Aerosmith "Draw the Line" Album

so (thanks to this thread) I just listened to the JP first press CDs of Draw The Line and Night in The Ruts back to back, and I can honestly say that there is nothing NOT to
LOVE about BOTH these releases...(I prefer the Asmith songs which you never hear to the "hits") these two CDs are my most played, mainly because they don't have the hits that have been ingrained into your brain
...and Kings and Queens is, I think, the greatest Aerosmith song of all time....and I really dig the Joe Perry vocals on Bright Light Fright, with Tyler chiming in,
man, there wasn't anything better than this around that era...btw, I'm selling two 25DP first presses of Draw in the classifieds after I just found one with an obi...gonna sell/reduce 'em for (relatively) wicked cheap...the JP first press CD of Done with Mirrors has the reverse thing on the disc, pretty trippy, I sold one but I've never listened to it, I guess that's where I should go next, when I find a mint one with obi...but I have my reservations about the musical quality...

 

Are you talking about the fact that the text is all printed backwards on it? I know that the original vinyl copies were all printed backwards as a play on the album title (having to hold it up to a mirror to get the text reversed). I'm not sure about the original cd copies.

I saw an odd copy of Done With Mirrors at a used cd store a couple of days ago that had a totally different color scheme that I'd never seen before. The color of the text was yellow, green and blue as opposed to the original with the red/pink and orange lettering. Kinda weird.

 

one of the great "cocaine blizzard" albums, along with Sabbath 4 and Oasis Be here Now.

 

Yes, I am. I saw a copy of this cd version online and I'm going to buy it next week, as it is the first us cd of this release and I could never find it. In fact, I saw that the following versions are not printed backwards. The original vynils were like that too. And I've never seen yellow, blue and green letters on any of the cd's.

 

The original LP cover was like that too. Eventually Geffen realized how detrimental an illegible cover was and they un-reversed it so it could be read without a mirror.

 

I picked up a bunch of first release US (or JP for US) Aerosmith CDs a few weeks back and was confused when I opened the 'Done With Mirrors' CD to find all the text was backwards as well as on the packaging. I soon found out on line it was an original pressing that came like this. It was a real surprise when I first opened the case though.

 

Volume IV sounds like it was recorded in Siberia.
Cold hollow and cool.

 

It's a pretty cool trick IMO. And a rare cd too I think.

 

Of all the "white cover" albums that came out around 1976-7, it's by far not the most offensive (save that distinction for Technical Ecstasy).

I like DTL a lot. It's main misfortune is that it came after Toys and Rocks. Pretty much anything would have been a disappointment after those two.

 

I love ‘Rock In A Hard Place’, songs like “Jailbait” and ”Bolivian Ragamuffin” have leads spiraling all around the vocals.
But then there are other songs that seem to be driven totally by the rhythm. Makes me wonder if Steven said “Don’t play any long leads, we wouldn’t want Joe to get pissed.”

 

hard to believe Sabbath Vol 4 was recorded in sunny so cal, but back to draw the line, I got it new in the winter of 77/78 my first aerosmith album, bought unheard, 8-track from Two Guys, I was 14 and money was scarce so that was my new music for like 6 weeks. I consider it an equal to the four that preceded it, after that, buh-bye.

 

Depends on how organic the songwriting process was with the remaining members of the band and the new guys. With Crespo and Dufay coming in, I would imagine that the lion's share of the writing is Tyler and, thus, the arrangements. Maybe he was going for something different with that album or he left it to the Crespo to come up with the leads himself and that's all he could come up with within the context of Tyler's arrangements. Just a theory.

I've never liked Rock in a Hard Place that much. The first three songs are good, IMO, and it drops off badly.

I've always contended that Done With Mirrors is a good to great album, but it gets maligned badly so I must hearing something different than the majority of Aerosmith fans. I personally think it has some really good songs on it. "My Fist Your Face", "Gypsy Boots", and "Shela" are all good as is the cover of Perry's "Let the Music Do the Talking".

 

I listen to The Reason A Dog, Shela, She’s On Fire, Gypsy Boots and Darkness, but to me the album seems more like demos, like the songs are not fully worked out. There is a lack of energy or something.

Speaking of no lead guitar work

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/the-cult-appreciation-thread.372390/

 

Aerosmith were great up to Permanent Vacation. I guess that would be the start of the Geffen years? Madly they only got more popular from then on. Draw the Line is a crazy race with lots of rough edges and imperfections - the kind of finished product no-one would release these days. I recall hearing recently (I think it was David Byrne who said it) that recorded music today has lost its spontaneity - that it was s easy to fix imperfections (wrong notes, missed beats etc.) that you just didn't hear them anymore, everything is glossed to perfection. That' s not a criticism that can be aimed at Draw the Line

Rock in a Hard Place is a classic from start to finish, imo. I just love it. Worst cover ever, but whatever. Even Done with Mirrors is decent.

Basically, once they decided that a rock ballad was more important than rocking out, they were irrelevant.......

 

I agree 100% with you. DTL is my favorite Aerosmith album; it's the one I return to most often. NITR is criminally underrated-just a really down and dirty rock n' roll record.

 

Talking about RIAHP, Crespo shared credits with Tyler on 6 songs. Also, they erased Brad's rythm guitar on Lightning Strikes and ended up using a new take done by Crespo Or Dufay. In the bio "walk this way" Whitford says that he found it hard to work with Crespo.

I agree about Done with Mirrors. One of the problems with it is that it has nothing in common with the music of those times. Anyway I prefer it to the '80's sound. And they were really stoned it seems.

 

They also superimposed the Aerosmith logo onto it as well. Joe Perry said he felt one of the reasons Done With Mirrors flopped was because it didn't have the classic Aerosmith logo.

 

I dunno whether to blame Templeman or not but I think that the main problem with DWM was that it just sounds kinda flat and lifeless. Many of the songs are good but it just doesn't crackle.

 

To me, Done with Mirrors is their worst album cover.

 

It ought to be a legendary bad album cover. It's the comeback album that screams, "Don't buy me!"

 

Draw the Line and Sight For Sore Eyes (written with David Johansen!) are two of my top Aerosmith songs.

 

I like "Push comes to Shuuuvvv"

 

Looks like something in the cutout bin at Big Lots.

 

Yes, in parts it sounds like a collection of good riffs that lack something...maybe some hooks. But I still prefer the album to what they did next.

 

I really liked Permanent Vacation when it came out. I played it every day for weeks. However, I did dub it on cassette and put a bunch of older Aero tracks at the end and it totally showed what was lacking in the new direction.