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.
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