I decided to change the name of this series to a retrospective rather than a review series. I think that title fits better with what I'm going for. Hope you enjoy!
Album number two Get Your Wings (1974) – Once again, I’m listening to this off Spotify.
Track list
Side One
1.“Same Old Song and Dance” Steven Tyler, Joe Perry 3:53
- “Lord of the Thighs” Tyler 4:14
3.“Spaced” Tyler, Perry 4:21
4.“Woman of the World” Tyler, Don Solomon 5:49
Side two
5.“S.O.S. (Too Bad)” Tyler 2:51
- “Train Kept A-Rollin’” Tiny Bradshaw, Howard Kay, Lois Mann 5:33
7.“Seasons of Wither” Tyler 5:38
8.“Pandora’s Box” Tyler, Joey Kramer5:43
Length 38:04
Background: Aerosmith’s sophomore album saw them team up with “sixth member” Jack Douglas, who would also produce *Toys in the Attic*, *Rocks*, *Draw the Line* *Rock in a Hard Place*, *Honkin’ on Bobo*, and *Music From Another Dimension!*. The album was recorded at the legendary Record Plant in New York, where Hendrix recorded *Electric Ladyland*. The band’s career was finally starting to take off around the time this album released. “Dream On” was becoming a radio hit and relentless touring across the Northeast and Midwest won the band thousands of new fans. In his book Joe Perry talks about how fans suddenly started coming out in droves to their shows, sometimes lining up around entire city blocks and occasionally starting riots (as you do). Aerosmith began headlining shows rather than open with bands like Blue Oyster Cult opening (must have been incredible to see a show like that!). Aerosmith was gaining ground and coming into their own, a fact clearly heard on *Get Your Wings*
Cover Art: This is a much more “respectable” (not a word often used to describe early Aerosmith) album cover. The photo of the band used looks cool rather than trying to look cool. The black and white tone also adds a little mystique. Everyone seems cool and confident, reflecting how the album sounds compared to the great but shaky first effort. This is also the first appearance of the Aerosmith logo on an album, though it has fluffy “A” in the middle and bat wings as opposed to the now iconic version with the smooth “A” and feathered wings. I prefer the more iconic logo, but this one has grown on me. It looks like Dr.Seuss meets Black Sabbath art style wise, very 70s. There’s two or maybe three variations of the album cover, the only difference being the colors of the Aerosmith logo and album title. The original pressing was red album title with gold logo, which was later changed to light purple album title and yellow logo. The complementary purple/yellow looks pretty good, but red is my favorite color so I can’t really pick a favorite. Also, there’s this other variation that has an orange album title and the gold band logo that I just found out about while researching the album and I can’t find anything about it. I’m not sure if it was a pressing in between the two versions or if it’s an international version, but the album art on Spotify is of this one. I can find clear photos of the album where the text is clearly hot red and others where it’s clearly buffalo sauce orange, so it’s not just a trick of the eyes. Weird.
Onto the music!
This I my first time hearing this album all the way through! I had heard about half of the songs before but for some reason I had never gotten around to listening to the album proper, I’m glad I did because I sat on this for far too long. It’s worth noting that Joe and Brad share lead and rhythm on this album quite a bit. Brad does lead on "Lord of the Thighs", "Spaced", "S.O.S. (Too Bad)", and "Seasons of Wither", while Joe takes lead on “Woman of the World" and "Pandora's Box".
Same Old Song and Dance- The title of this one must have been ironic because this certainly isn't the same old thing again. This is the first truly great Aerosmith opener, a powerful, bluesy rocker backed up by a myriad of horns complemented with screaming guitars. It’s incredible how much more confident the whole band sounds on this opening compared to their first album. No longer is this a group of Boston boys who occasionally break into brilliance, this is a dynamic and charismatic rock band who have learned how to work together as one powerful unit. This sound is what people think of when you say 70s Aerosmith and they would continue to perfect it on later albums.
Lord of the Thighs- A clever play on “The Lord the Flies” that describes the seediness of 70s New York City, there’s a bit of a jungle vibe to this one mixed in with the nasty lyrics. The drum beat sounds like a proto Walk This Way, adding a bit of a funk element. Tom also gets in a nice bass groove towards the end that leads into an extended jam to close out the track. Again, Steven sounds much more confident on this and “Thighs” is the first real sexually charged song the band did, and it has a dark edge to it, something they would continue to experiment with down the line. It’s not my favorite song on the album, but I’ll probably come back to this one more as I reexamine the album. I’m not really sure how to put this but does anyone else think early instrumental parts of this song sound kinda like Donkey Kong Country? That’s not a slight because that game has great music, but I can’t help but hear that same style embedded within the jungle groove that’s going on with this song. I’m probably the only person to ever think this…
Spaced- A hard song to place. As “Thighs” fades out this song slowly fades in, beginning with a slow and spooky sci-fi-esque intro. Then the band pops in with their familiar blues rocking style, but something has been added to it that isn’t found in any Aerosmith song I can think of. The lyrics and instrumentation are sci-fi themed, talking about planets and turmoil in the soul mixed with a guitar sound with notes running up and down the neck that sound synthesized in some way. I’m sure it’s a simple effect but guitar tech is not something I’m an expert in, I’m a drummer after all. Then the song starts to get going but suddenly ends. Boom, done… The band definitely experimented with a style that I don’t think they ever really tried again. I wish they had done something like this again, maybe there’s a deep cut I’ve missed on one of the later albums I can compare this too. Overall, I like this but I’m struggling to find word that will really express my opinion of it, not often a song leaves me this confused. Definitely the most Bowie Aerosmith ever got, and I mean that in a very good way.
Woman of the World- Coming off of the weird “Spaced”, this one starts with a warm acoustic guitar teamed up with electric soloing. Something about this makes this song seem perfectly suited for use as the opening theme of a movie, like it’s setting the tone for a larger story. The middle section has a “Rats in the Cellar” sounding break down that shifts back to the original sound. Steven does a beautiful harmonica part around 4-and-a-half-minute mark. I’ve heard a lot of fans talk about this as one of their favorites. After finally getting to this I can say I like it, but this isn’t one of the deep cuts that I’ll be going back to constantly, though I’ll probably end up giving it a few more run throughs. Perhaps my opinion will change.
SOS (Too Bad) - A short rocker that doesn’t even crack three minutes, telling the tale of a young man who can’t get a woman he wants while talking about his crappy upbringing. A lot of young men at the time could surely relate. Outside of the next song on the track list, this is the one I’d describe as the most hard rock.
Train kept A-Rollin’ - Now this is a big one! A cover of an old Tiny Bradshaw song that had been covered by numerous artists before this version (most famously The Yardbirds), the Aerosmith cut has become the most famous version, so much so that when Jeff Beck plays it sometimes people will say things like “I really like what you did with that Aerosmith tune” (oh the wonders of being Jeff Beck). This track doesn’t feature either Joe or Brad on guitar, instead featuring Dick Wagner and Steve Hunter, both of whom were working with Alice Cooper at the time. I’m not sure exactly why Jack Douglas decided to use Dick and Steve, Dick says he was just sitting in the studio lobby waiting to do his fills on a different song when Jack popped him and asked him to record. Aerosmith wanted to do a live recording of the song as they had been playing it since their very first show but Douglas wanted to do a studio version, perhaps that influenced his decision. Not all that strange for recording in the 70s though, session playing was quite common at the time. Also, the live crowd sounds were taken from the Concert for Bangladesh that George Harrison organized. The song itself is a smokin’ hard rocker with some incredible guitar work perfectly complemented by the thumping bass and drums. The soloing sets this song apart from almost everything else in Aerosmith’s catalog, you can definelty hear the difference in guitar style, but it all worked out wonderfully. Joe and Brad also nail this song live so while this studio version doesn’t feature them, they are more than capable of doing this song justice. It’s funny how one of Aerosmith’s best songs would also foreshadow their most commercially unviable period, as the members on this song (Tom, Joey, and Steven), would remain in the band during the early 80s chaos period while Joe and Brad gave other venture a try. I think this song shows that had the remaining Aerosmith members been able to get their act together maybe they still could have stayed on top with different guitarists in the band.
Seasons of Wither- This is the song that every Aerosmith fan seems to know that I had neglected, and I am very happy to say that I’ve finally gotten to it. It’s for the best I waited on this one, I don’t think I could have appreciated it correctly before now. The cheering crowd from “Train” fades away for 30 seconds on this track while a howling wind takes over. Then a chillingly done acoustic guitar (played by Steven!) mixes with the wind followed by the slow build of an electric guitar. Steven sings this song like Chris Cornell, with an emphasis on half slurring words and drawn out notes. I was floored by this, I love Cornell and this sounds like it had a strong influence on him. I can’t help but hear similarities to “Say hello 2 heaven” tonally and lyrically. After doing a little digging I found that Mother Love Bone (the precursor to Pearl Jam) did a version of this. “Say hello 2 heaven” is a tribute to Andrew Wood (lead singer of Mother love Bone), so it all makes sense. Who knew Aerosmith did grunge 20 years before anyone else? “Seasons” is one of Aerosmith’s darkest ballads and I have no idea why this wasn’t a mega hit in 1974. My only small gripe is I wish it was just a bit longer, 10-30 seconds more of incredible music would have made it all the better.
Pandora’s box- Joey Kramer’s first writing credit out of I think only 10 or so songs throughout the band’s entire career. The song was written on a guitar Joey found in a dumpster, which was the same guitar Steven used to write “Seasons of Wither” supposedly. This is the second Aerosmith song that made me laugh, with the line “Nobody gives a hoot”. For some reason that’s very funny coming from Steven. We’ll get to the first song that made me laugh later. “Pandora” could have been an old blues song given the lyrics and it fits perfectly with the Aerosmith style of hard blues rock. I hope the guy who wrote it originally likes what the and did with it. I originally heard this song off of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith and it’s nice to listen to this gem after all these years. Pandora is sweet.
Final Thoughts: *Get Your Wings* is a much more confident and consistent album than *Aerosmith* and it has quite a few underrated classics that never got their chance to shine in the mainstream. I’m glad I finally got to this one, but I think I’ll need a few more run throughs before I can rank this one against the other albums. If *Aerosmith* didn’t win you over, give this one a shot, it just might do the trick.
Previous retrospectives 1. Aerosmith
Submitted June 08, 2019 at 10:22PM by Ice-Tiger http://bit.ly/2MxdcxL
No comments:
Post a Comment