Rock in a Hard Place - Aerosmith (CD 1993)

Night in the Ruts (1979)...Rock in a Hard Place (1982)...Done With Mirrors (1985)

These are the three lesser-known entries into Aerosmith's pre-comeback career - the 'backburner' records. Their 70's magic had escaped them, drug abuse had gotten out of control, and the creativity was running thin. Joe Perry left the group before finishing "Night in the Ruts" and didn't return until "Mirrors". Brad Whitford & Perry were both absent for the "Rock in a Hard Place" LP. "Hard Place" features two new guitarists, Jimmy Crespo & Rick Dufay joining the band.

These were twisted times for Aerosmith.

But if you actually listen to these records, they hold some pleasent surprises. "Night In The Ruts" is probably better than it's more succesful predecessor, "Draw the Line". "Done With Mirrors", while sloppily delivered and not extremely inspired, holds a few excellent tunes. And the middle child, the album at hand, "Rock in a Hard Place", despite featuring a drugged-out and half-broken-up Aerosmith...is actually a pretty good effort.

I understand if some people don't consider this a true Aerosmith record though. A few embarrassing moments aside - the fact that founding member, lead guitarist and major songwriter Joe Perry isn't there kind of makes it feel more like a Steven Tyler solo project than an Aerosmith album. But Crespo and Dufay do an admirable job of filling the gap left by Perry & Whitford's departures, albiet bringing extremely different styles into the fold. Simply put though, they still rock hard.

As for the songs, they too are a slight departure for the group. There are some classics here, such as "Jailbait" & "Joanie's Butterfly", as well as great rockers like "B*tches Brew", "Bolivian Ragamuffin" & "The Jig Is Up". Unfortunately, they ease into cheesiness in parts, such as the album's lone single, "Lightening Strikes" (although the tune itself is hardly as cheesy as the lame video that accompanied it, which you can see on Aerosmith's Video Scrapbook). And at times they can't help but over-indulge into studio effects.

The last track is particularly interesting as Tyler gets bluesy and spontanious with a paino on "Push Comes To Shove"...this may be seen as either totally embarrassing nonsense or an extremely flowing and inspired session. I'm undecided - I just know it doesn't do as much for me as it seems to for Mr. Tyler.

There are rough patches like that on the album. But there are also enough flat-out great moments here that it deserves a second chance among rock fans. They weren't so out of it they couldn't produce great music and Crespo seemed to bring a rush of new creativity to the band - the best tunes are Tyler/Crespo collaborations actually. Jimmy himself said he thought they could have squeezed a few more albums out of that lineup; but the public wanted Joe Perry and eventually the original Aerosmith was back in form. I don't think that's bad at all, but the possibilities of a future with Crespo are interesting...

So I heartily recommend this album to Aerosmith fans and just old-school hard rock fans in general. It's much better than it's reputation would have you believe, although if your just getting into classic Aerosmith you definitely want to start off with the first six albums. But Rock in a Hard Place, different as it may be, is by no means a disaster.