Rocks In The Attic #1236: Joe Perry – ‘Sweetzerland Manifesto MKII’ (2023)

This isn’t anywhere near as bad as I was fearing, possibly thanks to its all-star roster of guest vocalists – the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, Extreme’s Gary Cherone, the almost-in-Led-Zeppelin Terry Reid, Cheap Trick’s Robin Zander and the New York Dolls’ David Johansen – and appearances from Stone Temple Pilots’ Robert DeLeo on bass, and Zak Starkey on drums. I’ve always found Perry’s post-Aerosmith comeback solo albums to be a bit sludgy and tuneless, but this definitely has a better feel to it, despite the odd track descending into that grungy sludge from time to time – a production quirk more than anything else.

Originally intended to be released as a deluxe version of his terribly titled 2018 SWEETZERLAND MANIFESTO studio album, instead this turns out to be a different beast, almost a standalone record. Four of the tracks are different mixes or alternate vocal takes from that earlier album, with the remaining six tracks being completely new songs.

I’m not quite sure why it’s been released like this – surely, a better idea would be to forget the redone songs, record a couple more new ones and put it out as a brand new studio album on its own, but what do I know? It definitely doesn’t sound like there’s any barrel-scraping going on with the new songs, and I’m not sure how different the redone songs are from the original recordings. The cover art is also exactly the same, except for the addition of ‘MKII’ in the title. It’s just odd. 

Lead track Fortunate One, featuring Chris Robinson and Robert DeLeo and released in advance of the album, is clearly the standout song, but I really dig Perry’s arrangement of Elmer Bernstein’s Man With The Golden Arm theme. Perry has history when it comes to doing instrumental tracks for Aerosmith, and this one didn’t disappoint. 

A nice pick-up in the Newbury Comics sale just before Christmas. 

Hit: Fortunate One

Hidden Gem: Man With The Golden Arm

Rocks In The Attic #1178: Aerosmith – ‘Gold Disc: Aerosmith’ (1978)

Ever since 2021 when Aerosmith signed a new record deal with Universal, effectively bringing their Columbia and Geffen back catalogues under one roof, I’ve been dreaming of the words ‘Super Deluxe Box Set’.

Most prominent rock bands do it: celebrate an album’s anniversary by reissuing it with a box set of combed-over outtakes, demo takes, and the sound of a studio janitor whistling by the microphone as he cleans up after a day’s worth of recording. Some bands even do it over and over. I snagged the 30th Anniversary Super Deluxe Box Set of Nirvana’s NEVERMIND last year, just five years after a 25th Anniversary Super Deluxe Box Set appeared. 

And then there’s Aerosmith. 

1991 gave us PANDORA’S BOX, a 3xCD collection of studio outtakes and rarities from their Columbia years – to cash in on their newfound revival on Geffen (a collection that remains unavailable on vinyl, unless you count the Brazil-only release of the PANDORA’S TOYS highlights disc). 

And then for thirty years, it was radio silence on the archival front…just compilation after compilation and a host of ever-decreasing circle studio album disappointments.

The Universal deal did lead to a couple of interesting nuggets though: 2021’s THE ROAD STARTS HEAR, a much-appreciated (despite the awful title) early demo recording, released with little fanfare for Record Store Day, and 2022’s collection of five live concert recordings, time-released for one week at a time. 

Which brings us to 2023. 

I wake up the other day to see emails in my inbox, with the words ‘AEROSMITH’ and “SUPER DELUXE BOX SET’ in the subject line. 

This is it, I thought. The day has finally come. 

And then I opened the email. 

Fucking hell.

Another greatest hits compilation. 

This truly is a rock band whose greatest hits compilations across the globe (at least 20, by my count) outnumber their studio albums (15).

So, now available to pre-order is Aerosmith’s ultimate GREATEST HITS – if the last one wasn’t ‘ultimate’ enough – in ‘multiple sweeping configurations’: 1xLP, 2xLP, 4xLP, 1xCD and 3xCD, not to mention some other merchandise bundles. The selling point here is that it collects songs from both Columbia and Geffen eras of the band, but O, YEAH! ULTIMATE AEROSMITH HITS (later re-released as THE ESSENTIAL AEROSMITH) did that as far back as 2002. 

The old me would have jumped at ordering the new Super Deluxe set (not to mention all of the different versions of it), despite owning all of the recordings across multiple titles. The old me didn’t have a mortgage though. 

Instead, I’m spinning this Japan-only release which pre-empts AEROSMITH’S GREATEST HITS in 1980. The tracklist on this is far superior though, and doesn’t feature any nasty single edits like that first official compilation does.  

Hit: Walk This Way

Hidden Gem: Spaced

Rocks In The Attic #1140: Fleetwood Mac – ‘Fleetwood Mac’ (1975)

I came across the Fleetwood Mac channel on YouTube the other day, and spent a good half an hour or so enjoying all the Buckingham/Nicks-era music videos – many of which I hadn’t seen before. Possibly with the weight of the recent death of Christine McVie, I started to think about how I first got into rock music, and how things might have been different if I had discovered Fleetwood Mac earlier.

This era of the band is so far up my street – the fingerpicking weirdness of Lindsey Buckingham, the witchy etherealness of Stevie Nicks, the wistful longing of Christine McVie – I would have been a fan from day one, had I ever seen their music videos in the early ‘90s.

I still remember the weekend in 1993 – the weekend of the football league cup final – when MTV in the UK had declared an Aerosmith weekend in support of their new album GET A GRIP. I devoured everything I saw – mainly the Geffen-era music videos from PERMANENT VACATION onwards – and didn’t look back.

But given how much I like this era of Fleetwood Mac, what would have happened if MTV had been celebrating with a Fleetwood Mac weekend? Would I have been spending the rest of my teens dressed in gypsy chic like Buckingham in their music videos from the late ‘80s? This might sound like a joke, but given that I started wearing denim jackets from that point on due to most of Aerosmith wearing during the PUMP era, it’s actually not that hard to imagine. I’m just thankful there aren’t any photos of me from the time wearing a straw hat…

Of course, the reason why it was Aerosmith weekend that weekend, rather than Fleetwood Mac weekend, was because of release dates. The ‘Smith had a new album out, and the Mac were between albums – the Buckingham-absent BEHIND THE MASK had been released three years prior in 1990, and the Nicks-absent TIME wouldn’t be released until 1995.

Does that mean that my entire personality and psyche is tied into the fact that Aerosmith were releasing a new album, just at the moment I was looking for something new in my life? Aerosmith signed a new record deal with Geffen in the mid-‘80s, and the repercussions of this, combined with the fact that GET A GRIP was ultimately delayed as they aborted the sessions at one point and started again from scratch, may have led me to the person I am today.

The multiverse of moderate rock; it’s a head-scratcher, for sure.

What I do know for sure is that this era of Fleetwood Mac feels very close to me. I’m not exactly sure why that is, but perhaps there’s something in the songwriting that just clicks with me in a way that most bands don’t?

This 1975 self-titled album – also known as THE WHITE ALBUM according to Wikipedia, although I’ve never heard it referred to as such – represents the start of this line-up of the band, its most successful era. Strangely, each of the four singles taken from the album – Over My Head, Warm Ways, Rhiannon and Say You Love Me – are all different mixes compared to the versions on the album. It’s also weird that they didn’t release Landslide and World Turning as singles, given how much they still play these songs live (a version of Landslide from THE DANCE was eventually released as a single in 1998).

Hit: Rhiannon

Hidden Gem: I’m So Afraid

Rocks In The Attic #1058: Aerosmith – ‘Pandora’s Toys’ (1994)

One of the hardest Aerosmith records to find, this Brazilian release of PANDORA’S TOYS is the only vinyl pressing in the world of this one-disc sampler of 1991’s PANDORA’S BOX archival compilation.

As the PANDORA’S BOX set is also unavailable on the format, this rare release is the only place to hear some of the box set’s more unique content on vinyl: the remix of Draw The Line, the live Texxas Jam July ’78 version of Big Ten Inch Record, the alternate version of Chip Away The Stone, and the studio covers of Otis Rush’s All Your Love and the Beatles’ Helter Skelter.

Looking at the Wikipedia page for PANDORA’S BOX (which I helped to flesh out back in the day, from what was originally a very simple entry), there’s so much more previously unavailable material on there – Chain Reaction’s When I Needed You, the cover of the Lovin’ Spoonful’s On The Road Again, and a number of live versions and alternate takes. The thing I probably miss the most is the instrumentals recorded by ‘The Other Three’: Krawhitham, written and arranged by Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer while the two prima donnas were still in bed, and a similar track, Circle Jerk, written by Whitford.

The one thing missing from this vinyl version of PANDORA’S TOYS compared to the CD release is that lovely colour-tinted black and white photograph of Aerosmith on-stage (see below) that should be on the back cover – one of my favourite photos of the band at their peak.

With the release of last year’s 1971: THE ROAD STARTS HEAR, off the back of the band bringing their back catalogue under Universal, the future looks rosy to see some archival material released in the future. Joe Perry is reportedly ‘thrilled to open up the vault’ and says they plan to continue releasing pieces of early, unearthed material in the same vein.

It’s been a long time comin’…

Hit: Walk This Way

Hidden Gem: All Your Love

Rocks In The Attic #1026: Aerosmith – ‘1971: The Road Start Hear’ (1971)

My most awaited release of 2021 has finally landed.

It’s almost laughable that this is Aerosmith’s first archival release since <checks notes> 1991 (!) when Columbia released PANDORA’S BOX to cash-in on the band’s comeback on Geffen. This release is hopefully the start of something new, given that the band have now brought their entire back catalogue under UMG.

So thirty years later, Aerosmith fans have something new to listen to – and it’s their earliest ever recording – pre-dating their 1973 debut by two years.

Recorded in a long-forgotten location (either a rehearsal room or pre-gig soundcheck – nobody in the liner notes seems to be sure), these 7 songs were recorded as a demo on Joe Perry’s two-channel reel-to-reel tape recorder by their one-man road crew Mark Lehman.

Recorded on just two microphones (one for Steven Tyler’s vocal, the other pointed at the rest of the band), it should sound ropey. It doesn’t. In fact, it’s amazing how good it sounds given there’s no separation for the instruments; not too far away in quality from something like the 1973 Paul’s Mall radio performance (part of which was pulled for PANDORA’S BOX).

As for the material covered, it’s a run through of many of the songs that would land on their debut album – but there are some interesting additions. The intro track includes Joe Perry and Brad Whitford jamming on Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross, before the rest of the band come in on a blustering version of Somebody.

A run-through of Reefer Head Woman comes next, eight years before it would appear on 1979’s NIGHT IN THE RUTS, before a slowed-down version of Walkin’ The Dog closes side one.

Side two starts with Movin’ Out, followed by Major Barbara – the long lost Aerosmith song that was recorded for GET YOUR WINGS but ultimately left off an official release until a studio outtake was tacked onto the end of 1986’s CLASSICS LIVE! The crazy thing about the version played here is that the end of the song descends into a merry-go-round melody lifted from nursery rhyme Little Tommy Tucker, gathering in speed until they can’t go any faster.

Quite a few of the tracks from the 1973 debut album feature with slightly different arrangements here, and the biggest change is on future hit Dream On. Already fully-formed (which is not surprising given that Tyler wrote the song four years before Aerosmith formed) but with the odd different lyric, it’s a fairly familiar version of the arrangement until we get to the end of the song. Instead of the crescendo finale on the studio version, here we get a piano ending which includes the main piano motif from You See Me Crying, the ballad that closes 1975’s TOYS IN THE ATTIC. It was easily the thing that surprised me the most on this release.

To finish the set, we get a comparatively dry run-through of Mama Kin – more of a whimper than a bang.

All in all, this is a great release that really surprised me. The pressing is nice and dynamic, the double-sided liner notes made for an interesting read, and the gatefold and inner sleeve features some great pre-1973 photos of the band.

Props must also go to the album cover, which features a clitoris as part of a hairy, winged ‘A’ – designed by original rhythm guitarist Ray Tabano and previously seen on the back cover of GET YOUR WINGS. They should have stuck with that version of the logo…

Hit: Dream On

Hidden Gem: Reefer Head Woman

Rocks In The Attic #1000: Aerosmith – ‘Get Your Wings’ (1974)

Almost ten years after I started this blog, with the very first post on Aerosmith’s 1973 debut album, it seems fitting that I return to that band for post number 1,000.

Get Your Wings is Aerosmith’s sophomore effort, and the last gasp before album number three (Toys In The Attic) would turn them into a stadium-filling rock band. It also happens to be the album I cherish of theirs the most.

I’d have been happy if they had stayed at this level, churning out sometimes kooky, sometimes theatrical, sometimes sinister rock numbers, without the distraction of the big singles that would follow later.  Yet, speaking of singles, this album produced two of the band’s most enduring songs – lead single (and album opener) Same Old Song And Dance, and a single-edit of their long-time concert finale Train Kept A Rollin’.

The third single chosen off the album – the frantic rocker S.O.S. (Too Bad) – released almost a year after the album, and only a couple of months before the next album, feels like a misstep. Lord Of The Thighs is arguably the next strongest candidate off the album, proven by it remaining a constant on their set-list for years to come.

If Aerosmith’s debut album had sounded a little under-produced and a far cry from the band they would become, Get Your Wings is where they start to sound like themselves. A huge contributing factor to this is the introduction of Jack Douglas in the producer’s chair, who co-produces with Ray Colcord. Douglas’ involvement here starts a glorious band/producer relationship that would remain in place until the band disintegrated in the mid-‘80s.

There’s a wonderfully elemental feel to some of these songs – Spaced, Woman Of The World, Seasons Of Wither – that would be missing from future albums. It’s almost as if the band were all smoking a specific strain of grass that infused the songwriting and recording. And there’s a collective focus on Get Your Wings that would be absent on later releases. This could suggest that the album was produced with some degree of sobriety, yet Joe Perry would later recall ‘We all put in endless hours, fuelled by whatever substances were available.’

Here’s to another thousand…

Hit: Train Kept A-Rollin’

Hidden Gem: Spaced

Rocks In The Attic #960: Aerosmith – ‘Rock Giants’ (1982)

A long coveted Aerosmith compilation, this has been on my Discogs wantlist for a few years. Unlike finding things in the wild in record stores, Discogs is bloody dangerous as you can essentially buy anything at any time – the only decision is when to bite the bullet. Thankfully I was able to find this listed by a seller that had a couple of other things I was after (that international shipping for just one record is a major drawback about living in the corner of the globe).

Essentially a German reissue of 1980’s Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits, this CBS release features the same tracklisting but the order is rearranged, and a couple of additional tracks are included in Toys In The Attic and underrated gem S.O.S. (Too Bad).

Unfortunately this release copies the problems with the Greatest Hits release – namely using the single versions of Sweet Emotion (which completely ditches the awesome bass guitar and talkbox opening) and Kings And Queens(again minus the intro). The single version of Same Old Song And Dance is used – which features a different vocal take (and a different lyric on one of the verses) – but that one’s quite interesting to listen to.

Given that CBS were able to add a couple of songs onto the tracklist, and still only arrive at a running time of forty-three minutes, it’s a wonder why they didn’t just use the album takes on the original Greatest Hits release. Then you remember that this is effectively the same record label – Columbia – that signed Bruce Springsteen on the same day, and for every $1 they put into promoting Aerosmith, they put $100 into The Boss. The thinking behind a throwaway compilation album was probably left to an intern.

Hit: Walk This Way

Hidden Gem: S.O.S. (Too Bad)

Rocks In The Attic #930: Aerosmith – ‘Quick On The Draw’ (1978)

My quest to find a bootleg from all of Aerosmith’s tours through the 1970s and 1980s continues with this recently released gem. Recorded in Boston in March 1978 on the Draw The Line tour (my second bootleg from that tour after November 1977’s 5 The Hard Way!), the recording is from a radio broadcast, with its closing track (Toys In The Attic) lifted for the same year’s officially released Live! Bootleg double-album.

It’s a heavily abridged set, featuring just 11 of the 17 tracks the band played that night. Quality-wise, it’s as good as most of the material on Live! Bootleg, and captures the band when their drug addictions were becoming more important than their playing. To be fair, it’s a good mix of absolutely sloppy playing, and muscle-memory precision. The judicious editing on this record, making one song run almost effortlessly into the next, feels a little manipulative. I expect the spaces between songs were far longer, as Tyler and Perry argued over drugs on stage while the other three tuned up and looked on.

Not only does this recording feature a performance of Chip Away The Stone – at that point still officially unreleased (a live version would eventuate on Live! Bootleg, and a studio version would be released in support of the album) – it also features a run-through of Get It Up, a Draw The Line deep cut, which you don’t hear them play past this tour.

The orange vinyl and Draw The Line-influenced artwork is a nice touch too.

Hit: Walk This Way

Hidden Gem: Get It Up

Rocks In The Attic #892: Aerosmith – ‘Rock This Way’ (1975)

My ongoing question to pick up a bootleg recording from each of Aerosmith’s tours throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s continues. Although this one is more a strengthening of one I already own.

Recorded live on the Toys In The Attic tour in 1975, the performance is one of Aerosmith’s most bootlegged shows. I already own one bootleg of the show – Look Homeward Angel – and they look to have been pressed at the same plant. Both have pastel-yellow centre labels, with SIDE ONE and SIDE TWO printed on them. Rock This Way’s labels are otherwise blank, but the other has AEROSMITH LOOK HOMEWARD ANGEL written in block capitals. Both are well recorded off the soundboard, with Rock This Way having a little more treble than the other release.

The biggest difference is a slightly different tracklisting. Side one is the same on both releases – S.O.S. (Too Bad) with the great extended intro, followed by Somebody, Dream On and Write Me A Letter. Side two starts with Walk This Way on both releases, but differs from this point. On Look Homeward Angel, this is followed by a 9-minute Train Kept A-Rollin’ and Toys In The Attic; on Rock This Way, Train Kept A-Rollin’ is substituted with No More No More and Same Old Song And Dance.

When I look the concert up on Setlist.com – 29^th August 1975 at the Schaefer Music Festival in Wollman Skating Rink, Central Park, New York City – it looks like the band played three songs that don’t appear on either release: they opened with Rufus Thomas’ Walking The Dog immediately before S.O.S. (Too Bad), and a segue between the two might explain that extended intro on the second song. The other missing songs were Big Ten Inch Record and Sweet Emotion. Perhaps these three missing songs are included on another release somewhere. The quest continues!

Hit: Walk This Way

Hidden Gem: No More No More

Rocks In The Attic #862: Alice Cooper – ‘Trash’ (1989)

An important album for me in my teens, Trash is the eleventh solo studio album by Alice Cooper. I don’t think I ever owned a copy of this at the time, except perhaps a copy taped from my old friend Vini, but it’s nice to finally own it. It was a nice surprise to receive it in the mail – the 2017 Music On Vinyl reissue – to discover that it is on transparent red vinyl, limited to 1,500 copies.

A comeback album of sorts, it represents a late-career resurgence (now considered a mid-career resurgence) for Cooper. Hit single and album opener Poison was his first Top 10 hit since 1977, and finally he had a solid album to back it up with – the first since his early days as a solo artist following the break-up of the Alice Cooper band.

What was important to me as a skinny, long-haired teenager was the Aerosmith connection. Not only is Trash produced by Desmond Child, notorious song-doctor to Aerosmith’s late-‘80s radio-friendly hits, but the timing of the album seems to run in parallel with the Boston band. After an initial run through the ‘70s, both Aerosmith and Alice Cooper returned with a more commercial sound in the late ‘80s, with Trash hitting record stores only a couple of months before Aerosmith’s Pump.

The final connection to Aerosmith comes via the guest appearances across Trash. Steven Tyler provides vocals on Only My Heart Talkin’, Joe Perry plays guitar and takes a solo on House Of Fire, and the title song features contributions by Tom Hamilton on bass and Joey Kramer on drums. I’ve never been able to figure out why Aerosmith guitarist Brad Whitford doesn’t appear on the album, but I presume it’s something fairly innocent like he was on holiday at the time, or learning some scales.

It’s an album that’s chock-full of guest appearances: Jon Bon Jovi, Kip Winger, Richie Sambora and Steve Lukather all turn up at one point or another. It’s not as though the album is in desperate need of the contributions either. Alice’s band are cooking even without them, and no song is more true of this than Poison, arguably one of the greatest rock songs of the 1980s.

I remember an old school friend – Jamie Hardman, the man I went to my first Aerosmith concert with – was always a massive fan of Alice Cooper. I tried to share his enthusiasm when Alice released his 1991 follow-up, Hey Stoopid, but it all sounded a little silly to me and I wasn’t listening to rock music yet. Trash sounded much better when I eventually heard it a few years later, although it admittedly sounds quite dated now. It is what it is though; just big, dumb fun.

Hit: Poison

Hidden Gem: Trash