"Three Mile Smile," "Bone to Bone (Coney Island Whitefish Boy)" & "Mia"

Here's one of the bright spots of this album. It's not as flashy as "No Surprize," but it as an understated, dirty funk to it that works for me. It wasn't going to go down as one of Aerosmith's greatest tracks (lyrically it appears to be a disjointed rant about the late-70's energy crisis) and I doubt it would even be considered one of their top 100 fan-favourite songs, but I like it's spiky, getalong riff. It's one of the points on this album where the guitars really work like they should. No, it's not "Last Child" or anything, but on this disc, it'll do.



Along those lines is also "Bone to Bone (Coney Island Whitefish Boy)" which showcases that pared-down street level rock Aerosmith could fall back on in those days. Like "Three Mile Smile," I actually enjoy this one because it has some energy and charm, and like "Chiquita" or "Cheese Cake" it's at least halfway to a really good tune. It's just that all through the 9 tracks, the band failed to seal the deal with anything inspired.



In a few reviews I've read for this album, this ballad is unfairly referred to as a knock-off or re-do of "Dream On." I don't think that's fair, given nearly every Aerosmith album has a ballad on it, and they all sound at least a few degrees apart, including this one. That's not to say it's any good. It lacks the grandeur of, the build of "Dream On," settling for a rather chilling minor key fade out, letting this album limp into the darkness rather than leave a real impression like "Home Tonight" or "Seasons of Wither."

Ultimately, it's hard to defend this album. The best I can say is, "It doesn't totally suck," but I only get to say that with the benefit of hindsight and knowing how things turn out. It would've been hard to justify recommending this album at the time, though. Knowing the story doesn't end here makes me kind of forgiving. There's nothing essential to the story of Aerosmith, nothing to counteract the temptation just to say "From 1978 to 1986 they recorded a string of poor albums" even though that is not exactly the case. Simplicity overwhelms the somewhat more complicated truth. With a little TLC all these songs could have been better, but this band simply did not have that extra care to give.

"Remember (Walking in the Sand)" "Reefer Head Woman" & "Think About It"

There's no way to look at Ruts' three covers and think anything but "filler." They were struggling enough with their originals, so they dug up three tunes to fill out the record. None of them are bad, but they don't enhance the proceedings much, and their existence is a testament to the album's mediocrity.

"Remember (Walking in the Sand)" is originally from the Shangri-La's, a girl group from the 60's, whose angle was that they were tough New York chicks in contrast with the Shirelles and Crystals. They did the biker ode "Leader of the Pack." This is probably the most inexplicable choice, aside from being a choice opportunity for melodrama from Mr. Tyler. The band doesn't have much get-up-and-go on it, though.



"Reefer Head Woman" is a blues tune in the mold of "Big Ten Inch Record" and "Train Kept A Rollin'" and isn't lyrically as good as either. It doesn't have their fire or fun, doesn't really sustain itself. On a better album it might have been a neat isolated moment, but here it feels like a drag.



If they had to pick only one of the covers to stay, it'd be this one. It sounds the most "Aerosmithy," probably because it's originally by the Yardbirds, and the riff is the sort that they'd been basing their career off. They bring the tune out of the 60's and imbue it with that drugged-out Steven Tyler yowl and a pretty wild solo. I just don't love the song itself.

What these covers say to me is that Aerosmith was not a band that was going to make a greatrecord in 1979... but they were still technically proficient, uniquely esoteric in their tastes, generally enthusiastic in their delivery... they could still get something done when they focused. They just weren't that focused at all on this record.

"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."

Night in the Ruts (1979)

In a way, this album, and its follow-up, are tainted by history. For the story of Aerosmith to reach maximum compelling factor, they have to plummet into a creative and commercial abyss. To a degree this is accurate: Aerosmith recorded their worst records between 1978 and 1983, and were rewarded with dwindling sales. True, all true.

And yes, it's no surprise (italicized for pun-emphasis) this album is lackluster. Turmoil, drugs, fighting, creative exhaustion... 5 years of professional drug use and rock stardom will take its toll. They weren't a band that could record an album business as usual, crank out a hit and go tour. Even judging from the difference between Rocks and Draw The Line, this band has to move in some direction. And here, even if the results aren't the most gratifying, there's an effort to try something. As on Draw the Line, there's a strong reliance on the rhythm section, with Joe Perry leaving during the course of recording this. The guitars don't suck on it, but there's a less defined guitar identity than any other Aerosmith album. Which is probably why it was considered to be such a failure by critics, being that it is a hard rock album and all.

What they end up with is about half a good album. A few songs are quite good, a few are almost there, and a few are junk to some degree or another. If nothing else, all these mediocre-to-okay songs sound like they go together, and not like they're just re-writing old songs. I often say the worst thing a rock album can be is boring, and it isn't that, so... away we go.

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