I’m at a very funky place in life. I’m old enough that youngsters would call me an Aerosmith fan from “back in the day.” But young enough that old farts would tell me to shove my Permanent Vacation where the sun don’t shine. Always a fan of Aerosmith, but never hard-core, my story starts back in 1986.

The short version: being a big rap fan, Run DMC’s Walk This Way was huge in my world. Finally, it finally happened, someone got rap on radio and on MTV in regular rotation. Okay it was like that one song, but it was a start. It would be two long, grueling, tortuous years before Yo! MTV Raps would debut in the fall of 1988. Now you older folks are gonna laugh, but I actually thought RUN DMC was rather brilliant for breaking this new band called Aerosmith.

I look back now and feel rather stupid, but don’t blame me, when I entered kindergarten, Aerosmith was very likely in the dump with their careers ended. How could I ever know Aerosmith when the radio kept telling me that Billy Ocean and Phil Collins were the Gods of music? So RUN DMC opened my eyes, and at some later date, Permanent Vacation becomes part of my collection.

Then Pump, and then the album depicting that poor cow with the pierced body part, and then I dumped Aerosmith. I’m Not sure why this happened, but for whatever reason, I lost interest. In the present, I saw that yet another greatest hits CD appropriately titled O Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits. But I passed. Then some knuckle head finally got around to getting those O Yeah! tracks to Super Audio CD. This of course got my attention. Now I had a reason to dive in, a reason to get back into Aerosmith and explore their older work.

O Yeah! The Music

As expected all of the major hits are here, but let’s be honest, some are hits, and others are hits. Will anyone argue that Girls of Summer or Lay it Down got as much airplay or attention as Dream On or Janie’s Got a Gun? Well I’m no Aero expert, but that’s how I see it. I’m not the type to let anyone tell me anything about music, but in the case of Aerosmith, well.. maybe Aerocat can, the rest of you can just step back.

Kicking off this two SACD set (I’m sure the CD version is exactly the same) is the sassy and rustic Mama Kin and one of my personal favorites Dream On. I don’t care what genre of music you hail from, if Dream On doesn’t move you with its sad strings and Steven’s moving vocals, you couldn’t possibly have a heart beating in your chest. Seasons of Wither takes its sweet time to come to a boil, with its classic rock sound taking just over a minute to rear its head. The now famous (for more than one generation) Walk This Way is also on the first disc. Sporting a total Trans-Am, mullet hair cut, stereo blazing in the parking lot vibe, Walk This Way just never gets old for me. The next half of disc one is a strange mix of old and newer material. Sweet Emotion, Back in the Saddle, and Draw the Line sit along side newer material from Permanent Vacation and Pump like Rag Doll and Janie’s Got a Gun.

Disc two makes a little more sense in terms of tracks chosen and the era covered. Disc two contains hits from the 80s to the present, just with a very odd order. Kicking things off, The Other Side, Livin’ on the Edge and Cryin’ a solid “my baby left me” kind of tune. Oddly enough, falling right in the middle is Pink (which is a favorite of mine as far as newer material goes) flanked by an older tune like Walk This Way (1986). I don’t know why crack-head decisions like this get made, but for whatever reason, that’s how the tracks shake out. And speaking of Walk This Way with RUN DMC, a tune the old fans loved to hate, these NY rappers have another notch in their belt. RUN DMC holds many “firsts” (first rap album on CD, first rap to hit #1 etc) and now added to that list, first rap song ever to grace the SACD format. I was hoping DMC would continue their pioneering ways by getting the first rap album on SACD, (King of Rock, Raising Hell anyone?) but someone else will beat them to it this October. Now, getting back on track, for the newer Aero fans, I’m happy to report that there were plenty of older tunes that did manage to grab ahold of me. Songs that were totally new to me like Seasons of Wither, Back in the Saddle and Last Child now feel like an old pair of Levi’s, comfortable, familiar, and cherished.


The Sound

Well it’s a mixed bag, literally. Covering so many years, studios, labels, microphones and goodness knows what else, quality varies quite a bit. Maybe I shouldn’t use the word quality, character might be more appropriate. Whether the material is old or new, Aerosmith has never been a band known for having great sounding records. Even so, there are a few tracks that sound good enough to mention. Dream on sounds wonderful as does Walk this way. In fact, Walk This Way’s sound is very LP, very smooth, and rich at the bottom.

Sweet Emotion’s intro now fills my head with images of “bar codes” flying about. The “spaces” between the synth/voice work is now so defined I can see (hear?) those spaces expand and contract with every word. Oddly enough, all of the tracks from Permanent Vacation and Pump just don’t sound very spectacular. If you already own O Yeah! on CD this really isn’t worth picking up unless your fandom is intense. O Yeah! on SACD is a stereo only mix, so there’s no multi-channel mix to explore or enjoy as a new angle on old material. While the SACD format does convey the fat analog sound, the huffy character of the source tapes, and fine detail often lost on CD, it can’t improve the sometimes harsh, sometimes funky sound on the tracks that make up O Yeah! I don’t want to detract from the great tunes, that’s more a warning to the audiophile. O Yeah! Just forget about it and enjoy the music.


© Tony Flores 2003


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