SHANE’S MUSIC CHALLENGE: AEROSMITH – 1987 – Permanent Vacation

SHANE’S MUSIC CHALLENGE: AEROSMITH – 1987 – Permanent Vacation
7/10

After their patchy comeback album Done With Mirrors, Permanent Vacation saw the (former) Toxic Twins kiss & make up, publicly revoke their chemical crutches (which almost killed them both), and enlist some A-grade pop hit makers to fire themselves into the music biz stratosphere again.

This time though, it would be more spectacular than in their original, Seventies heyday, and have more long-term dire consequences for the band (see 2001’s dire Just Push Play).

Permanent Vacation may have the hit-making touches that would ultimately destroy hair metal, but at this point it was still in the ascendence and enlisting the likes of Holly Knight, Jim Vallance and Desmond Child was still a force for good, rather than a recipe for overblown tripe.

It worked, of course, and they’d follow it with bigger and better before the inevitable downward slide started.

Ragdoll, Dude (Looks Like A Lady), Hearts Done Time and Angel – all co-written with one or more of the above Big Names – are considered amongst their best work, but my favourite here is the steel drum-infused title track (tellingly, written solely by Steven Tyler and Brad Whitford.) It’s simply the best ‘longing for a beach holiday’ track I can think of.

 

Category: Shane's Rock Challenge