Genre Hard rock, blues rock Label Geffen | Length 65:36 Producer Bruce Fairbairn | |
Released April 20, 1993 (1993-04-20) Recorded January–February 1992 at A&M Studios
September–November 1992 at Little Mountain Sound Studios | ||
Get a Grip is the eleventh studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released on April 20, 1993 by Geffen Records. Get a Grip was the band's last studio album to be released by Geffen before they returned to Columbia Records.
Contents
- Production
- Track listing
- Additional B sides and alternative versions
- Reception
- Personnel
- Charts
- Awards
- References
Get a Grip featured guests including Don Henley, who sang backup on "Amazing", and Lenny Kravitz, who offered backup vocals and collaboration to "Line Up". As on Permanent Vacation and Pump, this album featured numerous song collaborators from outside the band including: Desmond Child, Jim Vallance, Mark Hudson, Richie Supa, Taylor Rhodes, Jack Blades, and Tommy Shaw.
Get a Grip became Aerosmith's best-selling studio album worldwide, achieving sales of over 20 million copies, and is tied with Pump for their second best-selling album in the United States, selling over 7 million copies as of 1995. (Toys in the Attic leads with eight million). This also made it their third consecutive album with US sales of at least five million. Two songs from the album won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, in 1993 and 1994. The album was voted Album of the Year by Metal Edge readers in the magazine's 1993 Readers' Choice Awards, while "Livin' on the Edge" was voted Best Video.
Production
The album originally had 12 songs and would be released on the third quarter of 1992, but Geffen A&R executive John Kalodner listened to what had been recorded and thought it lacked variety and a radio-friendly song. So the band went back to write more songs with collaborators such as Child.
Regarding songs that reflect on the band's history with drug abuse such as "Get a Grip" and "Amazing", Steven Tyler declared: "We were saying you can point it back to some of those old beliefs about the crossroads and signing up with the devil, that you can look at the drugs as that: It can be fun in the beginning but then it comes time to pay your debt, and if you're not sharp enough to see that it's taking you down, then it really will get you."
Many songs were written and recorded for the album that were either used as b-sides or never released. "Don't Stop" and "Head First" were released as b-sides, as well as "Can't Stop Messin'", which also appears on several special editions of the album as an addition in the track list. Other songs were listed on the official Aerosmith website in the late 1990s. "Black Cherry", "Devil's Got A New Disguise", "Dime Store Lover", "Legendary Child", "Lizard Love", "Meltdown", "Rocket 88", "Wham Bam", and "Yo Momma" were listed on the lyrics page of the website, which can be accessed via the Wayback Machine. In 2005, Aerosmith A&R man John Kalodner confirmed the existence of several of the songs above, as well as "Trouble", "Strange", "13", and "Keep On Movin'". "Deuces Are Wild" was possibly recorded again during these sessions. Several songs are also listed on copyright repertoires, including "Ain't Gonna Break My Heart", "Good Thang", and "Jake". These songs can be traced to the year 1991. Reworked versions of "Devil's Got A New Disguise", "Deuces Are Wild", "Lizard Love", and "Legendary Child" have since been released on various albums and soundtracks.
Track listing
Immediately after "Amazing," a snippet of "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well," by Lucky Millinder, is heard as if being tuned in on an old radio. Tyler says, "So from all of us at Aerosmith to all of you out there, wherever you are, remember: the light at the end of the tunnel may be you. Good night." The music then fades out.
Additional B-sides and alternative versions
Don't Stop
Head First
Amazing (Orchestral Version)
Livin' on the Edge (Acoustic Version)
Reception
In his Allmusic review for Get a Grip, Stephen Thomas Erlewine said the album failed compared to Pump because he thinks the band was trying too hard to have a hit and it didn't have any depth to it, but he feels the album still "sounds good". Mark Coleman, for his Rolling Stone magazine review of Get a Grip, said he liked the title track and he compared the album's introduction, titled "Intro", to Steven Tyler and Joe Perry's collaboration with Run–D.M.C. on "Walk This Way", but feels that most of the album lacks "adventure" and is too "somber". In his interview he compared "Livin' on the Edge" to a Bon Jovi song and feels that a problem with the album comes from the outside songwriters/collaborators. Robert Christgau, however, feels on Get a Grip that they are trying many different things on the album and that they are really good at trying something new, like the song "Cryin'" and he gave it their best review since 1980's Greatest Hits. Ben Mitchell called the album "soft" and "shallow" but considered "Eat the Rich" and "Crazy" standout tracks.
An animal rights group objected to the cover of a cow's pierced udder, but it was confirmed by Aerosmith to have been computer-generated.
Personnel
Charts
Awards
Grammy Awards
Metal Edge Readers' Choice Awards