"No Surprize," "Chiquita," & "Cheese Cake"

A lot of the critical dialogue around Night in the Ruts concerns how close it was to actually being good or great. Personally, I don't buy into that: I assume every album reaches its maximum potential, given the nature of its creation. Ruts is a troubled album that came out of a troubled time, but what gave people hope was this tune, a soaring rocker with a bit of a kick. Here, Steven Tyler checks back in with self-mythologizing rockstar lyrics, a la the early "Make It" or even the more recent "Legendary Child," telling the story of getting signed after a gig at Max's Kansas City (an inaccurately named venue in New York) but still being "on trial." There's something you could say about retreating to memories of past triumphs while undergoing a dark period.

Was it going to be one of the band's all-time great songs? Maybe not, but it's a bit of a shame it's relegated to the "forgotten" period. If nothing else, it's worth excavating for "Vaccinate yo' ass with a phonograph needle."

There was a video for this one, which appears to have been shot in someone's basement, with Jimmy Crespo playing guitar (I think Joe Perry's the one on the record but we have no way of knowing who played what where.) The band looks completely out of it, and I didn't use it because the sound quality's not great.



When I say Night in the Ruts is half a good album, I'm not exactly saying half the tracks are good and half are not. The truth is trickier than that. It's that tracks with potential, like this, are halfway to being really great. Steven lets out a drug-fuelled scream that propels the song along with Joey Kramer's thundering drums, some sharp guitars, and a swinging horn riff. I think this is the first time an Aerosmith song is led by horns. In the past a part like that might've been perfectly suited to Joe Perry's guitar. I remember hearing that the "Walk This Way" riff was meant to imitate funk horns from a James Brown song.



There's nothing wrong with individual tracks like "Chiquita" or "Cheese Cake," but you weren't going to get another Rocks with them. "Cheese Cake" is a mediocre tune that at least comes by its sleaze honestly. For whatever reason "Got my fingers in her pie" doesn't have the same charm as "You ain't seen nothin' 'til you're down on a muffin." Basically, the less inspired the band feels, the more Steven reverts to writing obvious tunes about slutty chicks.

With better lyrics, or a good riff, or something this could've been a better song. It doesn't suck, but like much of the album, it's not "there."