Cat scratch fever, sharpen those nails, just love the opening:
Tyler, Mr Shimmy, snake hips, screeches like a tom on the trail of heat - and screams,
nearly as good a scream as Roger Daltrey's on The Who's immortal "Won't get
Fooled Again", and Aerosmith, the rock'n'roll pack rats, slam in, a mess of
riffs'n'rock.
"Nine Lives" - if a band had ever used a few up this is it. Bad boys, mad
boys, rock'n'roll excessives who made it through to the other side, Aerosmith are
the megastars who still peel the leathers off, and arguably the only US stadium rockers
to grow better with age.
It's been some time: 27 years since Jam Band members Tom Hamilton (bass) and Joe
Perry (guitar) linked up with Stephen Tyler in Sunapee, New Hampshire. Joey Kramer
(drums) and Brad Whitford (guitar) rounded out a line-up who even now admit they
had no idea it would ever get this big. In late 1970 they moved to the big smoke,
Boston, Massachusetts, attracted the attention of local promoter Frank Connelly,
who briefly managed the quintet until 1972 when he introduced them to Leber-Krebbs
Inc with whom they signed a new management contract. Enter the legendary Clive Davis,
Sony super ear, who liked what he saw at Max's Kansas City one night and signed them
to Columbia.
Over three years "Aerosmith" (1973), "Get Your Wheels" (1974),
"Toys In The Attic" (1975), "Rocks" (1976) with its accompanying
reissued singles 'Dream On" (No 6 in Feb '76) and "Walk This Way"
(No 10 in Nov '76) and a touring schedule from hell turned them platinum, Top 10
and into the biggest concert act in the US.
Twenty years later, they'll probably go platinum in the US before "Nine Lives"
even hits the racks. Not bad for a band that hasn't hit the record racks in four
years. And "Nine Lives" is a monster, a fat, beautifully produced by Kevin
Shirley (silverchair), broad ambitious work that's much better than their last "Get
A Grip" and up there with classics like "Pump", "Live! Bootleg"
and "Rocks". They don't even sound old. Rejuvenated, more like.
Joey Kramer, at home in Boston, laughs, "Honestly, man, we're probably as thrilled
as anybody is. It's been a long time coming but I think we've finally achieved what
we set out to do which is try to get back in touch with what used to make us happen.
There's no samples on the drums, there's no effects, no bullshit. It's just the band
playing and the songs are great."
It's also the second take on a set initially expected last year. Kramer's answer
is honest and a surprise. "What happened was they started out in Miami, this
time last year," he says, "and began to do the record without me because
I had gone into what I refer to now as the Big Blue Funk.
"I'd gone into a really deep depression and I wasn't functional, so I had to
go away and take care of it, deal with a lot of personal problems. They decided to
try and go in and do it with somebody else. Of course, that didn't work, so the same
songs that were recorded in Miami had to be rerecorded - with a different producer
(as well as me) as they weren't happy with other stuff that was getting done."
Enter Shirley; the band are big wraps on him. Kramer says it worked from the word
'go'. "I think he grew up as a fan and he's in touch with the rock'n'roll that
we're all about and he seemed to just know and understand that what we needed to
happen was the five of us just playing in the room at the same time. And that's what
we did."
Perry's been doing the rounds telling stories about Shirley, as well, most notably,
"Kevin is a rocker, man. He's the only producer I've worked with who stands
at the back of the board while we're playing with a guitar in his hands, playing
air guitar."
They didn't mess around, maybe three months at most, rerecording and altering the
tracks laid down in Miami and hitting a batch of new stuff. What emerged from this
once motley crew, who took it way too close to the edge of personal excess, for a
while is an album that proves they've still got a vision, are willing to expand,
experiment, take a different tack on their patented coiled serpentine rock.
Whack up the volume on "Taste Of India" and writhe with their cobra rock
as Aerosmith turn on the eastern percussion and entrancing drone - and just like
they did with their fab stab at rap, "Walk This Way", pull it off marvellously;
go back a track and fall into the grandeur and majesty of the beautifully crafted
and vast "Hole In My Soul" where Aerosmith wing it cinematic and grandiose
without sounding pompous: Vast, that's a good word for "Nine Lives", big,
fat, stormy rock atmospheres. Fast forward to the album closing "Fallen Angels",
a sheer anthem of a song, a panoramic widescreen wonder that drenches in a rain of
melody and chiming guitars, or the string drenched, brass cut, edgy "The Farm"
(and have a listen to the honesty in the lyrics). And, of course, they rock, bad,
mean, lean, like only Aerosmith can.
What it all adds up to is something Kramer remarks upon: that after 26 years Aerosmith
are just beginning to get a take on their own potential, are finally old enough to
appreciate their own ability and, most importantly, the possibilities within music,
the parameters they can play with.
"You know, this probably sounds ridiculous but we're starting to understand
what it's all about now. This band has been through a lot and it's taken us to this
point to find some of the answers. It takes time to know that you need to be open,
to let the music go here and there.
"For instance, there aren't many bands that are open to using outside writers
as we have on this album (Tyler and Perry worked with Marti Frederikesen, Desmond
Child, Mark Hudson and Glen Ballard). When you stick to the same people writing all
the songs all the time you're basically going to get the same thing, time after time,
and that gets kind of boring. Open up and different ideas, sounds and songs come
about.
"What's also important is that we really wanted this album. It was right after
I had come back from dealing with this depression and I was so glad to be rid of
it and out of it and back being able to do it again, and the rest of the guys were
all fired up. We just went in there and did it."
They did Aerosmith or as Whitford says, "What Aerosmith
is, you can't put in a box or a glass or a bottle. It happens because the five of
us get together and do what we do. You can't change the formula. And, to me, we are
the biggest fans of what it is. So we just keep going to the show."
That's something Kramer admits still surprises him. "I never, ever, gave the
idea that we'd still be together after nearly three decades any thought back then.
You know it just sort of happens to you. All of a sudden it's 10 years and 20 years
and you're still in there. I'm not saying it's always been easy - people have gone
and comeback - but we're still together and it's the same thing that's holding us
together now that was holding us together back then.
"We just love to get up on stage and play: that's the nucleus of it. Everybody
has always had the same common denominator.
"It's like a marriage. This partnership has been 25 years of marriage and you
have to work it out. You have to be accepting of a lot of things, you have to get
out of the way of things happening, you have to be involved in the progress and you
have got to be open to a lot of different stuff otherwise you get washed away. The
trick is getting it all in balance.
"Hell, you know what I'm taking about. It's easy to get distracted and you have
to find your way. And we've done that. Ever heard of a marriage that didn't have
its problems, its up and downs, that didn't go through its bad times, its wrong decision
times, and then come good again - and better for what it's been through?"
Remarkably, despite the seesaw of their existence - and Aerosmith have been perched
on the edge a few times, even written off - they've always answered even their sternest
critics. Take the mid- and late '80s, problems or not they came up with the goods:
"Dude (looks Like A Lady)", "Rag Doll", "Angel", "Janie's
Got A Gun", "Love In An Elevator", "Monkey On My Back",
to name a few.
"The industry is tough, man," Kramer says. "It's changed dramatically
since we first started. Way, way, changed. There was no such thing as MTV back then;
that's the biggest change. That changed the way people thought about music, how they
put it out there, how kids saw it, the live thing. The effect of MTV was huge.
"Then there's the way it's changed for bands. It's kind of sad, isn't it. You
get one shot at it now and if you don't sell 100,000 or something in most cases you're
out the door whereas before A&Rs and companies would develop an act over four,
maybe five, albums.
"That's especially true here in America. The record business is really dead.
It's like nothing's going on and nobody's selling records like they used to. Nobody's
making any money and it's just really sad because there's a lot of crap out there.
Just, hopefully, we're gonna change all that," he laughs, quietly. "No,
we ARE going to change all that."
Add on a world tour and the stadium act par excellence - hungry again after all these
years - is ready. "Hell, man, I'm already working out - I do anyway, but I'll
be in the gym everyday for the next couple of months before we go out on the road.
Once you get out there just doing the shows maintains you - and gym on off days.
"You've just got to keep it together because - from my point of view - what
I do is more physically demanding than what some of the other guys do. I'm competing
with kids half my age so I've got to be really fit just to do it. It's tough, but
it's part of what I like about what I do because it forces me to stay in shape."
Finally, then, we turn Joey Kramer into a record reviewer and get him to review his
own record. "Oh man, that's a good one. Well, let me see. I like it better than
the last one. I really liked 'Pump' a lot but it had a specific place and time and
I also liked 'Permanent Vacation' but like 'Pump' that record is really of a place
and a time. I think this one will better stand the test of time because there's a
lot of songs on there that will be classics and stand on their own.
"As far as placing it amongst my favourites, that's really hard. I'm not used
to the album enough now to put it in its proper perspective. It's up there though
with our very best and I know it's damn good."
Tyler, never stuck for a word, gets it short and sweet: "Very melodic, strangely
lyrical, a little weird, very compelling and with choruses that you could hang your
hat on the first time you hear them - that's what we do." And damn well.
The prowling has begun.
Official Web site of Aerosmith - http://www.aerosmith.com