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Aerosmith were pretty much has beens when they decided to team up with rap group Run DMC for a cover of one of their classic hits "Walk This Way". When the video started infiltrating MTV, I had no idea Aerosmith were rock stars from the past. All I knew is that was one ugly dude but the song was cool as hell. Soon thereafter they would release Permanent Vacation and ever since that album they have never been has beens again. Consisting of members Steve Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Joey Kramer and Tom Hamilton, the band has had hits in the late eighties, all through the nineties and even in the new millennium. Cleaning up and getting off the drugs had a lot to do with their ability to resurrect their career.

The album opens with the rocker "Heart's Done Time" with its chugging guitars and bluesy vibe going on underneath the screaching guitars. Everyone's in top form here from the thump of the bass guitar to Joe Perry' guitar licks to Tyler's raw voice. "Magic Touch" has less of a blues flavor but the guitars continue to turn out powerful riffs, the drums still thunder and there is a hard rock flare that is hard to beat. "Somebody better call a doctor, doctor...or wake me up with a shove." It's a love song about falling in love but filled with enough testosterone for the male set.

Their first major hit from this album was the sleazy, blues number "Rag Doll". The song is everything rock is known from with the decadent beat, the excellent and infectious lyrics and Tyler's scat singing. I don't know too many people who were listening to music in the eighties who can't sing the hook to this song and hear in their head Joe Perry's great guitar work and the horns getting sassy in the background. Another hit was "Dude (Looks Like A Lady)" Another song you probably know by heart if you were inhaling and exhaling in the eighties. More horns, more guitar and there's a nice little shuffle groove and its probably the most famous song about a transvestite ever.

The blues are front and center with two different tracks. "St. John" opens with the shuffle of a cymbal against a bluesy chord progression and the song is a great album track. So is "Hangman's Jury" with its interesting instrumentation that sounds like a band that was put together on the front porch complete with a jug and a wash board. There are also some nice little nods to The Beatles going on. "Girl Keeps Coming Apart" is a little sleazier than the Brits would record but it still has that whole ambiance going on. Even more so when they cover the Beatles "I'm Down".

One of my all time favorite Aerosmith ballads is on this album as well. "Angel" is a great song and the only Aerosmith ballad I like better is "What It Takes" from the Pump album. The vocals on this are fantastic and Tyler proves he can be sensitive. The strings, guitars and vocals all cooperate to make the band sound vulnerable, accessible but still cool enough to be masculine.

Overall, Permanent Vacation is an album you are going to want to have in you collection. There are three songs on here that are eighties classics and everything else is
pretty memorable as well. It's a consistent album from start to finish delivering quality hard rock for the masses.

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