No Surprise – Aerosmith

It may come as No Surprise to you that we have sneakily snuck into probably the most promised and easiest to write theme week of all SteveForTheDeaf theme weeks. Aerosmith Week is now officially in full effect and open for business.

Let’s go see the elephant!

This band were my very favourite band for such a long time that I know every single track from every single release over at least a 25 year period of their career. It all started with Mama Kin and the self titled carpet rolling first album of British invasion inspired house party boogie, and yet that Train Kept A Rollin’ into the Spaced second album released in my birth year. The break through third album and a gold run that kept smashing it Right In The Nuts up until they began to Stop Breaking Down and found themselves stuck against a Rock In A Hard Place.

Some folk will talk about how they went off the boil after Draw The Line due to the drink and the drugs. Some folks can’t handle the Toxic Twins bashing it out after Rocks and into their wilderness period. These albums are all impeccable. This one is a real favourite for me. It’s a lean, dirty, angry and dangerous rock and roll record. It features a Shangri-Las cover. It has the slide guitar of Cheesecake into Three Mile Smile and it has the ballad for a baby girl making Mia famous before she was out of the crib.

I say this is an easy week to write. Kinda. What is hard, is narrowing the mighty Aerosmith down to just seven tracks… Considering the fact that my old favourites One Way Street and Sweet Emotion are already posted I’ve made some head space. So I’ve snuck a couple of real pearlers in ahead of time. A kooky cover hiding in another theme week is out there. So too is the massive airbrushed ballad Angel and opening track of their second break through album Permanent Vacation. The Doors, Power Ballads and Whales be damned.

So I’m not doing chronology. I’m going to try and hit different periods and different grooves but I want it to play like a mixtape.

I’m opening the week proper with the thunderous No Surprise for two reasons. One it opens Night In The Ruts like a prize fighter bounding into the ring. It’s a relentless assault as it tells the story of the bands origin…

“1971 we all heard the starters gun, New York was such a pity but at Max’s Kansas City we won”

There should be a band history animated video to this song. It’d be awesome.

The second reason is a posey wanky name drop. Franz from The Hold Steady (possibly the band who took the place of Aerosmith in the favourite stakes for the last ten years) and I shared an exchange on Twitter that just descended into us quoting lyrics from this song at each other. Immediately after I thought “fuck it! I’m writing Aerosmith week”

“Vaccinate your Ass with a phonograph needle” indeed

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