Customer Reviews

Rock in a Hard Place

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This gets my vote for Second Best Album Ever Made By A Big-Name Band Without Some Of Its Key Members (the first being AC/DC's "Back In Black", but then Brian Johnson pretty much established himself as a new "key member" of that group from day one). In that regard, it's much better than most anything Kiss or Van Halen did in their latter-day incarnations. No one can fault Crespo for ruining this album, other than he has the misfortune of not being Joe Perry, and dammit (sniff), he'll never BE Joe Perry (sob)! As for Dufay, news flash, folks - he barely PLAYED on this album. The "Walk This Way" biography claims he only played on "Lightning Strikes" (the liner notes also credit Brad Whitford playing on this song before he bailed from the group comepletely). As for the songs, there's not a bad one on here. "Jailbait" and "Lightning Strikes" are killer tunes that deserve to be Aero-classics but unfortunately suffer from the stigma of having been on this album. "Bolivian Ragamuffin", "Bitches Brew", "Rock In A Hard Place (Cheshire Cat)" (any reason why this song wasn't simply called "Cheshire Cat"?), and "Jig Is Up" are all great blooze-boogie rockers done in the classic Aerosmith mold, very well-produced. "Joanie's Butterfly" is a nice acoustic rocker that serves to change the overall mood nicely, The cover of "Cry Me A River" features an excellent Steven Tyler vocal, and "Push Comes To Shove" features some nice piano work. A great Aerosmith album in its own right, noteworthy for more than just being the infamous "middle album"!

In 1979 Aerosmith released their sixth Studio album 'Night In The Ruts', the recording of the album had not run smoothly to say the least , in fact lead singer Steve Tyler ,and lead guitarist Joe Perry could not be left in the same room for fear of an instant fight starting up . The result was that Perry left the band half way through recordings, and Jimmy Crespo was brought in on suggestion of Aerosmith producer Jack Douglas to complete the recording. The results were patchy , although when the album was released to the public no mention was made of Perry not having completed the recordings, nor was Crespo given any credits .( So the album still went into the charts on advance sales alone such was the popularity of Aerosmith at the time.) It was not until the band actually went out onto the road that Crespo's position in the band was announced along with Joe Perry's new solo career with his new band Joe Perry's Project. The resulting concert from the new look Aerosmith were often disastrous mainly due to the bands excess's , Steve Tyler was often so out of it that he could not finish the set , the rest of the band old and new members were not exactly helping matters either . At the end of the tour second guitarist Brad Whitford left the band to go off and form a new band with ex-Ted Nugent guitarist/vocalist Derek St. Holmes ( One self titled album in 1981 , Not bad either) Now to lose one guitarist is unfortunate , to lose two is downright careless. Aerosmith fell into disarray, all of the band members were nearly broke through their own indulgences, even though all six previous albums had gone platinum and they could sell out any stadium in the United States Of America.
With more of an eye on the finances than musical endeavour Jack Douglas herded together what he could find of the remaining members of Aerosmith , added second guitarist Ritchie Dufay as a replacement for Brad Whitford , and put them back in the studio. Although the sessions were never easy , the combination of Tyler's natural talent, the rock solid rhythm section of Tom Hamilton, and Joey Kramer .Plus the unbridled enthusiasm of the two new axe slingers , they managed to come up with a pretty fine cocktail of a rock'n'roll album.It is noticeable that Jimmy Crespo takes at least partial song writing credits for six of the ten songs, Jimmy Crespo's style of lead guitar work is also a million miles from that of Joe Perry's , there are two covers ( The old chestnut 'Cry Me A River' plus a song from Ritchie Supa ' Lightning Strikes written when he was trying out himself for the band.) But it is still a fine edition to any record collection. Is it an Aerosmith album without Perry and Whitford on it? (Is 'Banana's' a Deep Purple album without Blackmore or Lord?) Well it says Aerosmith on the cover.
The album gets off to a rocking start with "Jailbait" a really raunchy rocker with a great hook by Jimmy Crespo's guitar , that rocks you to your very boots, this is immediately followed up by a typical one-two of another assault on your rock'n'roll senses with the belting ''Lightning Strikes'' now if this song had been included on any Aerosmith album but this one it would be acclaimed as an all time Aerosmith classic , a real scorching rocker that should of given this version of Aerosmith a huge hit single. This is followed by two Aerosmithish (sic) chunks of Funk/Rock ''Bitches Brew" and the wonderful "Bolivian Ragamuffin''. There is then a wonderfully over the top cover of "Cry Me A River" Steve Tyler throws so much pathos into this , he probably attempted to throw himself down the river afterwards , Jimmy Crespo must of nearly broken his back trying to reach some of those notes . I bet when the original band got back together this song was never discussed to be put in the setlist. "Prelude to Joanie" is a nice tilt into the centre piece of the album "Joanie's Butterfly'' the whole band gel beautifully on this song and it is amazing to think they had to be coerced into getting back in the studio. Title track "Rock In a Hard Place ( Cheshire Cat.) " is a good solid stadium rocker which if the band could of collectively stood up at the same time would of had them stomping in the aisles in live concert . The album starts with a bang with it's first two songs, but I'm afraid goes out with a bit of a whimper on the last two studio cuts here. "Jig Is Up" and
"Push Comes to shove" .The best thing that can be said about these two is, nice titles boys, but a bit too much Aerosmith by numbers.
'Rock In A Hard Place ' was the first Aerosmith album not to go Platinum , and the only Aerosmith album never to get into the American Billboard Top 30.But it should not be summarily dismissed as it does have it's moments , certainly standing up better today than it's predecessor's Night In The Ruts'.
In 1985 sensed prevailed and the original members of Aerosmith got back together, collectively cleaned up their act, (Even Alcohol and Cigarettes are not allowed back stage at an Aerosmith concert these days), and went onto to reclaim their place at the top of the International Rock'n'Roll Circus. Not without several hitches along the way though, first reunited album 'Done With Mirrors ' ( 1985) was not a success either only briefly flirting with the charts and to this day has never gone platinum, a failure in the high expectations world of Aerosmith. It took a collaboration with Rap masters Run D.M.C. on the Aerosmith penned "Walk This Way"(1986) to get them back in the charts, before the hits started to flow from the second reunited album' Permanent Vacation' after which Aerosmith more or less went onto be a permanent fixture on MTV.
Today Aerosmith are still at the very top of the tree, going into their later years with grace and dignity, which is very surprising as at the beginning of the Eighties no one would of given much chance of any of them being alive by the turn of the Century. In 2004 Aerosmith released an album of blues covers' Honking On Bobo' which topped the album charts worldwide, and they toured American Stadiums on the back of this. 2005 was designated as a year off ,during which time Joe Perry did his first solo album for twenty years " Joe Perry'' which Rolling Stone Magazine has called the ultimate guitarist album . But expect Aerosmith to re-group in 2006 and hit back hard.
Mott The Dog.

Steven Tyler recalls this album with a blush and says the parallels between this era of Aerosmith and Spinal Tap are embarrasing... Needless to say, looking beyond the Stonehenge cover, there's some great music to be heard.

With guitarists Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay still keep the Aerosmith groove on great songs such as "Jig is Up" and the best track on the album - "Bolivian Ragamuffin". I think this album gets a bad rap for two reasons: Joe Perry's departure and Steven Tyler's further descent into chemical oblivion. Watching some of the videos ("Lightning Strikes" and "Jailbait," Tyler didn't look all that healthy - but, man, he could still write a good tune.

Honestly, I think the music on this album is miles ahead of anything from their two most recent releases. If you like the harder side of Aerosmith, but haven't heard this album - it's worth a look.

Man, there's sure a lot of controversy among Aerosmith fans about which albums are the good ones , and which are the bad! The album "Rocks" is what I consider to be their weakest, yet almost everyone else says it's one of their best.Conversely the almost universally slammed "Rock in A Hard Place" I think has a definite atmosphere to it! Some of Aero's best songs are on this one- Jailbait,Lightning Strikes, Joanie's Butterfly,and who can resist the fun of Push Comes to Shove? Yeah I know , songs like Jig is Up and Cry Me A River are pretty lame, but even the weaker songs at least have good guitar solos in them.I read somewhere that Joe Perry likes this album-I hope that might change some minds.C'mon people ,show me I'm not crazy, and click on the "yes" button below.

Granted,this was one of Aerosmiths more disappointing releases sales wise;but as far as kick-ass blues based hard rock tunes go,IT ROCKS!
Sure,the TOXIC twins Perry/whitford are absent,but they are replaced nicely by toxic duo Crespo/Dufay!For me,I always preferred the hard edged,unpolished sound of Aerosmiths'toxic years to the overproduced teeny-bopper stuff they're settling for nowadays.
Really not a weak track on this offering.THE JIG IS UP is one of my faves.Check out the drumming by Joey Kramer in this one.What a groove!

I have to strongly disagree with our critic's 'insightful' opinion on this record. Considering the abuse the boys were dishing out on themselves daily (hourly?) when this record was made, it is an amazing effort. Tyler's interpretation of 'Cry Me A River' alone is worth the price of the CD. Production is solid and some of the cuts are just absolutely terrific. Although every Aerosmith record has its moments, in this fan's opinion, the record is light years better than 'Draw the Line' before it and 'Done With Mirrors' which followed (I did like 'Night in the Ruts' quite a bit.) If you think Aerosmith fell off the planet between 'Rocks' and 'Permanent Vacation' and you have never listened to this record, I strongly recommend picking it up. It's a real treat.

sorry for the spelling errors. i don't have a spell check. after years of reading bad reviews of this disc i finally picked it up used for $1. the thing that i always found curious about all of the negative reviews i've read for this album is that none of them (amazon reviews included) were able to tell me exactly WHY this was such a bad album. every bad review resorts to critisizing the album cover, perry and whitford's absence, tyler's drug use,etc. i have yet to read an intelligent review which critisizes the songs, performances, or production. this is because critics are generally lazy and just crib off each other so they don't have to actually spend time with an album. and, secondly, people can't critisize the CONTENT of this cd because it's easilly aerosmith's best since rocks. this album is full of great hooks, raw hard rock production, and it's about 20 times better than side 2 of "draw the line" or "done with mirrors". the latter would be a great album if it had "rock in a hard place's" production. unfortunately "mirrors" got the 80's bon jovi treatment (too much reverb on the drums, compressed gtrs.). i was very pleasantly surprised with what a good album this is and if aerosmith had the balls or desire to release an album of it's caliber TODAY people would fall over themselves to proclaim it a "true return to form", or some other tired critic's catch phrase. do yourself a favor if you're an aerosmith fan and get this cd. just remember to disregard all of the reviews you've read and listen with an open mind.

I admire the way Aerosmith has been able to appeal to listeners even today. Although I am not a fan of what they put out now, because it does not come close to the INTENSITY of their earlier releases, before Done With Mirrors. But as stated before I admire how they have stayed popular. This Album, in my opinion is there best and most rockin album ever, even Joe Perry says it rocked. Jimmy Crespo is the new Rough Cutt guitarist for those who want to know and he has been playing with Paul Shortino on his solo stuff. He is a brilliant guitarist. I agree with the theory that label politics killed this album. Lets face it original lineup has drawing power. Look at Motley Crue when Vince Neil was gone, they stiffed. I am not in the business of bashing other reviewers. I respect all INTELIGENT reviews. But I think this is a great and very underappreciated release.

A lot of people find this album to be the worst of Aerosmith's pre-Geffen albums. To me that distinction would go to Night In The Ruts. This album is solid. People love to hate it because Joe Perry and Brad Whitford aren't in it. There is only one weak song. That would be "Prelude To Joanie." My personal favorite is "Push Comes To Shove." This would rank 4th on my favorite Aerosmith albums. Great album with awesome guitar.

***** Rock In A Hard Place is a fantastic album. I have heard that Aerosmith considers it their personal least-favorite, but I am going to guess that it's because they probably have bad memories of the times they were going through while making it. They were without Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, but if nobody told you that, you wouldn't be able to tell. Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay do a fantastic job on the guitars. Crespo was also on Night In The Ruts album, though he did not get credit for it.

Do yourself a favor and pick up Rock In A Hard Place. It's probably the cheapest Aerosmith album, anyway. Every song really shines, from the skittaly-scat'n Bolivian Ragamuffin, to the psychedelic rockin' Joanie's Butterfly. Produced by a very stoned Jack Douglas, who also produced many (all?) of the earlier Aerosmith albums. They do a nice bluesy cover of Cry Me A River, too. And who could say no to Push Comes To Shove? That song is so cool! Nothing beats J-J-J-J-Jailbait for gutty guitar mania. Lightning Strikes was the radio single of the album, with it's tale of classic gang turf war. The rest is ALL great. I own this album since it came out in, what, 1982? Something like that, and I never get tired of it. It's the best!
If you're still on the fence about getting this album, JUST GET IT! IT'S FREAKIN' GOOD!!!