‘Honkin’ On Bobo’ is only Aerosmith’s fourteenth
studio album in their 34-year career (if you count live albums, compilations,
greatest hits, etc., it would run into the hundreds) and is very much a return
to the original earthy sound that made them America’s favorite rock ‘n’
roll sons in the mid seventies. In the eighties they returned with a more
commercial style, blasting off phase two of their success story with a
collaboration with Run M/C on ‘Walk this Way’. This was not only a great
radio hit, but also a firm favorite to this day on stations like MTV.
Aerosmith
finally achieved a number one hit with the slushy ‘I Don’t Want To Miss A
Thing’ from the movie ‘Armageddon’, which starred Aerosmith’s Steve
Tyler’s beautiful daughter Liv Tyler. During the 90’s and 2000’s Aerosmith
put out some classy polished rock albums, namely ‘Permanent Vacation’,
‘Pump’, ‘Get a Grip’, ‘Just Push Play’, etc., which were all
commercially very successful and backed up by extensive world tours. On record,
Aerosmith was a very smooth animal, but on stage the beast would come out and
they would rock like a tornado. So if the polish of ‘I Don’t Want To Miss A
Thing’ is your tipple, these nuggets may be a bit rough for you.
For
‘Honkin’ For Bobo’ the band have gone back to their roots, even bringing
back producer Jack Douglas, who last worked with the Aerosmith in 1977 on their
‘Draw the Line’ album. Of the twelve songs on this album eleven are covers,
but this is not a kop out by the band, as long have gone the days when they had
to do anything to put food on the table. In fact with their now over a decade of
clean living, one wonders what they do spend their fortunes on.
So what you get is a band in a studio having some fun, and at
the same time turning out an album that their legions of fans have been waiting
years to hear. You can actually feel the guys enjoying themselves on this
recording, and the feeling is infectious.
The album opens up with Steve Tyler wailing over some
distorted guitar licks from Mr. Perry and Mr. Whitford. ‘’Laaadies and
Geeentlemen, step right up, let’s go see the boys.” With that Joe Perry rips
out the lead riff from Ellas McDaniel’s (Better known as Bo Diddley’s)
‘Roadrunner’, bringing the rest of the band crashing in on the beat. This is
Aerosmith at their best as it says on the album wrapper “This is Blues done
Aerosmith style”. You can hear the sweat running down the guitar frets and see
the smiles on their faces. This is not a collection of blues songs moaning their
lot for all to hear, this is a collection of tunes celebrating the joys of life.
The closest the band actually get to a ballad is the self-penned ‘The
Grind’, which fits in wonderfully well with this collection of classic songs.
With every song you know that it is undoubtedly Aerosmith.
Steve Tyler’s vocals are amongst the best he has ever laid down in a studio,
plus he is given plenty of room to show off his harmonica skills.
Joey Kramer, the heartbeat of Aerosmith, thrusts each song
along with almost indecent haste, while Brad Whitford’s guitar as usual
compliments Joe Perry’s perfectly, who occasionally steps up into the
spotlight to joust with his guitar brother.
Tom Hamilton, the rock on which Aerosmith is built, gives a
sterling performance, and is given a chance to shine when the bass is placed way
up in the mix for the band’s take on Big Joe Williams’ ‘Baby, Please
Don’t Go’, which is also the band’s first single off the album.
But above all this is Joe Perry’s album. His guitar playing
is all over the songs, including a jaw dropping performance on the Peter Green
penned Fleetwood Mac song ‘Stop Messin’ Round’. (Yes, I know it is hard to
remember that Fleetwood Mac was originally a blues band.) Not only is the guitar
playing out of this world, but Joe Perry actually gets the opportunity to sing
lead vocals on this song and ‘Back Back Train’.
Other highlights include a dramatic version of Mississippi
Fred McDowell’s ‘You Gotta Move’, where Aerosmith out-stone the Rolling
Stones, who had covered the song on their 1971 album ‘Sticky Fingers’, plus
a moody reworking of Willie Dixon’s ‘I’m Ready’. The album is brought to
a celebrating climax with ‘Jesus Is On The Main Line’ with some wonderful
pump organ from Paul Santo and additional lead vocals from the very talented
Tracy Bonham.
As the last Aerosmith studio album said, “Just push
play”, and you get forty-four minutes of classic blues/rock.
Edward
do Bono shot to prominence many years ago with the concept of lateral
thinking, and in case you had forgotten, that was the reason for printing
the cover picture sideways! Six Thinking Hats (ISBN 0-14-029666-2, Penguin
Books version published 2000) is a 1985 publication that was revised and
updated in 1999. Perhaps the style in hats had altered in the 14 years. On
the flyleaf the promise is given that the “Six Hats method provides, for
the first time, Western thinking with a constructive idiom instead of
adversarial argument.” It is claimed that one large corporation cut
their project discussions from thirty days down to two.
Mott’s CD review: Aerosmith - Honkin’ On Bobo
5
Stars *****