Artist: Aerosmith
Label: Columbia Records
Release: 2004
Running time: 43.55
Rating: 4.5/5
Honkin’ on Bobo is a hugely welcome collection of covers of more or less familiar blues numbers, with which Aerosmith paid back a debt to the legacy of the blues giants that was never truly settled. Given the lukewarm results we’ve been served for the past decade, basically every time Tyler and company latched onto some fresh commercial maneuver to rake in fat stacks of cash, the average listener could easily forget the undeniable fact that the stuff this Boston outfit built its great legacy on was forged long ago, right there in smoky club rooms, playing blues classics, with the works of Yardbirds and Fleetwood Mac heroes regularly on the “playlist”. This was a band whose creative power and flair for innovatively charting the evolutionary path of rock & roll in the ’70s left an indelible mark in the encyclopedia of hard rock. With Honkin’ On Bobo Aeromith now reach back even further into the past.
The well-oiled Aerosmith machine unfolds all the magic of twelve phenomenal tales from the mysterious world of the blues across the album, a selection that’s mostly obscure. Somewhere in the middle of the turbulent serving-up of those, we also stumble upon an original gem called The Grind, whose emotional intensity nicely complements the coarse-grained sonic picture of this sensational document. The wicked spirit of the Mississippi Delta is everywhere here. You’ll find it trapped in the hard-hearted commemoration of the life and work of Fred McDowell, it runs wild in the direction of the spooky Back Back Train and its slightly more playful cousin You Gotta Move. Even while chewing through Eyesight To The Blind, you can make out Sonny Boy Williamson’s footprints in Tyler’s vocal, stretched out in every possible direction. Stop Messin’ Round sounds thrillingly fresh in Perry’s convincing vocal interpretation, while Diddley’s Road Runner and the Big Joe Williams classic Baby, Please Don’t Go get first-class treatment. It has to be stressed that the album isn’t about literally retouching the curves of these mostly long-forgotten gems of blues music. That would have been suicide for Aerosmith. The songs are carefully stripped down to the bone here, and on their rough foundations a veritable fashion show of the traditional Aerosmith wardrobe unfolds before us. In doing so, our Boston friends justifiably and confidently bet on innovation through an outstanding sonic adaptation that swears by the recognizable elements of old-school Aerosmith music, without in any way watering down the essence of what the originals were saying.
If you’re curious about the strength and flavors of the spices in the traditional blues kitchen but have never dared to taste them, then Honkin’ On Bobo is definitely the album for you. With it, Aerosmith proved that over the years the blues has remained a faithful companion to the “aero” blood cells happily sledding through the veins of this remarkable musical collective. There’s no need to point out that the release of Honkin’ On Bobo passed without any notable reaction from the masses, let alone that by some strange coincidence the album would sell in the millions. None of that matters at all! All that counts is the love of music, as well as the memory of the debt that “white” music has owed to the blues as a genre for generations! Even a giant like Aerosmith gets no special privileges in this respect.
Line-up
Steven Tyler: vocals, harmonica
Joe Perry: vocals, guitar, slide guitar
Brad Whitford: guitar
Tom Hamilton: bass
Joey Kramer: drums
Paul Santo: organ
Tracy Bonham: backing vocals
Production
Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Jack Douglas
Track list
1. Road Runner
2. Shame, Shame, Shame
3. Eyesight To The Blind
4. Baby, Please Don’t Go
5. Never Loved a Girl
6. Back Back Train
7. You Gotta Move
8. The Grind
9. I’m Ready
10. Temperature
11. Stop Messin’ Around
12. Jesus Is On The Main Line
