Guitarist Joe Perry CD Review
Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, Rolling Stone no. 867, April 2001 Photographic Print Seliger, Mark Buy at AllPosters.com
CD Review: Joe Perry Posted by Mark Saleski on May 27, 2005 11:24 AM Artist: Joe Perry Album: Joe Perry Music from: Sony Release date: 03 May, 2005
JOE PERRY REDIES SOLO RELEASE: "Eagerly-Awaited Solo Album From Legendary Aerosmith Guitarist Features 11 Joe Perry Originals Plus Woody Guthrie & The Doors Covers In Stores Tuesday, May 3 NEW YORK, Feb. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Columbia Records is set to release Joe Perry, the eagerly-awaited new solo album from rock icon Joe Perry, whose incendiary guitar work and songwriting for Aerosmith helped earn the group its ongoing multi-platinum status, four Grammy Awards, and induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (2001). Joe Perry is in stores on Tuesday, May 3. Recorded at the Boneyard -- Perry's basement home studio in Boston -- Joe Perry achieves a smoldering intensity via Perry's signature guitar riffs and unmistakable deep vocals. The album's 13 tracks include 11 new Joe Perry original compositions as well as covers of the Doors' "The Crystal Ship" and Woody Guthrie's "Vigilante Man." "It didn't occur to me to put this record out until Aerosmith decided to take a year off," says Joe about his new album, which opens with the album's first focus track, "Shakin' My Cage." Joe Perry showcases Joe's vocals on songs like "Push Comes To Shove" and "Dying To Be Free" and his musical chops on instrumentals like "Mercy" and "Twilight."
"It's as honest a record as you're gonna get," says Joe Perry, revealing the nature of this true solo work. In fact, Joe sings all the vocals and plays all the guitars, bass and keyboard parts on Joe Perry. Perry also produced the album, which was co-produced by Paul Caruso, who recorded and engineered the disc and played drums throughout. Don't look for a who's who list of guest players here, except for a friend who teaches at the Berklee School of Music -- "an old-school analog synth guy, Chris Noise, who plays the string part on one ballad, 'Ten Years,'" says Joe Perry. "Seems like these days that when people go off and do a solo record, it's more the norm to bring in a bunch of all-star friends, but I already have the amazing fortune to play with one of the best singers in the world and the hardest rocking band on the planet," Joe offers, "but also, the way these songs developed from the demos, they already had the sound I was looking for. And it was a refreshing challenge to work this way." Joe Perry is the fourth solo album from the multi-talented Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee. His previous works -- as the "Joe Perry Project" -- include the self-produced Let The Music Do The Talking (1980) and Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker (1984), along with I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again (1981), all of which were recorded at a time when Joe was on hiatus from Aerosmith. The new album differs from those discs in several key aspects.
"This one didn't come from anywhere near the same space as those albums," Joe explains. "I mean, I had fun doing them and they certainly fulfilled a creative need, but this record reflects the experience of 20 more years of writing and recording and making my way on this planet." With his home studio located just downstairs from the living quarters, the music on Joe Perry was created organically and recorded under no deadlines or pressure. In fact, the genesis of the album goes back 10 years -- the song "Ten Years" was written by Joe as a tenth anniversary gift to his wife, Billie Paulette, with no intention of it ever being heard by the public. The rest of the album was written by Joe as he worked on Aerosmith's Nine Lives, Just Push Play and 2004's acclaimed blues-fest Honkin' On Bobo, the "four star" (Rolling Stone) album on which Joe sang lead vocals on two tracks. "One day I was complaining about a lack of inspiration and my wife, Billie, in her role as muse, said, 'Get down and sing where you belong,'" says Joe. "I felt I busted loose and started singing where my voice was more natural as you can hear on the song 'Back Back Train' (from Honkin' On Bobo). I discovered a whole new place and it was a whole new vehicle for me. I found I was writing music better suited for my vocal range."
What about Joe Perry's lyrical inspiration for these tunes? "Well, most of the songs are love songs," he confesses. "Some of them are fast and some of them are slow, that's about it. You sing what you know." Joe Perry's work with Aerosmith has resulted in an unending array of accolades and honors. Some key milestones over the past 30 years include: album sales exceeding 100 million copies; induction in Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2001; four Grammy Awards; 12 MTV Video Awards; two People's Choice Awards; six Billboard Music Awards; eight American Music Awards; 23 Boston Music Awards; and an Academy Award nomination for Best Song, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" (from the soundtrack to "Armageddon").
Stay tuned for news about possible Joe Perry live appearances. Joe Perry Tracklisting: 1. "Shakin' My Cage" 2. "Hold On Me" 3. "Pray For Me" 4. "Can't Compare" 5. "Lonely" 6. "Crystal Ship" 7. "Talk Talkin'" 8. "Push Comes To Shove" 9. "Twilight" 10. "Ten Years" 11. "Vigilante Man" 12. "Dying To Be Free" 13. "Mercy" Courtesy of www.columbiarecords.com
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.
It's funny, I was poking around in some of the Amazon reviews and one of them said something about how this record sounded like it was a home-recording kind of thing. Though the reviewer meant this in a not-too-nice way, I took it to mean that Perry had touched a nerve. Yes, it's raw. Isn't that what rock & roll should be about? The idea that aging rock stars should trundle off quietly into retirement is crushed to a pulp by this collection of songs. "Shakin' My Cage" comes cranking out of the gate with a severe combination of classic rhythm mayhem, momentum-inducing slide guitar and twisty solo work. Far from being a one-dimensional "guitar player's" record, Joe Perry shows off Joe's huge guitar sonics palette: from skidding metallic solos to low-down chunky rhythm guitar to gently-strummed acoustic to chiming artificial harmonics.
The songs themselves are similarly varied with flat-out rockers ("Shakin' My Cage", "Lonely"), swaggering blues ("Talk Talkin'"), spacey instrumentals ("Twilight"), country-inflected soul ("Ten Years", on which Joe's voice manages to sound like Warren Zevon) and the Indian-influenced "Pray For Me", driven along by a very cool analog synth part. The cover of the Doors' "Crystal Ship"? The bits of backward guitar are nice, as is the spacey guitar solo. As the tune began, I was pretty skeptical. Do we really need a cover of this? Probably not, but Perry's surprisingly good vocals and that guitar stew were just too good to pass up. On the DVD-side of this disc, Perry admits to oversinging some in the Joe Perry Project. Here he seems much more relaxed. Even if you're not sold on Ship, you'll be won over by the surprise of the record: a blistering rendition of Woody Guthrie's "Vigilante Man." Perry starts with a huge dose of volcanic slide guitar and proceeds to blow the doors out from there. I don't know if Woody would have appreciated all of the volume, but I had a good time. People have been arguing that Aerosmith has been "washed up" for years, if not decades. That's debatable. But what seems clear is that it's looking like Joe Perry's just getting started.
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by Mark Saleski on May 27, 2005 11:24 AM (See all posts by Mark Saleski) Filed under: Music Comment on this post and/or leave a message for the author here. Comment 1 posted by Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck on May 27, 2005 11:27 AM: Nice job on this one. I am in total agreement with you, this is a real ass kickin' solo album!
Comment 2 posted by Mark Saleski on May 27, 2005 11:30 AM: i think i mighta blew out my little cheapo headphones while writing this last night!
Comment 3 posted by SFC SKI on May 27, 2005 11:00 PM: 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.
Comment 4 posted by HW Saxton on May 28, 2005 03:03 PM: 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.
Taking a break from his duties in Aerosmith, Joe Perry is releasing his first solo album since 1984’s “Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker”. When Perry split from Aerosmith in the early 80’s he released three albums under the Joe Perry Project banner. Still in the depths of a drug problem, Perry employed a band with a different vocalist on each record. This new eponymous album is just Joe Perry, recorded in his basement by himself, the way a solo record should be done.
Joe Perry completely lacks the glossy sheen that has accompanied the last few Aerosmith albums. While some of the songs could have been obvious Aerosmith tracks, others come across as a firm step away from that signature sound. But the one constant throughout is Perry’s guitar and fans of his work will find much to be pleased with on this record. His vocal style compliments the songs well and is one of the records many highlights. Perry brings out some full-size riffs on the first two tracks, “Shakin’ My Cage” and “Hold on Me”, then experiments with a Middle Eastern flair on “Pray for Me”. The album glides between the greasy leads he is known for and the experimental interludes that are scattered throughout. The latter includes the track “Crystal Ship”, which might be a turnoff for fans of arena rock but pleases nonetheless. Only one obvious ballad, “Ten Years”, is a highlight towards the albums end. The album remains consistent through the end, including the two instrumental tracks, “Twilight” and “Mercy”. It is hard to not think of what Aerosmith could have done with these songs, and if these are in fact some of the songs that they did not want to pursue then they may be going down the wrong direction. This is especially true after the forgettable Just Push Play. The few missteps can be forgiven considering how many highlights this album has. Fans will be in hog heaven and Perry branches out enough to even grab a few new fans. It is too bad that this is just a footnote before Perry goes back to his day job. He sounds excited to be making music on this album. The freedom to play whatever he wants on each instrument probably had a lot to do with that. But good things can happen when a legendary guitarist gets excited about music again, and this record is one of THEM
Several tracks on Joe Perry's new solo album get off to a such a blazing start, it's enough to think that the aging Aerosmith guitarist has recaptured the magic his band has been missing for so long. Perry's blues rock riffs and solo licks cook throughout the album, leading you to believe that this record has the potential to obliterate the bloated, power ballad-ridden exercises in cheeseball hard rock heard on every Aerosmith album since 1992. With no Diane Warren-penned schlock, bombastic Glenn Ballard production, or the tiresome preening of Steven Tyler (who just seems to be getting worse the older he gets) getting in the way, Joe Perry could have reminded us all what made the sober Aerosmith of 1987-90 so likeable. Instead, Mr. Perry had to go and open his darn mouth. Although this is Perry's first solo album since 1984, he has proven to be a first-rate rock songwriter on his own in the past (his 1980 song "Let the Music Do the Talking" was even good enough for a reunited Aerosmith to cover on 1986's Done With Mirrors), but there's a reason why the Joe Perry Project worked so well 25 years ago: Perry had let someone else handle most of the lead vocals. Simply put, the man's a terrible singer, and the more the new record goes on, the more unbearable it becomes, sounding like bad karaoke. It's a shame, too, because such blooze-infused rock 'n roll numbers as "Hold on Me," "Lonely," "Talk Talkin'," "Vigilante Man," and "Dying to be Free" could have really worked had they been sung by a vocalist who actually possesses some flair. Instead, Perry sings in a flat monotone so lifeless, and to such a distracting degree, that it completely destroys the mood of the CD. If that weren't enough, Perry's ambition gets the best of him on several especially weak tracks, namely the flaccid Alice in Chains knock-off "Pray For Me," and the abysmal cover of The Doors' "Crystal Ship," in which Perry's by-the-book reading manages to show how much charisma Jim Morrison put into the original recording. Aerosmith's "Toxic Twins" have always been compared to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, but while Richards has always been able to serve as a gritty vocal foil to Jagger's over the top singing, Perry is much better off being the silent, ace lead guitarist, and nothing more. It took a real dog of an album like this one to hammer that fact home.
Joe Perry - Shakin' My Cage
Updated: 2/19/07
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