First posted on Mark Is Cranky:
As the era of Classic Rock shrinks into the musical and cultural rear view mirror, it's been enlightening to see how the stars have dealt with aging. Led Zeppelin splintered and managed to produce some fairly interesting solo material. The Grateful Dead nearly faded away before their big Touch Of Gray resurgence. Then Jerry was gone. The Who made a few comeback attempts, but true fans knew that The Who without Keith Moon made little sense (though I've got to say that I saw Pete Townshend play Who music with Zack Starkey on the drums...it was frightening). The Rolling Stones get older & craggier every year, but refuse to give up. Some say that they've become caricatures of themselves. I say more power to 'em.
Aerosmith? They were huge at one time ("Dream On" and "Walk This Way" were unavoidable...they still are!). Drugs and other ugliness broke them up for a while. Then came the Permanent Vacation-era 2nd life. It seems like they've hardly slowed down since.
In the middle of the Aerosmith 'strife years', guitarist Joe Perry formed the Joe Perry Project. When I brought Let The Music Do The Talking back to my dorm room, the sound my ear parts were expecting was undoubtedly a combination of Toys In The Attic and Rocks. I was not disappointed. Perry's tense and powerful guitar was all over that record. Maybe the vocals weren't so hot, but I was there for the full-on guitar blasphemy. It was there.
Many years (and several Aerosmith lives) later, Perry comes up with a true solo record. Firmly ensconced in his home studio (the "Boneyard"), Joe is back to making "the big noise." Perry plays all instruments and sings all of the lead vocals. The only exceptions are the drums played by friend and co-producer Paul Caruso and the analog synth played by Chris Noise on "Pray For Me".
In direct contrast to the last few Aerosmith albums (Honkin' On Bobo excepted), Joe Perry has a much more stripped down sound. In fact, the "I'm gonna fill every last one of these here 128 tracks" phenomenon is completely avoided.
Article comments
1 - Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck
Nice job on this one. I am in total agreement with you, this is a real ass kickin' solo album!
2 - Mark Saleski
i think i mighta blew out my little cheapo headphones while writing this last night!
3 - SFC SKI
Man, I am glad to hear it doesn't suck or sound like new Aerosmith (or is that redundant?)
I'd hoped Joe would have put Charlie Farren on one song at least, but I will have to check this one out anyway.
4 - HW Saxton
Can't say I've been all that impressed
with Joe's solo records and I haven't
enjoyed Aerosmith since "Draw The Line".
But I saw Joe live in a small bar out in
Las Vegas after "L.T.M.D.T.T" had come
out and he was way better than I thought
he would be.
He did about 90% of the solo record and
about 5 or 6 covers which were the best
part of the set for me. He did the NY
Dolls version of "Pills" for his encore
and great covers of The Yardbirds,Kinks,
Muddy Waters and a couple more I can't
remember. He has a lot of stage presence
once removed from Tyler's shadow and his
guitar playing was phenomenal as he was
not restrained by time or any binding
set list. At one point he just asked the
crowd for some suggestions on what to do
next,hence all the cover tunes.
And best of all he didn't do Aerosmith
tunes. He explained they were the band's
collobarative efforts best done by the
band. A gentleman and a rocker.
5 - Vern Halen
Saw Aerosmith on the Bobo tour & Joe Perry was the best part of it for me. Guess I'll have to pick this one up, but not on dual disc. What's with that? A disc that can't be played by all CD players? This is supposed to be an improvement?
6 - Dave
Yeah - that's what I said too
7 - Temple Stark
Cool. I didn't even know the guy had another solo album out.
8 - Temple Stark
Mark, This post has been digitally replicated over at Advance.net, a place affiliated with about 10 newspapers around the country.
One such site is here.
Also please let your contact know, if you had one, that this article, is published at one more place. That helps to show they get two?, three? for the "price" of one.
Thank you.
Temple Stark
9 - Paula
I love Joe Perry and I love Steven Tyler...
When I see them in the Quilmes Rock of Argentina I fall in love with them...
SON GROSOSSS!
Pau
10 - Riku Richards
To be coolest an old-school guitarist at the globe, I was happy see and hear that he has NEVER played better than in Helsinki, Finland, 2007!
Joe had perfectly taken his place as a showman and a middlepoint of music istead of Steven to be honest.
Never ever seen him THAT energic!
His playing is still r´n´r and onewalking middlefinger as it has to be.
Thanks for helping my flame burning,too!!!
Cant stop messin´!
Rick