Izvajalec: Aerosmith
Založba: Columbia Records
Izid: 1982
Trajanje: 40.16
Ocena: 2/5
“Rock In a Hard Place” is the only Aerosmith album where you’ll hunt in vain for the grit and quickly contagious perversity of the Joe Perry / Brad Whitford guitar tandem. The record paints a vivid picture of the darkest chapter in the band’s epic story, a stretch soaked in pointless personal score-settling and drowning in hard-drug trouble. After Perry’s exit, those troubles kept testing the patience of Brad Whitford, who jumped the sinking ship during the making of the album. You could say it was just in the nick of time.
Of course, one question pops up right away. How, and above all with whom, was Steven Tyler going to patch the hole left by the departure of the guitar duo? A partial answer was actually given back during the making of the previous album, “Night In The Ruts” (RockLine review here). That was when Jimmy Crespo first stepped into Perry’s shoes, a young guitarist with plenty of talent but, sadly, a lot less sense of how to use it. And if Crespo got a practically chiseled, ready-made songwriting product handed to him on “Night In The Ruts”, this time around he was expected to bring a lot more in the way of songwriting ideas. “Rock In a Hard Place” was in many ways the guy’s baptism by fire, a big test of character and credibility that dragged all of the guitarist’s flaws and shortcomings out into the open. Tyler and Crespo naturally did the only thing they could do. They joined forces in a tandem, but one that couldn’t recreate the chemistry and magic of Aerosmith’s greatest triumphs, from the second half of the ’70s. The duo only manages real inspiration here and there, and those moments, which were downright priceless under the circumstances, come few and far between, and even then without any recognizable punch. No doubt, when it comes to creativity, Whitford’s absence (his spot was filled by the barely noticeable Rick Dufay) was a vastly softer blow than Perry’s!
You’d expect that with baggage like this, the new incarnation of Aerosmith was beyond saving. Well, Tyler’s crew does manage to wring out a few grit-soaked bluesy rock moves here and there. “Lightning Strikes”, the opening “Jailbait” and the title track are decently backed up with riffs, even by the merciless standards of the classic Aerosmith kitchen, and only limp in the “execution” department, mostly thanks to Jimmy Crespo’s fleeting and, as a rule, timid guitar solos. A similar story goes for another potential album favorite, the energetic “Bitch’s Brew”, which, despite a great riff, sadly fails to deliver the wrecking power you’d expect. From here on the album heads straight into free fall. You can marvel at cocaine’s value as an effective killer of common sense in the form of Tyler’s bizarre lyrical experiments on “Prelude to Joanie”, which then dissolves into the forgettable rock & roller “Joanie’s Butterfly” (!). You’ll grind your way through “Cry Me a River” with a grim stare, a cover of the popular American standard from the pen of Arthur Hamilton, which this time, smothered in thick layers of limp guitar playing and annoyingly grumbling vocals, ticks every box of a half-baked and therefore tasteless piece of music. “Jig Is Up” and “Push Comes To Shove” (both, on the occasion, extremely telling titles) follow the current course toward ruin without a second thought, wrapping up the album in thick layers of desperate, if admittedly genuine, junkie atmosphere.
“Rock In a Hard Place” is a chilling indicator of how deep drug abuse had drilled over the years into a once chill and solid outfit, and how it nearly fatally chipped away at its reputation and credibility in the eyes of the critical public. The lineup shuffling is just the tip of all the troubles that piled up on Steven Tyler’s back over the years, and now he’s totally alone in the fight for the hearts and souls of old-school Aerosmith worshippers. A bitter memory, but in every respect priceless for the treasury of life experience.
Zasedba
Steven Tyler: vokal
Jimmy Crespo: kitara
Rick Dufay: kitara
Tom Hamilton: bas
Joey Kramer: bobni
Produkcija
Jack Douglas
Seznam skladb
1. Jailbait
2. Lightning Strikes
3. Bitch’s Brew
4. Bolivian Ragamuffin
5. Cry Me A River
6. Prelude To Joanie
7. Joanie’s Butterfly
8. Rock In A Hard Place
9. Jig Is Up
10. Push Come To Shove
