Madness To Creation’s A-Z Throwback Reviews:  Featuring 1987 Release of “Permanent Vacation” by Aerosmith


“Done With Mirrors” was seen as a commercial failure, but described as an album to get done with to make way for the true comeback.  In 1986, Run DMC played a huge role in reigniting Aerosmith’s career with their remake of “Walk This Way”.  Aerosmith decided to take their career one giant leap forward, by hiring Bob Rock to engineer “Permanent Vacation” and hiring out songwriters for several tracks and hiring a new producer.  Well, three top 20 hits later with “Dude(Looks Like A Lady)”, “Rag Doll”, and “Angel”, coupled with heavy MTV video airplay, and five million copies sold in the United States sold later, it’s safe to say that Aerosmith’s career has been catapulted back to the top.

Some critics have argued that this is when Aerosmith began to “sell out” and some have said that Aerosmith sounded way overproduced and too commercial on “Permanent Vacation”.  After examining this record, the guitar licks are still there in particular in the tracks “St. John”, “Heart’s Done Time”, and “Magic Touch”.  In “St. John”, Aerosmith is still at their blues rock roots, it just has that chugging time of rhythm that causes fingers to snap and toes to tap.  “Heart’s Done Time” is that perfect introduction into a rocking album, it has that driving rhythm that Aerosmith has all but trademarked and the album also includes a cover of “I’m Done”, which is originally done by The Beatles.

With “Permanent Vacation”, Aerosmith was certainly at the crossroads of their careers.  Their hits “Dude(Looks Like A Lady)”, “Rag Doll”, and “Angel” provided that catapult that Aerosmith needed in order to reignite their careers.  In the first two tracks, it still shows that Aerosmith can still rock, and with Angel, it shows that Aerosmith can still write a good pop-rock ballad.  There was pressure on Aerosmith to deliver, and this album entitled “Permanent Vacation” is a permanent staple in the Aerosmith discography with snappy guitar hooks, a rhythm section that is on top of their game, and with Steven Tyler sounding like a fire was lit underneath him especially in the tracks “Hangman Jury” and “St. John”.  Madness To Creation rates “Permanent Vacation” by Aerosmith an 8 out of 10 stars.  Here is the track listing below.

  1.  Heart’s Done Time
  2.  Magic Touch
  3.  Rag Doll
  4.  Simoriah
  5.  Dude (Looks Like A Lady)
  6.  St. John
  7.  Hangman Jury
  8.  Girl Keeps Coming Apart
  9.  Angel
  10.  Permanent Vacation
  11.  I’m Down (The Beatles cover)
  12.  The Movie

Here is their biggest hit from “Permanent Vacation” entitled “Angel”, as it has over 90 million hits on YouTube.


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