Rocktober Day 16: Aerosmith - Pump


That Aerosmith were once titans of rock and roll no-one can dispute. Their work in the late 70’s served encapsulated what rock in that decade was all about. There was a reason they were known as America’s greatest rock band, and it wasn’t just the near impossible amount of drugs they consumed.

For all intents and purposes the band as the world knew it ceased to exist in 1979. Tensions between the members along with rampant drug and alcohol abuse blew the band to bits and there was so much animosity between the members that there was little chance the band would ever come back together. Jump forward 5 years though and it seemed that all those bad feelings had been put to bed, and the Aerosmith that the world knew and loved began to make records again.

Thanks to MTV, the band suddenly found itself with more commercial success and exposure  than it had ever thought was possible, and just like that Aerosmith was back on top, doing what they did best. Except not really.

While the band may have started out strong with 1987’s Permanent Vacation and it’s string of hits (“Rag Doll”, “Angel” and the ever present “Dude (Looks Like  A Lady), the lessons learned that would carry over into the rest of the bands career weren’t exactly shining examples of greatness. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry had hit upon a formula that played to the masses to great effect, and so it was that 1989’s Pump would be a largely formulaic, yet largely entertaining collection of ass-rockingly good songs...that we’d all heard before.