MAKING OF THE ALBUM: Aerosmith – Permanent Vacation

Aerosmith‘s comeback during the 1980s had been a long and difficult process for the band. Guitarist Joe Perry had quit during the recording of their sixth album, 1979′s Night in the Ruts, whilst two years later rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford also left the group. 1982′s Rock in a Hard Place was a critical and commercial failure and drug addiction had begun to consume frontman Steven Tyler, whilst their run of hit singles had come to an end. Both Perry and Whitford had eventually returned to the band mid-1984 and Aerosmith, who had recently signed with Geffen Records, had attempted a comeback with their album Done With Mirrors the following year. Yet it was a collaboration with hip hop trio Run DMC in 1986 that would mark the first step towards turning their careers around and by the following January the group embarked on what would prove to be their make-or-break record, Permanent Vacation.

A newly sober Aerosmith commenced work on new material in early 1987 in their hometown of Boston, Massachusetts but at the suggestion of Geffen’s A&R agent, John Kalodner, the band reluctantly sought outside influence on the writing of their new songs. The first to contribute was Desmond Child, who had enjoyed considerable acclaim a year earlier for co-writing two of Bon Jovi‘s biggest hits for their breakthrough album Slippery When Wet. Even before his association with Bon Jovi Child had co-written hit singles, having worked with Kiss singer Paul Stanley on their 1979 track I Was Made for Lovin’ You. Prior to this, the majority of Aerosmith‘s material had been written by the band and Tyler was somewhat reluctant to bring in an outside writer to contribute to their album. But it had been almost a decade since they had produced a hit single (with the exception of their Run DMC crossover) and both their internal conflicts and drug addiction had been well documented, and with the poor performance of Done With Mirrors the band were under pressure to prove that they were still relevant. Child would not only co-write the opening track Heart’s Done Time and the power ballad Angel but also the album’s most famous song, Dude (Looks Like a Lady), which was allegedly written about Mötley Crüe‘s Vince Neil.

With Child having contributed to three tracks for the album Kalodner turned to another writer-for-hire, Jim Vallance, another Kiss alumni who had also co-written several hits for Bryan Adams, including Cuts Like a Knife, Summer of ’69 and Run to You. Aerosmith would also record the second Beatles cover of their career (following a rendition of Come Together for the for the movie Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) with a reworking of I’m Down, which had first appeared as a B-side to the Beatles‘ 1965 single Help!. Recording took place between March and June at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia with producer Bruce Fairbairn, who had also worked on Bon Jovi‘s Slippery When Wet. The sessions for the album had been the first in many years that the band had recorded sober, although withdrawal would prove difficult for both Tyler and Perry (once known as the ‘Toxic Twins’), as documented in their interviews for the 1988 documentary The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, whilst bassist Tom Hamilton continued to smoke cannabis for the majority of the sessions. The albums would also see the addition of such instruments as trumpets, saxaphone, trombone and mellotron, adding more range and commercial appeal to their music.

The first video shot in the support of the album was for Dude (Looks Like a Lady), which saw Kalodner providing the band with further support by appearing in the video dressed as a bride. Permanent Vacation was released by Geffen Records in August 1987, just a few weeks after Guns N’ Roses‘ debut album Appetite for Destruction (which would take several months to gain momentum). The success of both the album and the lead single finally gave Aerosmith the comeback they had been fighting for since Perry and Whitford had returned to the fold three years earlier. The band would enjoy further success with the tracks Rag Doll and Angel, both of which would also gain regular airplay on music channels and would see Aerosmith once again adorning the front pages of heavy metal magazines.