Friday Night Videos

Aerosmith had a heck of a run from the late 80s through the 90s, with an outrageous number of hits and excellent albums for a band that initially rose and fell in the 1970s. The last song of theirs that I consider really good is also one of their "social consciousness" songs, where Steven Tyler waxes philosophical about society in "Livin' On the Edge." The band had some hits after this, and a handful of decent albums, but the creative magic that seemed to flow so effortlessly before slowed to a trickle. Music From Another Dimension was a superficial piece of fluff, for example, with a number of tracks that'd make a decent B side on a single, but nothing that made listeners sit up and take notice. That's fine, I suppose, because there are countless bands out there that will never achieve something as good as "Livin' On the Edge."

Previously on Friday Night Videos... The GoGos.

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365 / 15: Aerosmith!

Okay folks, here is my much-anticipated, much-delayed photo no. 15 for the 365 project. You'll recall from my previous post that the CF card I was shooting the Aerosmith concert with went belly-up right at the end of their show. More than 90 minutes of Aerosmith, not to mention Cheap Trick's opening act, were lost. All I had was the encore left. Lisa, always the pro, handed me a spare CF card to try and get something in the closing minutes. Despite being more than a little flustered, I did manage to get a few keepers (I'm particularly aggrieved about losing my shots of Steven Tyler singing a Beatles medley with the guys from Cheap Trick). Since Lisa already stole some of my thunder by going with a Steven Tyler shot for her 365 entry, I'll balance the scales with this shot of Joe Perry ripping his guitar atop a baby grand piano during "Dream On."

Camera: Canon 7D
Lens: Canon FD 500mm 8.0 reflex

But look! I have some bonus shots as well! Here's Austin-area resident Joey Kramer on drums! (This man gives the best damn drum solos I've ever seen. This concert, after a rousing traditional drum solo, he chucked his sticks and continues the solo with his hands and head. When I saw Aerosmith in '88, Kramer abandoned his drums and took electronic drum sticks off the stage and performed a solo on the audience. That is genius, I tells ya!

Next up is Tom Hamilton, Aerosmith bassist. What is there to say about Hamilton other than the fact that his sublime bass line from "Sweet Emotion" is the single most influential impetus in making me want to learn the bass guitar. I never learned, mind you, but if I had, it'd be because of Hamilton.

Finally, we have Steven Tyler, the quintessential front man. He gets all the attention, and it's easy to see why when you're photographing Aerosmith--he's always doing something interesting, and his flamboyant dress, acrobatics and personality make for dramatic shots. Of all the band members, I got far more engaging shots of Tyler--even during the limited time I had to shoot during the encore. It's hard to choose just one, but this will do.

Aerosmith fans might note that I've omitted guitarist Brad Whitford. That's not intentional--I had a bunch of him from early in the show. But during the encore, he lingered in a dark corner of the stage and I was unable to get any decent images of him at that time. If Mr. Whitford feels slighted, I'll be more than happy to set up a personal photo session with him the next time he's in the Austin/San Antonio area. My treat.

I'll have a review of this show, along with some more photos, later. I'm pretty bushed now. Gonna get some shut-eye.

Lisa On Location Photography

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Friday Night Videos

I first saw Aerosmith in concert at the Summit in Houston back in 1988. That was during their Permanent Vacation tour, and I was a senior in high school. It was a great show, and I remember wondering aloud how the band could possibly gone off drugs completely as they'd claimed, because Steven Tyler and the other members were manic whirlwinds of energy during the entire show. That album contains some of my absolute favorite Aerosmith songs--"Rag Doll" and "Hangman Jury"--but for my money, their best post-addiction album is Pump. Absolute greatness on nearly every track. And the band started taking on more socially daring subject matter, specifically the hard-hitting "Janie's Got a Gun." Wow, what a great song. It still pisses me off that MTV and radio forced the band to produce edited versions to get airplay. Some horrors should never be sugar-coated.

Sadly, Aerosmith gravitated toward more slickly-produced, top 40-friendly music after this, and none of their subsequent albums come close to Pump. I'll see them tonight in Austin, 24 years removed from my first live viewing of the band. Scary to think I'm now older than the band members were when I saw them the first time!

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Urban Dance Squad.

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Friday Night Videos

When Aerosmith released the massive Pandora's Box career retrospective in 1991, they made a new video for "Sweet Emotion" to promote the occasion. It got heavy airplay on MTV, back when MTV still played music videos. This video was a revelation to me, not because of Areosmith's ironic humor that frames the video (although that's fun) but rather, I'd never heard the extended album version of "Sweet Emotion" before. I'd only heard the single version on their Greatest Hits album, which also happened to be the only version they ever played on the radio. I actually thought it was a re-recording until someone pointed out to me that I maybe ought to, you know, listen to Toys in the Attic. In any event, the album version of Sweet Emotion is probably my all-time favorite Aerosmith song, not counting odd album tracks like "Hangman Jury" and "Seasons of Wither."

As a side note, I once had a boss who looked just like Joe Perry. The resemblance was uncanny. Except my boss was a woman, and not a very good boss at that. You'll be happy to know I don't hold that against Joe Perry.



Previously on Friday Night Videos... Spinal Tap.

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