Album #6 – Night in the Ruts (1979) – Off Spotify once again
Track List
1."No Surprize" Steven Tyler, Joe Perry4:25
2."Chiquita" Tyler, Perry4 :24
3."Remember (Walking in the Sand)" Shadow Morton 4:04
4."Cheese Cake" Tyler, Perry 4:15
Side two
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"Three Mile Smile" Tyler, Perry 3:42
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"Reefer Head Woman" Joe Bennett, Jazz Gillum, Lester Melrose 4:01
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"Bone to Bone (Coney Island White Fish Boy)" Tyler, Perry 2:59
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"Think About It" Keith Relf, Jimmy Page, Jim McCarty 3:34
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"Mia" Tyler 4:14
Length 35:41
Background – Though Draw the Line had broken a sales record for Columbia (over a million copies sold in less than six weeks), the sales stalled soon after that, settling around one and a half million units, a far cry from Toys and Rocks. Aerosmith continued to sell well tour-wise, though sometimes the show quality was questionable due to the dysfunction going on. Firecrackers and bottles tossed on stage would also injure band members and cut shows short. Eventually, Joe got tired of all the chaos and left the band before this record was finished, appearing on only five of the nine tracks. This began Jimmy Crespo’s tenure with the group, who filled in on a few songs (longtime Aerosmith collaborator also does some of the guitar work on this album. The release of this album was very slow compared to other albums, coming out two years after Draw the Line, the longest gap between releases thus far. There are also three covers included in this album, likely due to the troubled and slow production of original material. Jack Douglas was also relieved of duty by Columbia records due to his inability to control the band, replaced by Gary Lyons. This has remained one of Aerosmith’s less remembered records, though the band has looked back on the material positively and critics have been kind to it with the passage of time.
Cover Art – I’ve had this cover framed on my wall for years, along with the vinyl disk. They both look great and music is part of my room’s aesthetic. I’m sure it appealed to the working-class crowd that made up basically all of Aerosmith’s fans at the time and I quite like it, though it’s not Draw the Line. The gritty work of coal mining is a good fit for the band, labor intensive and dirty. I can’t help but think there’s a visual pun going on here with a rock band being surrounded by, well…rocks. Maybe not my favorite cover, but good enough for my wall. Also change the position of the N and the R in the album title and you’ll get a tenant of Aerosmith’s philosophy of rock n roll. I first noticed that when it was pointed out in a summary of the album on one of the band’s compilation disks, might have been O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits, but I can’t remember.
Onto the music!
I’ve never actually listened to this album despite it having been on my wall for years. I intended to get to it one of these day and I contemplated taking it out of the frame to see how it sounded on my record player, but it’s more of a decoration and I never felt like going though the hassle. Thus the only song’s I’ve previously heard from this are “No Surprize” and “Remember (Walking in the Sand).
No Surprize – A good rocker to start the album, though ironically, it’s a triumphant career retrospective when the band was in a very bad spot. Steven screams the band’s history, starting with the gig at Max’s Kansas City in NYC that got the band signed by Clive Davis. From there it descends into yelling about the audience, groupies, and rock n roll. This is a return to the “regular” Aerosmith sound rather than continuing the Draw the Line sound. I get some Keith Richards vibes from the riffs on this one and the horns backing up the rock sure make this sounds like an Aerosmith classic.
Chiquita – A “strangled” guitar starts this one off, leading into some very dirty sound licks before Steven gets going. While this one has a strong sound and guitars darting left and right at the end, I can’t say I’ll find myself going back to this one. It’s not bad, but nothing really stands out, a problem some other songs off this album have. I heard this not long ago and already I’m struggling to remember how it sounds, not a good sign. Though if I do another run through of this album someday, this one might surprise me on a second listen. Not bad, but it doesn’t click with me much.
Remember (Walking in the sand) – You probably heard this one off of Greatest Hits and this is my favorite song from the album. A sad ballad about love lost with the rare girl singer backup, it also doesn’t feature joe at all, with I believe Brad doing all of the guitar work. Yet despite being a man down the band was still able to do this girl group classic justice, even getting Mary Weiss who originally sang this song with the Shangri-Las to do the backing vocals to spectacular effect. The harmony on this one is almost unmatched in the band’s entire catalogue and the guitar seems to blend the rhythm into the solo for a neat effect. Steven has a controlled nervous breakdown at the end where the feeling of loss and regret really comes out. For all of his personal issues, he could still rule the mic. Tom semi-recently tweeted that “I think my favorite would be “Remember.”, which I can only assume refers to this song being his favorite Aerosmith tune. I had previously read he stated “The farm” off of Nine Lives was his favorite, so perhaps his opinion has changed. It’s a respectable song choice and a little underrated in terms of Aerosmith covers. Even when on their last legs, the band is still able to make some magic. Best song off this album bar none.
Cheesecake – From no Joe to lots of Joe! That guitar intro is nothing but Joe Perry rockin’ goodness! There’s also a nice, very simple bass line (which sometimes is all you need). This has the dumbest chorus in any of their songs. Yelling “Cheesecake!” was silly back then and it’s very silly now, though that’s not necessarily a criticism. There are many dumb songs that are incredible and this on is alright. Not my favorite rocker of there’s but it has that good ol’ Tyler/Perry taste to it. The breakdown on this one leads to a soft solo that grooves along which gives way to more guitar rocking before the second chorus before ending with some nice drum work with the guitars. It’s a dumb but fun guitar rocker and probably not a song you’ll run to when you want some of that Aerosmith swagger, but it’s one you could throw on the playlist if you want a little variety.
Three Mile Smile – The first Jimmy Crespo tune and I believe the only song that features both him and Joe. Jimmy works well enough here, though this song isn’t very memorable. Somehow this album has formed an “average” Aerosmith sound, a far cry from the wild energy and experimentation of previous outings. I have no idea what the hell the lyrics are about on this one and I’m not sure even those who wrote it do. It’s got a fun little off beat drum intro, but not much else comes off as memorable except that it reminds me of two Aerosmith songs that I like better. The riff sounds like “Shela” and it very well might be they recycled this riff and sped it up for that song to much greater effect. The guitar scream reminds me a little of the Brad solo from “Love in an Elevator”. This song might not be memorable, but it’s possible Brad went back to the well on this one and came out with the ingredients to make two better songs. That counts for something.
Reefer Head Woman – Aerosmith does straight up blues and it works! I’ve recently gotten into the blues (I am a proud owner of the modern Rolling Stones blues classic Blue and Lonesome, which I highly recommend!) and this hits all the right notes literally and metaphorically. Once again Tom shows that he is a master of blues bass and Steven nails the blues signer voice with much more confidence than he did on the first outing. In fact, the whole band is showing their blues mastery as there is little true rock on this song outside of the guitar solo, which still adheres to the blues style. Steven screams out “Oh Mr. Perry” before the incredible guitar solo, but from what I understand Joe doesn’t play on this, so unless the sources I’ve found are wrong either that line is hiding the fact that Joe left or that really is Joe. If anyone knows leave a comment, I’d like to find out.
Bone to Bone (Coney Island White Fish Boy) – A very gross name for a song (I don’t feel like explain what the title is referring to), but the punk guitar work and edge on this one makes for an enjoyable under 3-minute rock adventure. Some very underappreciated guitar work by Joe on this one, reminds me of “Eat the Rich” and the work he did on the opening theme he did for the Spider-Man (1994) cartoon (sidenote: it blew my little boy mind when I learned Joe freaking Perry did the intro for that show, I loved it as a kid! There was a also a blink and you miss it reference to Joe in “Into the Spiderverse”, which he pointed out on twitter). Punk had an influence on Joe’s sound and if he stuck around maybe the band could have come up with a punk classic or two had things gone differently. As it stands this is probably the best deep cut on the album, if you don’t consider “No Surprize” and “Remember (Walking in the Sand)” deep cuts. Apparently “Bone to Bone” used to be a concert staple but it’s since fallen off the setlist. An understandable omission but also a bit of a shame, I bet it’s great live.
Think about it – The second yardbirds cover but it doesn’t hold a candle to “Train Kept A-Rollin”. It has that hard rock sound and a very interesting “gunshot” set of chords that I haven’t heard on any other song of theirs. Joe isn’t on this one supposedly and no one else is listed as appearing on it, so I can only assume this is Brad and not Riche Supa, Jimmy Crespo, or Neil Thompson, all of whom worked on this album. I’ll have to come back to this one sometime, I want to like it a bit more and I feel it’ll grow on me. Not really much to say as of right now and I find the lyrics rather weak. The most interesting part of it is the mystery guitarist and his technical wizardry…yeah that’s gotta be Brad right?
Mia – This should have been incredible. It has this hauntingly beautiful lullaby style and wonderful acoustic guitar all wrapped up together in sadness. It’s a very different ballad style that is both contemplative and remorseful, yet innocent in a way. It also ends with some very hard piano chords like that of a bell ringing. But somehow this doesn’t fully come together to form the musical brilliance that can be found on any of their previous ballads. By all means this should have been the next “Seasons of Wither”, but instead this remorseful song written solely by Steven never got a chance to truly shine. Joe had already left the band and I think Steven’s sadness over that fact can be heard in this song. It’s an interesting relic of the past in Aerosmith’s catalogue, but not the classic it should be. If the right person got a hold of this a cover could be something very special. The world doesn’t need more covers of “Sweet Emotion” or “Walk this Way”, but it does need someone to resurrect unjustly forgotten deep cuts like “Mia”.
Final Thoughts – This could be considered the last of the “classic period” for Aerosmith. The famous line up disintegrated half way through the recording process and it wouldn’t be until six years later that another one of their albums would hit platinum. The band is clearly on their last legs, but there’s still a few gems to be found. I wouldn’t call this bad by any means, as it is FAR above truly terrible albums (looking at you Van Halen III and St. Anger), but a lot of the musical magic has faded away. It can’t stand up to Toys or Rocks and the wild experimentation of Draw the Line is gone as well, leaving a decaying shell of a not quite dead band left over. I’m glad I finally got to this one and again I wouldn’t call it bad, as even the worst song on here is still somewhat enjoyable, but it’s the weakest of the “classic” six albums. This is the only album I hadn't heard completely where I didn't save one of the unheard songs to my Spotify. That's best summary I can give.
Submitted June 13, 2019 at 07:35AM by Ice-Tiger http://bit.ly/2X69YFx
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