Joe Perry Bio Review - Rocks

I started writing this before the news of Joe’s illness. All I can say is, “Get Well, Joe!” Hopefully, he’ll make a full recovery. It was scary to spend so much time reading about Joe Perry and then hear that his life was in danger.

At its core Rocks: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith (written by Joe with David Ritz), is very personal. Joe starts out with a detailed account of his family life and upbringing in Hopedale, thirty miles outside Boston, and summers with his family at Sunapee Lake, an idyllic retreat for “upper middle class” families in New Hampshire. This thread in the book is ever present. Joe is a family man and he strives to be honest and to treat people with integrity. Other people count in his life, and although he describes himself as shy and introverted, he has little trouble making friends or navigating the treacherous world of show biz. The rise – fall – and rise again trajectory of Aerosmith is largely his masterpiece.

Joe can admit his own faults. But because he’s so forthright, he at times comes across as a bit too critical of Steven Tyler. I tried to read Steven Tyler’s bio and if Joe and Steven’s careers were to be judged on their memoirs, Tyler would be in trouble. Long story short, it’s a difficult job to get the other side of the story. Rocks is eminently readable while Steven Tyler: Does The Noise In My Head Bother You? comes across as a barroom ear bender that you just want to turn away from. To hear it from Joe, ST is the quintessential difficult lead singer who writes songs at a glacial pace and stabs people in the back often enough to alienate a small army (but not the Blue Army). This idea is almost beaten to death, although it’s believable. At the same time, Joe and Steve are never far from ‘brotherhood,’ they spend time together and essentially Aerosmith is dependent on their relationship’s success. It’s a very interesting story within a story but not enough self-reflection or the other side of the story is provided.

Joe’s love of the guitar and music is strongly emphasized, but along with various key elements such as Tyler’s perspective of the situation, the real nitty-gritty of making music and playing is somewhat left out. I have long heard the rumors that Joe didn’t play key parts on some Aerosmith songs, and this important information is never addressed. It’s more or less established fact that “the Cooper Kids” played lead on Aerosmith’s very important cover of “Train Kept A Rolling” and I have always wondered, if Joe Perry played all the killer guitar on Toys, why couldn’t he have played all of those guitars, too? But the truth is that the hard partying 70s had more than their share of overdubs and odd bedfellows. It would have been fascinating if Joe could have addressed these issues but that might have presented another level that would have made it difficult to maintain the book’s consistent and engaging style. The bottom line is, I couldn’t put the book down. It’s very well written and Joe Perry is great company. I could easily imagine reading the book a second time. Aerosmith fans will be overjoyed, and fans of the era will be well entertained. 

And now, a little personal background. I saw Aerosmith at MSG back in the ‘70s during their heyday. Even then my 14-year-old brain had reservations. They didn’t seem to have that many great songs and although they kicked ass, I thought of them as a cross between Led Zeppelin and the Stones. It would take years for me to figure out the missing link to that equation. It came in the form of a Hubert Sumlin birthday bash with Levon Helm on drums and a Jagger-esque, Tyler-like vocalist. He was singing all the classic songs of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, quite capably – his name was David Johansen.

That show would prove to be of major importance to me. But in reality, I come from the Aerosmith generation much more than I care to admit. In fact, the first time I ever heard “Walk This Way,” I actually saw a band playing it at the Forest Park Band Shell in Queens, NY. I thought it was their song. My second encounter with the band was through some girls I met at a ski lodge in Vermont in the mid-70s. They were huge fans from the Boston area and pronounced the band’s name in classic fashion – something like ‘Ear-O-Smit.’ I had a crush on both of them. More recently I’ve been playing my vinyl of Toys In The Attic over and over and digging the guitar work of Joe Perry, which is way better than the stuff on "The Train Kept A Rolling." -Chris Botta

Comments

[James Hannigan]

Good points about Tyler; does this remind you of the way Keith also used his book to criticize Mick? He also comes across in that book as engaging in score-settling maybe unfairly but at the same time expressing great admiration and love for him, like Joe does.

I thought Perry's book expresses rock and roll in the '70s with the anecdotes and life on the road stories and the characters they encountered. The people you met in Vermont would have been exactly the type of fans in New England he talks about that supported their rise to stardrom

[On Practicing Guitar]

It seems to me that Joe Perry and Steven Tyler may be just like Mick and Keith, but perhaps a little less estranged. I really don't have the info or experience to figure that one out completely. I just remember seeing so many videos of the Stones where the Glimmer Twins are just not even looking at each other onstage, going way back to the 80s. I would basically say that they hate each other. I don't think the good old boys from Boston would ever go that far. They're a little more down to earth just by the way of where they come from.