Get Your Wings - Aerosmith (CD 1993)

INTRODUCTION
Hello, everybody. This is John Bishop typing, the DeadMilkboy of Epinions.com. Before I launch into the following review, I d like to mention that this is part of a series of reviews I m writing based on one of the greatest American rock n roll bands in history, AEROSMITH! I d like to thank Aerocat (another Arizona native, bless her soul) for giving me the chance to do something other than write reviews of classic B-movies and current CD/DVD releases, and besides AEROSMITH F*CKING ROCKS! Posted here is the URL to Aerocat s official Epinions.com Aerosmith Write-Off page, and a list of names of other hopeful Aero Force fellas and freaks joining me in the write-off. For reference purposes, I got the lyrics and and quotations/information from www.rockthisway.de and aerosmithlyrics.homestead.com.

URL: http://aerowriteoff.bravepages.com/index.html
MEMBERS: Aerocat, hipyx, matta75, thevoid99, deaser26, netnut746, pt-paratroopa, pmills1210, pearl-drum-man, jeff_wilder78, kcfoxy, fartzarellah, sparkospunky, joubert, mattbjorke, shilmafone, donignacio, ned1, fuche_bu, and frostiepekkle.

GET YOUR WINGS
You know how sometimes bands have an LP which is a "sophomore slump"? Well, it didn't happen to Aerosmith. But even Columbia Records wasn't exactly sure about.

Their 1973 self-titled album was so unsuccessful commercially, but their live shows promised that the band was starting to achieve something of rock genius. Steven Tyler s voice finally got hoarser and wilder over time, and the band itself was starting to rock out in new ways. So around the first month of the 1974, the band was starting to put finishing touches on a sophomore album, produced by Jack Douglas and Ray Colcord.

The first of a triple crown of Aerosmith albums was spawned with that album: GET YOUR WINGS.

The band had become stronger musicians and songwriters, and the blues-influenced grooves really started to flesh themselves out on this LP. It s an album that merits repeated listenings, and I will tell you why these eight tracks are so good.

Same Old Song And Dance is an electric opening track and first single, but much better as an album track here than as edited content on their GREATEST HITS album. Just a great groove song, said Steven Tyler about this song. I'm always on the lookout for a song that grooves out. A real classic Joe Perry riff--I just filled in the blanks. I hate to spell things out too much, but that was about one girl who was pulling on my guitar player's balls. But that's not important." What is important is that the song is an infectious blend of hard rock swagger and loose blasting horns in superb fashion. The song has an excellent opening instrumental jam, and Joe Perry asserts himself as a skilled lead guitarist. And the lyrics possess some biting, street-wise humor:

Get yourself cooler lay yourself low/Coincidental murder with nothin' to show
When the judge' constipation will go to his head/And his wife's aggravation, you ll soon end up dead
It's the same old story, same old song and dance, my friend
It's the same old story, same old song and dance, my friend
Got 'cha with da cocaine they found with your gun/No smoothy face lawyer could get' cha undone
Say love ain't the same on the south side of town/You could look but'cha ain't gonna find it around
It's the same old story, same old song and dance, my friend
It's the same old story, same old song and dance.

The song features Michael Brecker on tenor saxophone, Stan Bronstein on baritone sax, and trumpet work by Randy Brecker and Jon Pearson. They offer a great counterbalance to the electric instruments.

The Aero-classic Lord Of The Thighs opens with brisk, rhythmic drum beats courtesy of Joey Kramer, then joined in Tom Hamilton s slinky bass, shots of sharp guitar, and a piano to accompany the hard-charging bass riff. The song just keeps dishing out the instrumental goods throughout, and Steven Tyler offers up restrained bombast in his first two verses, but he screams his wild lust in the last two verses, before the breakdown sends this one shuffling home. And Steven Tyler admits this about his lyrics: "Was I the Lord of the Thighs? F*ck yeah."

Well, well, lordy, my God what do we got here
She flashin' 'cross the floor mak in perfectly clear
You're the bait and you're the hook, someone bound to take a look
I'm your man, child, lord of the thighs
You must have come here to find it, you've got the look in your eyes
Although you really don't mind it, I am the lord of your thighs.

Spaced opens with whooshing sound effects (producer Ray Colcord on keyboard) before bursting into a shining rocker with some dynamite delivery. A great album track here, it offers up plenty of wailing from both Steven Tyler s mouth and Joe Perry s guitar. Joey Kramer and Tom Hamilton keep the rhythm anchored on Earth, even if this song depicts life in old outer space as a metaphor for disillusionment and isolation:

Light'n years disappears/Twenty million years on my brain
Synthesize overrides/Tryin' to keep from goin' insane
And my soul I can not feel/'Cause they made me so unreal
Spaced enough to know I feel there's nothin' out there
Spaced enough to know I feel I really don't care
Spaced enough to feel I'm really losin' my mind
And I'm never, never, never, never ever goin' back
I'm off the track no one even knows I'm alive
Spaced without a trace, waitin' for the word to arrive
I'm the last man to survive.

The beginning of Woman Of The World offers up a blend of electric and acoustic guitar before kicking the beat into overdrive and back down again. But maybe Steven Tyler was trying to pick up someone out of his league here, even if the rapid blues riffs suggest otherwise. The verses are all punctuated by fiery power chords after each line, and Joe Perry promptly kisses this goodbye with his own solo as does Steven Tyler with his harmonica. And here s the blues:

You know I tried I tried I tried so hard to please her
She'd gimme a look if I beg and tease her
Yeah, there's nothin' you can say nothin' you can do
No way you can try to coochie coo
She might be gone tomorrow, oh lordy what you gonna do
And I tried with an open hand and a heart of sorrow/Hoped that everything would be alright
Don't save too much lovin' for tomorrow/Get all of your lovin' here tonight
She got big eyed cats she got coats of sable
She sits forty-four at her dinner table
Yeah there's nothin' you can do nothin' you can say
No way you can try to change her way
She might be gone tomorrow oh... throwin' it all away.

S.O.S. (Too Bad) fittingly means Same ol sh*t in Aerosmith s language, and here the song is a no-frills rocker with lyrics that paint desperation of a bad lonely schoolboy a rat that seems to want something more, like the life of his old man:

Salt Lake City, salt lickin' biddies, bogus honey stinkin' a gin
Well my daddy was hard, his face was pretty scarred
From kickin' a** and playin' poker to win
'Cause I'm a bad lonely school-boy and I'm a rat
And it's too bad, can't get me none a that.

Another stellar moment comes along with Train Kept A Rollin , written by Tiny Bradshaw over thirty years before this version and notably covered before by The Yardbirds. But Aerosmith made this song their own baby, and finally covered it on album with this version. Opening with a punchy lone guitar line before kicking into a danceable rock n roller, this song spends the first half as an excellent studio creation, and the band do a stellar job jamming and punching out the grooves. And if you can t get enough of Joe Perry s hot leading guitar patter, the solo runs nearly a minute. But once the guitar lets the note ring, you get this concert atmosphere surrounding you. It feels authentic, even though it s really just a production trick: the audience noises stem from a George Harrison concert, and the plan was to originally incorporate an actual live track into the mix.

But no biggie. Once Joey Kramer starts pounding away, you are thrust into a roller coaster ride of a rock song, doing the song in its entirety whereas the riff from before could have segued into a third verse. But the decision is surely classic, and Train Kept A Rollin would become a show-stopping seminal track for the band.

Well on a train, I met a dame/She rather handsome, we kinda looked the same
Well she was pretty, from New York City/I'm walkin' down that old fair lane
I'm in heat I'm in love, but I just couldn't tell her so
I said train kept a rollin' all night long
Train kept a rollin' all night long
Train kept a rollin' all night long
Train kept a rollin' all night long
With a heave and a ho, but I just couldn't tell her so.

Seasons Of Wither rises from the crowd sounds of the last song, with a windy sound effect and acoustic finger-picking melody. And how this was borne is an amusing story told by its performer and writer, Steven Tyler, in this quote:

"You know what Tuinals and Seconal are? Well, I was eating those at the time, big time. I was living with Joey Kramer near a chicken farm. It was Halloween and I was really down. So I went down to the basement, burned some incense, and picked up this guitar that Joey had found in a dumpster somewhere. It was fretted pretty f*cked, and it had a special tone to it. And that tuning forced that song right out. I love that song. The other day I was coming out of Mann's Theater in Los Angeles after a movie and on the curb there's a guy playing 'Seasons of Wither' note for note. What a trip."

The song then picks up into ballad territory, but more charging and measured than the Aerosmith ballads of future releases. The song is packed with some impressive changes in tempo, from a delicate verse to a demanding bridge, but then kicking back into calm territory. And Steven Tyler s vocals express tactfully the complications and pain of the situation:

Blues hearted lady sleepy was she/Love for the devil brought her to me
Sea's of a thousand drawn to her sin/Seasons of wither holdin' me in
Ooh, woe is me, I feel so badly for you
Ooh, woe is me, I feel so sadly for you
In time bound to lose your mind, live on borrowed time
Take the wind right out of your sail.

This is absolutely an essential song, and it was kind of surprising to know that it didn t make GEMS, and would appear on PANDORA S BOX before appearing on OH YEAH! ULTIMATE AEROSMITH HITS.

Pandora s Box is the concluding song, and a wild guess as to what 1991 album named after this song. The song was originally discovered and demo ed by drummer Joey Kramer on an old acoustic guitar he had, and then given to Steven Tyler for some more work. The song reunites Tyler s piano work and both Michael Brecker and Stan Bronstein s saxophones for this one, hence giving this song that old swinging feel to it. And this song might be about lusting after a nudist (thought it was about something else?), but the way Tyler does so is absolutely funny:

When I'm in heat and someone gets a notion
I jump to my feet I hoof it to da ocean
Yeah., we hit a beach where no one give a hoot
Nobody never ever wears a suit
The ladies there they look so proud
That's cause they know that they're so well endowed
Now I ain't much on Fannie's conversation
Or care too much about her operation
But every time Pandora come my way
I get high can't explain the sensation
To get it on I got to watch what I say
Or I'll catch hell from the women's liberation
Sweet Pandora, God-like aura, smellin' like a flora, open up your door for me.

This is one of those Aerosmith albums where every song is a winner. I mean it: there would only be two more of this caliber that would follow. Hence, I highly recommend a triple purchase of this, TOYS IN THE ATTIC and ROCKS, because their Columbia Records heyday spawned these three hard rock masterpieces. The album cover of this LP showed Aerosmith and their winged logo in their early incantation, and yet the music itself can stand the test of time. Now that they got theirs, I recommend that you GET YOUR WINGS.