Or, should a musician try to be like who they are copying, dulling down their own style, versus putting their own style on the song molding it to them instead of them to it? It's hard to answer any of these questions. Sometimes a song is copied so well one believes imitation is the best approach, other times reinvention creates startling effects & makes that approach the winner. Should one aim for better? That's probably never the goal, but let's be honest that Marilyn Manson improved upon "Tainted Love" with his own stamp on the Soft Cell electro-pop version, which greatly improved upon the now forgotten disco original. This is certainly a case for reinvention & for remolding the song to one's style. Though, the real answer probably comes down to how good the song is. Did the musicians, whatever their approach, create a good song worthy of a few listens? That's ultimately the goal of music & if achieved then all is well. Sometimes a project like this is laced with the goal of duplication, but here with Kulick there's no such requirement or at least while there is some imitation Kulick is as open to experimentation, making sure only that the style of music remains hard rock or heavy metal. The best songs on this album are those where imitation is second to taking the song as one's own. The differences rate higher than the imitation in this setting ... which, to note, is not always the case with tribute albums where a band that's not very good plays other people's songs not very good. The forgotten early 80's hit, originally recorded by the Joe Perry Project, "Let The Music Do The Talking" features dueling guitars all courtesy of Al Pitrelli of Trans-Siberian Orchestra/Savatage in one of his rare recordings playing slide guitar, with regular musical partner Joe Lynn Turner of Rainbow on vocals. JLT is nothing like Aerosmith's Steven Tyler & that might be what makes this a strong track as comes off as a bluesy rock romp far different than it's original. A third guitar even gets overdubbed in one of Al's more under-rated recording moments. A highlight of the album. The obscure "Round & Round" features a thick guitar solo by Reb Beach of Winger & now Whitesnake that's heavier & more technically challenging than Aerosmith have ever been. He is a little experimental like Joe Perry tends to be, but with a more unified sound. Perry often gets lost in the world of overdubs & guitars cascading against each other losing sight of where the solo is going. Beach keeps it in focus & between him & Pitrelli create two standout tracks. Tim "Ripper" Owens puts in some slightly distorted vocals for a raunchy take on that end of the song, but not raunchy in the way Aerosmith is. Eric Singer contributes a strong drum part, but bad mixing sadly put the emphasis on the high-hat when it would be better to hear more low-end. "Cryin" features Jeff Scott Soto who might be the most close in vocal match to Steven Tyler with all the little nuances found in the original vocal line. It's a spooky vocal interpretation & others I've played this track for agree. Move over Steven, we have a successor for your weary voice. Though on guitar it's all the trademark Bob Kulick overindulgent thick guitar rhythms that don't always work well. "Kings & Queens" is completely transformed by Glenn Hughes' tenor vocals that give it almost a Genesis a la Peter Gabriel feeling against Paul Taylor's piano lines & Steve Lukather's restrained guitar. Another must hear. "One Way Street" with vocalist Doug Pinnick, like "Kings & Queens", is given a surprisingly new life & one that is very funky. It sounds nothing like Aerosmith & worth hearing. Non-essential listening includes "Eat The Rich", which is a bit of a tongue-in-cheek song but here done seriously & ends up sounding like an imitation but heavier with bassist Jeff Pilson & current Whitesnake guitarist Doug Aldrich. But, tongue-in-cheek turned into heavy wannabe raunchiness falls on its face for so many reasons. The classic "Rats In The Cellar" sounds like an undistinctive garage band doing a cover in their garage, while "Living On The Edge" is a bit of a psychedelic rock take on a pop song that doesn't go anywhere & probably is another garage band trying to be something they're not. Dream Theater's Derek Sherinian on keyboards does little for the imitative "What It Takes", while under-rated guitarist Blues Saraceno turns in some smooth lines on "Angel" by it's all by the book for the rest of the song. "Lord Of The Thighs" sounds like a wannabe black metal song with vocalist Whitfield Crane, but all is weighed down by the obligatory appearance of producer Kulick's brother Bruce on guitar but his riffs don't match the heaviness that the song is reaching for. In the end this is a better tribute than average. The guitarists & vocalists to no surprise dominate & the Kulick trademark guitar sound is laced all over the place, to its detriment & cluttering. The diversity of old & new, familiar & not so much, songs is a nice bonus. Of note Kulick has also done tributes to Queen, Kiss, Alice Cooper, Cher, Shania Twain, Iron Maiden, Beatles, Christmas & Frank Sinatra. This Aerosmith tribute might be one of his best.

Aerosmith ~ Music From Another Dimension! (album review) ... This dimension has been banned for visitation!

Style: hard rock, classic rock
Label: Columbia
Year: 2012
Home: Boston, Massachusetts

Members: Steven Tyler ~ lead vocals/guitars/keyboards/harmonica/percussion/mandolin/cigfiddle
Joe Perry ~ guitar/bass/hammered dulcimer/synths/vocals
Brad Whitford ~ rhythm guitar/b. vocals
Tom Hamilton ~ bass/guitar/synths/vocals
Joey Kramer ~ drums/b. vocals
Rick Dufay ~ rhythm guitar

Additional: Melanie Taylor, Laura Jones, Bruce Witkin, Warren Huart, Mia Tyler, Sharlotte Gibson ~ b. vocals
Dr. Rudy Tanzi ~ keyboards/b. vocals
Marti Friederiksen ~ keyboards/synth/b. vocals
Paul Santo, Zac Rae ~ keyboards
Eric Gorfan, Daphne Chen ~ violin
Lauren Chipman ~ viola
Richard Dodo ~ cello
Tom Scott, Jessy J., John Mitchell ~ sax
Bill Reichenbach, Jr. ~ trombone
Gary Grant, Larry Hall ~ trumpet
Jesse Sky Kramer ~ bass
Daniel J. Coe ~ synths
Jesse Kotanisky ~ violin solo
Jack Douglas ~ percussion/keyboards/synths/b. vocals

Guest: Julian Lennon, Johnny Depp ~ b. vocals
Carrie Underwood ~ vocals
Desmond Child ~ piano
Russ Irwin ~ piano/b. vocals

First things first, this album should have a warning label on it. Not a traditional warning label about bad lyrics ... no, on second thought it should be about bad lyrics, just really poorly written bad lyrics. Do not do what I did & read the lyrics first. That's your warning. You'll suddenly decide not to listen to the album. I mean, it's bad enough when your lyric writing is based around a rhyming dictionary, it's worse when you don't know how to make sense when you rhyme, let alone have anything remotely interesting to write about. Why even write songs? Why not just sing the rhyming dictionary? Steven Tyler will show you how to make it sound interesting ... you just have to have a voice with his trademarkable dynamics & no humility that after thirty years in music you have nothing to sing about other than cliched sex like it's 1985. Tyler might be talented, but its albums like this I question the definition of talent. Read/listen to "Luv XXX" if you want to see what I mean. Now that we've got the warning out of the way, grab a blender, throw in every Aerosmith album from day one, except for the two sans Perry, & press pulp. The result is Music From Another Dimension! & the dimension is a time warp twenty years ago. This sounds less like what we'd except the aging boys to sound like at this point in their life & more like Pump or Permanent Vacation but without any of the great Desmond Child lyrics or memorable arrangements ... okay, there's one Child song, but "Another Last Goodbye" is the closer, the cleanest arrangement & still empty lyrically & thus ends up being more a useless coda of what could be than a benefit. How you can aim & miss so badly is the question this album asks. Looking at Steven Tyler's list of instruments & the array of backing musicians & the answer becomes clear. It's not that you're aiming, you're just out of control. This is every album they've made plus the kitchen sink from each band member's house all mixed together with no focus either on the whole or in individual songs. The album is heavily textured & layered to hell but it's got too many layers to focus on, the problem with the Joe Perry Project albums too, & it sound like a bunch of pieces sewn together versus coherent songs. Someone had too much studio time. Hey, look, we've got an hour & a kitchen sink - what are we going to do with it? It's not riffs or melody lines but just a bunch of sounds with some wild vocals, & over-used & distracting backing vocals, & no message & no flow on any level. The emotive ballads, the moments when things come back to this dimension, suffer from bad lyrics right out the door that kills anything the song is trying for. It's hard to figure out what the boys are trying to do here. Obviously they are trying to go back in time, but they've failed to notice that their classic songs are not the ones that are cluttered, but slimmed down & basic. Think of the opening to "Janie's Got A Gun" or the memorable guitar parts of "Dream On". If there were layers added to that the songs would collapse. I repeatedly listened to this album, though I struggled to get past the first few songs as song after song would go buy & I'd realized I couldn't remember what I'd just heard. It's not good when you can't remember an album you've just listened to. There is some saving grace. In each song coming out of the cluttered mist, its not even a scary mist either, is Joe Perry's guitar solos. Besides still looking cool in his elder years, cooler than ever maybe, & not like someone's grandmother going through an egotistical personality crisis, the guy is still a hot guitar player. It's just a shame he doesn't know when to pull back or maybe he does but isn't the one steering. The only songs I found of interest after repeated listens are "Oh Yeah", "Closer", "Freedom Fighter", "Lover Alot" with its rhythmic singing & the country-esque ballad "What Could Have Been Love". "Beautiful" is a strange song I found addicting, maybe because I couldn't figure out which band Aerosmith was trying to imitate. It opens with hip-hop/rap/talking vocals for the verse & an Arctic Monkeys like chorus. Didn't Aerosmith see what happened to the Rolling Stones when Mick Jagger decided he could rap in the early 80's? Like the Stones the chorus is great, the verse horrible, the song destroyed but you keep wanting to hear it again just to see if its really that bad. "Out Go The Lights" was almost on my list as it has some great soloing, but the overly long ending solo with oop-oop vocals just killed it's momentum. "Legendary Child" I originally liked as it has the first good lyrics on the album, but cluttered by an unfocused arrangement. How many kitchen sinks are necessary? No more sinks. I want some counter space back. Perry takes vocals on "Freedom Fighter", "Oasis In The Night" & "Something". The first sounds like something out of Warren Zevon & is absolutely out of place in this mess. The tracks also make this feel like the Rolling Stones where Keith Richards also sings two tracks & just like the Stones each of Richards' tracks are low-key affairs that are some of the better songs as they do what all the other songs should do. Tom Hamilton takes lead vocals on "Up On A Mountain" lessening the Richards effect. It seems to me there's a lot of bands from the older days coming back with new music either choosing to reinvent themselves, like Bret Michaels & Bon Jovi, or sticking to the old template, like Kiss or Journey or Night Ranger. While a decade ago when they were all having reunions the reinvention was great. Now I highly recommend not to reinvent but just chill for a bit longer on what you do best. The reinventions I'm finding routinely disappointing, while the bands holding still, even when I don't particularly like those bands in the first place, are far more enjoyable.

Aerosmith ~ A Little South Of Sanity (live) (album review) ... Doing what they insanely do best!

Style: hard rock
Label: Geffen
Year: 1998
Home: Boston, Massachusetts

Members: Steven Tyler ~ lead vocals/harmonica/percussion
Joe Perry ~ guitar/pedal steel/b. vocals
Brad Whitford ~ guitar
Tom Hamilton ~ bass
Joey Kramer ~ drums

Additional: Russ Irwin, Thom Gimbel ~ keyboards/b. vocals

From the Get A Grip & Nine Lives tours comes this two disc live set to fulfill contractual obligations. They could have done something interesting with their Geffen swan song. I'm thinking of Billy Joel's live Songs In The Attic that culled lesser known earlier hits that his newer fans wouldn't know. But, it's doubtful Aerosmith were thinking creatively. They were probably just counting the days until the contract was up. So, what we get is a straight ahead live show with great production values. It's actually far more enjoyable than I expected. Probably because when they stick to the hits it's hard to fail & when you have a majority of songs be said hits from the 70's & 80's it's nearly impossible to fail. There's only two songs from Nine Lives & six from Get A Grip, but the later might be their last good album. It also helps that this is just the band in their basic form where they're not able to overdub to death a song with too many layers, there's not even any anonymous backing musicians except for a keyboardist. This is Aerosmith the way they should sound & the way we want them to sound. The boys are as on top of things energy-wise as ever, making for an enjoyable concert. The songs sometimes get a few extra shots for a longer guitar solo or there's a variation with the arrangement on a verse or bridge, but not to any real detriment & it's not always so noticeable. The newer songs stick pretty closely to their studio counterparts, but the older ones do tend to vary. The only song that doesn't do too well is "Janie's Got A Gun" with some odd guitar parts. Steven Tyler limits his audience banter. There's also a lack of audience noise. At times it might sound like a studio album because it's all too perfect sounding, but there's a bit of an echo now & then & a warmth that comes out that a studio album lacks. While a later day Aerosmith live album might seem like a waste, if you've seen them live recently this will be a good souvenir. Also of note ... remember, Joe Perry might be the lead guitarist we know, but he's really not. Brad Whitford takes lead duties on: "Love In An Elevator", "Same Old Song & Dance", "Back In The Saddle", "Last Child", "Walk On Down", "Dream On", "Mama Kin" & "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)".

Alice Cooper ~ Trash (album review) ... Trashing the world in superstar style!

Style: shock rock, hard rock
Label: Epic
Year: 1989
Home: Arizona

Members: Alice Cooper ~ vocals
Mark Frazier, Jack Johnson, John McCurry, Guy Mann-Dude ~ guitar
Paul Chiten, Steve Deutsch, Gregg Mangiafico ~ keyboards
Allan St. John ~ keyboards/b. vocals
Hugh McDonald ~ bass/b. vocals
Bobby Chouinard ~ drums
Diana Grasselli, Jango, Louis Merlino, Jamie Sever, Myriam Naomi Valle, Bernie Shanahan, Tom Teeley, Joe Turano ~ b. vocals

Additional: Kane Roberts ~ guitar/b. vocals
Desmond Child, Maria Vidal ~ b. vocals
Guests: Steve Lukather, Joe Perry, Richie Sambora ~ guitar Tom Hamilton ~ bass
Joey Kramer ~ drums
Steven Tyler, Kip Winger, Michael Anthony, Stiv Bators, Jon Bon Jovi ~ b. vocals

This is not AC, let's take care of that fact first. Yes, his name is on it, it's his release, it's his recognizable voice & it's his back-up band, including early 80's songwriting partner/guitarist Kane Roberts on a track, but there's another ingredient in the pot that tips the scale. The ingredient goes by the name of Desmond Child. To explain, Trash came after a decade with no charting songs & a career stepping around but not finding success. Trash was AC's attempt, starting a few albums earlier with Kane Roberts, to recreate both himself & his career following a commitment to sobriety & Christianity. It was a deliberate attempt at a comeback & thus the magical writing talents of Desmond Child were called in who was riding high engineering the comeback of Aerosmith with their Pump album. The result is that this is really a Desmond Child album with the AC band & a few guests, including Aerosmith, performing his songs. With a career that includes Cher, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith & many more, the shock rock of AC seems an odd person for Child to pen songs for. The problem is not Child's talent but that his stamp dominates the outcome. This is an album of 10 love songs with some light tongue-in-cheek shock rock humor thrown ... & could easily have been an album by Bon Jovi or Aerosmith. It's far from bad with nearly every song a hit ... but an album of only sappy love songs isn't exactly fitting the Alice Cooper mold ... but re-inventing the mold to suit the songs. If anything that's the one true success of Trash. It reinvented the mold by fully turning AC into a anthem spouting leather clad hard rocker totally in sync with the hair metal of the era. It also spawned a place on the coveted MTV with four videos, chart topping hits & an around the world tour, recorded on the Classicks album five years later & the Trashes The World home video. Finding the success he sought AC abandoned Childs for the follow-up Hey Stoopid & brought the shock/monster imagery back to the rock. But, Trash would firmly set the path/mold for a long time with the current tours of 2011 even being the modern version of Trash in many ways. Trash gave AC something that he could twist turn over the years to make personal with a musical & visual platform. The psychedelic AC of the 70's was gone forever across the board leaving many fans divided between the 70's & the later AC, though some see the later leather AC as the authoritative character as the earlier AC was a member of a band followed by a solo outing that went through numerous images including balladeer. "Poison", "House Of Fire", "Spark In The Dark", "Why Trust You", "Only My Heart Talkin'", "Bed Of Nails", "This Maniac's In Love With You", "Trash", "I'm Your Gun", "Hell Is Living Without You" ... if any of these songs make you rock out than you'll enjoy Trash & what would follow. But, the reverse is also true so if you don't like Trash you may want to stick with the 70's AC. Later albums, particularly The Last Temptation, Brutal Planet & Along Came A Spider, might be more interesting & varied musically but Trash largely sets the pace. It's big hair anthemic 80's rock with bursts of energy balanced by bursts of acoustic ballady moments. There's a reason Trash became as big as it did & it's not just because of Desmond Child. It's basically a good album chock full of memorable hits that any musician should be pleased to make. Ironically, AC had earlier done an album with Elton John lyricist Bernie Taupin & it floundered ... for those who say that AC could have chosen any great writer & had a hit album as the outcome.

Aerosmith ~ Honkin' On Bobo (album review) ... But, who is Bobo?

Style: hard rock, blues-rock, tribute
Label: Columbia
Year: 2004
Home: n/a

Members: Steven Tyler ~ vocals/harmonica/piano
Joe Perry ~ lead guitar/dobro/hurdy gurdy/vocals
Brad Whitford ~ rhythm guitar
Tom Hamilton ~ guitar/bass/b. vocals
Joey Kramer ~ drums/b. vocals

Guests: Tracy Bonham ~ b. vocals
Johnnie Johnson ~ piano
The Memphis Horns ~ horns
Paul Santo ~ piano/organ

I really want to like this album but faced with a situation of Aerosmith fan vs. blues fan. Unlike most people my age (33) I was listening to the blues before rock. The Aerosmith boys followed the same path & this is their heart-felt tribute. No qualms with them wanting to do a tribute to the music they grew up with & maybe it's just my personal view of the blues that is at fault here, but I've always felt that interpretation is the key to making good hard-core blues ... & interpretation doesn't mean just running blues licks ... & I'm not including blues-rock in this discussion. Some might say feeling is also key for the blues, but I've seen a lot of good blues that have really stretched a song to some very unemotional techniques while there's some classic blues musicians of yore who have been more flashy than soulful but we tend to overlook that fact. Aerosmith may be inspired by the blues, but like Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts when he went to form his jazz orchestra in the 1990's, after playing rock for 30 years to suddenly switch techniques can be a hit or miss affair no matter how much of that new style is in the roots of the technique. Aerosmith largely miss. How do they miss? This sounds like the lost follow-up to the overlooked 80's release Done With Mirrors, or a session from the Joe Perry Project. Neither of which are good blues albums but are average Aerosmith albums. Honkin' On Bobo is Aerosmith not expanding their flight path, but just playing like they always do. If the point is just to have fun with some old songs, they do. This album features some of their most loose & relaxed playing with some incredibly diverse arrangements that they've never been able to do & still retain their later day polished overly commercial approach. But, the arrangements also suffer from gluttony when it comes to guitar licks with too many moods in a song & none of them dominating the show-off patchwork that is the result. Though, outside of power ballads Aerosmith always been hit or miss when it came to creating a mood compared to many of their peers. "Shame, Shame, Shame" might be a fun & loose song, particularly for Tyler who has some of the most unrestrictive vocals of his career, but it's not good blues even though it does feature guest piano by legend Johnnie Johnson. Good blues-rock yes, but not blues. & blues-rock is what Aerosmith has always done. Doing a tribute I want to hear the band doing something different or seeing what different types of songs do to their style. If the blues turn Aerosmith into a patchwork quilt I'm disappointed. Further, I don't feel particularly compelled to find out who originally did these songs, nor listen to the blues. If you think Honkin' On Bobo is the blues you're going to find when you dig into John Mayall or Otis Rush or Muddy Waters a complete shock. It's nice that Aerosmith wanted to do a tribute to their roots, though there's other projects that would have been better, while their roots aren't exactly the blues they want you to think as they were formed when rock was already established & this is more the blues a la The Who. If you want a loose non-commercial blues album by a great band this is enjoyable. Though, if the post-80's commercial Aerosmith is your preference over their drugged out 70's output this probably won't work for you, while if you want a better take on the blues than just a sleazy garage rock interpretation this is a disappointment. This is the opposite of bands who put no personality on a song. This band puts too much of their own. There are a few good songs that do stand out. "Baby, Please Don't Go" is a raunchy & moody highlight. If the whole album would have been in this mold Honkin On Bobo, even with it's awkward name, could have set the stage for an Aerosmith revival not seen since Pump or Permanent Vacation. "Back Back Train" & "Stop Messin' Round" both feature vocals by guitarist Joe Perry & are the few truly interpretative bluesy songs on the album that sound nothing like Aerosmith with the former even harkening to Stevie Ray Vaughan in feeling. They make you want to hunt up his solo albums. Perry's laid back singing style works perfect & shows just how much influence a vocalist can have. They are also not heavy on flashy odd guitar solos that hurt the other songs. "The Grind" is the one original song & sounds out of place, let alone demonstrates how commercially safe Aerosmith writes. In comparison it makes Honkin' On Bobo seem like one of the best albums the band has ever made ... in comparison.

Alice Cooper ~ Classicks (live, hits comp) (album review) ... Star studded & not quite classics as you know them!

Style: shock rock, heavy metal, hard rock, greatest hits, live
Label: Epic
Year: 1995
Home: Arizona

Members: Al Pitrelli, Stef Burns ~ guitar/b. vocals
John McCurry, Pete Freezin' ~ guitar
Hugh McDonald, T-Bone Caradonna ~ bass
Derek Sherinian ~ keyboards/b. vocals
Greg Smith ~ bass/b. vocals
Jonathan Mover, Bobby Chouinard, Mickey Currey, David Uosikkinen ~ drums
Robert Bailey, Alan St. John, John Webster, Steve Croes ~ keyboards

Additional: Dan Wexler ~ guitar
Zachary Nevel, Vic Pepe, Tony Palmucci, Scott Bender, Corkey McClennan, Lance Bulen, Terry Wood, Shaun Murphy, Sherwood Ball, Cali, Gary Falcone, Ian Richardson, Nick Coler, Mick Wilson, Mike Finnigan, Stan Bush ~ b. vocals

Guests: Slash, Steve Vai, Joe Perry ~ guitar
Ozzy Osbourne, Chris Cornell, Kelly Keeling, Jack Ponti ~ b. vocals
Joe Satriani ~ guitar/b. vocals
Nikki Sixx ~ bass

Before reviewing this compilation/live album let me note that this was released by the label after Alice had left & thus his involvement was minimal, so the outcome may not be exactly what he'd release if given full creative control. Like the Megadeth greatest hits albums released by Capitol Records after the band moved to Sanctuary Records in 2000 ... it's all about a label continuing to make money on an artist now making money for someone else. That being said ... how do you get fans to buy a greatest hits package that has tracks probably everyone already has in their collection? Well, you can focus the greatest hits collection on a particular theme, here being the leather era look of a now sober Alice. Next, you record a new track or two that you set beside both classic tracks & some lesser known more recent tracks. But, what do you do when your musician has left your label & thus there's no new tracks forthcoming? Of the 15 songs on Classicks, a name suggested by Alice himself, one track is a new song, albeit it's actually an underheard B-side, eight tracks are recent while six are classic tracks from the 70's but performed live by the 1989/1990 touring band. The idea is that all the tracks have the same 80's hard rock sound & not reflect the eclectic musical changes that have highlighted Alice's career. This album was looking for new generation of fans who liked one style of music & it was loud, bombastic & full of guitar. When it comes to greatest hits compilations this is one of the more unique approaches I've seen. It's right up there with Asia re-recording all their old songs for Anthology, albeit this is far more successful & enjoyable as the touring band isn't trying to duplicate which was Asia's goal. Classicks is supposed to be a greatest hits collection but the recent tracks are culled only from the then most recent Trash from 1989, Hey Stoopid & The Last Temptation, while the classic tracks are all from the Alice Cooper Band & 1975's Welcome To My Nightmare. Thus, besides lacking quite a few classic hits, there's a near fifteen year gap of recordings missing from this album making its status as a true greatest hits albums weak. Albeit, no hits really came from the ten albums released in that time, but there's a few gems such as "You & Me" that keep them from being completely forgettable though they largely are according to both fans & Alice himself in his autobiography. But, the MTV era hits are here that culled a new generation of fans, though only Trash really scored any real hits. But, though Trash spun off four videos & the most commercial success its strangely represented by the single track "Poison" while the other two albums, that might have spurred less hits but have stronger songs, are given more than their fare share of attention considering their minor commercial impact. It's almost as if Trash had gotten enough success & now the label wanted some attention on the other lesser selling albums. Alice of the late 80's/90's was a heavy metal guy, far different than his 70's/early 80's persona, brought home by the live versions on Classicks of classic Alice Cooper Band hits that are far different & more wild than their 15-20 year old studio counterparts. Taken directly from the Trashes The World video they are raw two guitar onslaughts with a high energy band including future Savatage/Megadeth/Asia/Trans-Siberian guitarist Al Pitrelli, future Dream Theater keyboardist Derek Sherinian, under-rated drummer Jonathan Mover of GTR with Steve Howe, guitarist Pete Freezin' & bassist T-Bone Caradonna. It's the band that would set the sound & look for Alice through the present day with current shows being a development of the Trash look. Eric Singer, famous for his future tenure with Kiss, would replaced Mover soon after filming the video but no official recordings of his time with the tour exist. This tour line-up, supporting the release of Trash, on this compilation only feature the band playing the classic songs. At first the live tracks sound messy & cluttered with guitars roaring in a way not heard before, though they are a perfect reflection of how Alice updated his sound for the 80's, putting aside the more prog elements of the songs for a more headbanging sound. The songs might be re-arranged but remain untouchable classics. Anyone who doesn't know the contemporary music by Alice is missing an important chunk of his career. This is a good starting point for someone unsure of if they might like his current sound, plus as a bonus it features numerous guest musicians. Personally, I'd buy The Last Temptation first, then consider this compilation or the other two studio releases if I liked what I heard. The Last Temptation has some of the most heart-breaking songs Alice ever recorded, telling the story of a boy lost in the world & eventually discovering God as this album marked Alice's Christian conversion. In many ways this is a lopsided compilation as it's featuring a studio band then a completely different live band & thus sounds like two albums. But, to hear 80's Alice one could do a lot worse. The albums on the new record label that would follow this compilation would see Alice going even heavier & into industrial & bringing the character to its scariest thus Classicks ends up the end of an era & a photograph of past glories.

Joe Perry Project ~ I've Got The Rock'N'Rolls Again (album review) ... But, it doesn't necessarily happen here!

Style: hard rock
Label: Columbia
Year: 1981
Home: Boston

Members: Joe Perry ~ guitars/vocals
Charlie Farren ~ rhythm guitar/vocals
David Hull ~ bass/backing vocals
Ronnie Stewart ~ drums

 

 

Fans & critics generally call this an inferior release from the JPP, as the song-writing isn't as good nor the production as their debut, but look at the production of the seminal Velvet Underground recordings to see the problem in this complaint. As for the song-writing on this sophomore release it isn't as elaborate as debut, but I personally found this the far better album. The polyphonic clutter of too many notes that makes the debut more abstract & at times distracting is gone. This album also has some standout tracks that far outdo the weak parts of the album & I found more memorable than anything on their debut. 'Play The Game' is a slow ballad that could have been a hit had it been done by Aerosmith, though it's still a classy song with Joe behind the mic. This track alone is all you need from the JPP to be satisfied. All 3 JPP albums would feature different singers, rotating with Joe, but while the changing voices makes the debut disjointed, this has a better overall feel. The first album also sounded like a guitarist pulling out all his trump cards to soon in an attempt to impress, while here things are more focus. The time to impress is over, now it's time to make some great music. Though, it's obvious Perry wanted both to be hit albums & tried different approaches to find that end. Thus, these two albums become more an interesting comparison in growth & diversity of a particular musician than two stellar lost rock albums. Weak albums of a musician often say just as much if not more as the great albums. If nothing else, cute title. It should be noted that a highlight of the album is Joe's singing. Nothing stellar or unique, but it works in this context. Actually, if he'd handled all the vocal duties he might have been more successful as the Robert Plant/Mick Jagger wannabees he hired are poor imitators. Also, the strongest part of the album is also the what would have been the complete side B. But, a lot of listeners probably lost interest by then. There's surprises around every flip. The surprise here is that Perry would actually attempt a third solo outing before going home to Aerosmith.

Joe Perry Project ~ Let The Music Do The Talking (album review) ... But, maybe not this music!

Style: hard rock
Label: Columbia
Year: 1980
Home: Boston

Members: Joe Perry ~ guitars/vocals
Ralph Mormom ~ vocals
David Hull ~ bass
Ronnie Stewart ~ drums

 

 

I've always found it interesting to listen to solo outings, because it's then that you see an influence a musician has on a band's sound. Jon Anderson & Chris Squire outside of Yes sounds like Yes, while Keith Richard & the X-Pensive Winos do reggae. On the other hand, you see what a band is like without a member. I have mixed reviews of the Plant/Page unplugged reunion as you discover how much the arrangements of Led Zeppelin were influenced by John Paul Jones & John Bonham & how much is lacking without their subtle but important touch. For 3 albums Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry led a solo career. For those of us who grew up with the MTV era Aerosmith it's hard to visualize the band without him. It's easy to forget there's really 4 Aerosmiths - the current middle-aged rock band that is currently in hiatus with the possible loss of it's frontman, the preceding MTV era band spurred by "Janie's Got A Gun" & "Dude Looks Like A Lady", the couple albums sans Joe Perry & rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford & the "Dream On"/"Sweet Emotions" 70's era boozy garage band. If you think of MTV when you think of Aerosmith, this album will surprise you & may not be to your liking. Given it was made in 1979/80 this picks up on the sloppy & drunken Aerosmith sound that led to Perry's departure. Sloppy being the key word. For me it's musically cluttered with madly dueling guitars experimenting with stereo & the lyrics almost an after thought. Perry has the chops & in the hands of Aerosmith some of these songs might have been more successful, as there's a lot of material here. But, here he sounds like a guitarist trying to show his worth & pulling out all the trump cards as if it's his last stand. It's one large wall of guitars where the melody & rhythm messily intertwine. This album could use a little breathing room at times. But, that's one of the problems that face guitarists setting out on their own. The similar group Slash's Snakepit by the former Guns N' Roses guitarist has the same criticism. It's about showing off while the licks, grooves & song structure get lost in the flood. It's the excess of rock music taken to the limit & sounding like the bar band that every group started as & often tries to rediscover albeit with a big recording budget. Albeit, the core of every bar band is playing for the fun of it & Aerosmith has always been a fun band to hear. In that light this album gets better with repeated listenings, particularly since in repeated listens it comes out just how much it tucked into the arrangements. It may sound cluttered to me but a cornucopia has a lot of good fruits in it ... it's just up to the right person to pick through it. The proof is that the bluesy opening title track "Let The Music Do The Talking" which reappeared on Aerosmith's Done With Mirrors, which marked Perry's return along with their first successful album.