HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Get a Grip'' is the eleventh studio album by American
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
band
Aerosmith Aerosmith is an American rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums) and Brad Whitford (guitar). Their style, which is rooted in blues-ba ...
, released in April 1993 by
Geffen Records Geffen Records is an American record label established by David Geffen and owned by Universal Music Group through its Interscope Geffen A&M Records imprint. Founded in 1980, Geffen Records has been a part of Interscope Geffen A&M since 1999 and ...
. ''Get a Grip'' was the band's last studio album to be released by Geffen before they returned to Columbia Records. ''Get a Grip'' featured guests including
Don Henley Donald Hugh Henley (born July 22, 1947) is an American musician and a founding member of the rock band Eagles. He is the drummer and one of the lead singers for the Eagles. Henley sang the lead vocals on Eagles hits such as "Witchy Woman", " Desp ...
, who sang backup on "Amazing", and
Lenny Kravitz Leonard Albert Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter. His style incorporates elements of rock, blues, soul, R&B, funk, jazz, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, pop and folk. Kravitz won the Grammy Award for Best Male ...
, who offered backup vocals and collaboration to "Line Up". As on '' Permanent Vacation'' and ''
Pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they ...
'', this album featured numerous song collaborators from outside the band including:
Desmond Child John Charles Barrett (born October 28, 1953), known professionally as Desmond Child, is an American songwriter and producer. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008. His hits as a songwriter include Kiss's "I Was Made for Lovi ...
,
Jim Vallance James Douglas Vallance (born May 31, 1952) is a Canadian songwriter, arranger and producer. He is best known as the songwriting partner of Canadian musician Bryan Adams. Vallance began his professional career as the original drummer and main song ...
, Mark Hudson, Richie Supa, Taylor Rhodes,
Jack Blades Jack Martin Blades (born April 24, 1954) is an American rock musician. He has worked in the bands Rubicon, Night Ranger (as bassist and one of the lead vocalists), and Damn Yankees (as one of the founding members). He has also recorded with T ...
, and
Tommy Shaw Tommy Roland Shaw (born September 11, 1953) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter best known for his tenure in the rock band Styx as co-lead vocalist. In between his stints with Styx, he has played with other groups including Damn Yanke ...
. ''Get a Grip'' became Aerosmith's best-selling studio album worldwide, achieving sales of over 20 million copies. The album became the band's first album to reach number one in the United States and tied with ''
Pump A pump is a device that moves fluids (liquids or gases), or sometimes slurries, by mechanical action, typically converted from electrical energy into hydraulic energy. Pumps can be classified into three major groups according to the method they ...
'' for their second best-selling album in the U.S., selling over 7 million copies as of 1995 ('' Toys in the Attic'' leads with nine million). This also made it their third consecutive album with U.S. 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 ''Metal Edge'' was a magazine covering heavy metal music published by Zenbu Media. The magazine was founded in the summer of 1985, during the height of glam metal's success. Zenbu Media acquired ''Metal Edge'' in February 2007. Both ''Metal Edg ...
readers in the magazine's 1993 Readers' Choice Awards, while "Livin' on the Edge" was voted Best Video.Metal Edge, June 1994


Production

The album originally had 12 songs and was scheduled to be released in the third quarter of 1992, but Geffen A&R executive
John Kalodner John David Kalodner is a retired American A&R (artists and repertoire) executive. History John David Kalodner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was a writer and photographer at ''Concert'' magazine. He went on to be a photographer for v ...
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 Steven Victor Tallarico (born March 26, 1948), known professionally as Steven Tyler, is an American singer, best known as the lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, piano, and percussion. ...
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. In 2005, 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.


Cover art

''Get a Grip's'' cover art, depicting an image of a cow with a
captive bead A captive bead ring (CBR), ball closure ring (BCR), captive hoop, or captive ball ring is a common example of body piercing jewelry. The captive bead or ball fits into a small opening in the circle of the ring. The bead is slightly larger than ...
nipple ring through its udder and a
brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
of the Aerosmith logo, was designed by noted album-cover artist
Hugh Syme Hugh Syme is a Canadian Juno Award-winning graphic artist and member of the Premier Artists Collection (PAC) who is best known for his artwork and cover concepts for rock and metal bands. He is also a musician and has appeared on some Rush al ...
. Music critic
Steven Hyden Steven Hyden (born September 7, 1977) is an American music critic, author, and podcast host. He is the author of the books ''Your Favorite Band Is Killing Me'' (2016, on rivalries in pop music history), ''Twilight of the Gods'' (2018, on the his ...
has referred to the album's cover art as "the worst album cover ever", expressing surprise that Syme was responsible for it given his other work. An animal-rights group objected to the cover art, but the band confirmed the image had been digitally altered and did not depict an actual act of animal cruelty. A
special edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...
of the album was released in a fabric-covered case made to resemble cowhide.


First digital download

On June 27, 1994, Aerosmith became the first major artist to release a song as an exclusive digital download, making the unreleased track "Head First" available as a 4-
megabyte The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Its recommended unit symbol is MB. The unit prefix ''mega'' is a multiplier of (106) in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one megabyte is one million bytes o ...
WAV Waveform Audio File Format (WAVE, or WAV due to its filename extension; pronounced "wave") is an audio file format standard, developed by IBM and Microsoft, for storing an audio bitstream on PCs. It is the main format used on Microsoft Win ...
file to
CompuServe CompuServe (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its initialism CIS) was an American online service provider, the first major commercial one in the world – described in 1994 as "the oldest of the Big Three information services (the oth ...
subscribers. Around 10,000 users downloaded the song in the first few days, even though at the time, most users accessed the service with a
modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by modulating one or more carr ...
, meaning the download would have taken several hours. "Head First" was later used as the B-side for " Blind Man", released in November that year.


Critical reception

Reviewing for ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its cov ...
'' in 1993, Mark Coleman said he enjoyed the title song and compared the introductory track to the band's 1986 rendition of "
Walk This Way "Walk This Way" is a song by the American rock band Aerosmith. Written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, the song was originally released as the second single from the album '' Toys in the Attic'' (1975). It peaked at number 10 on the ''Billboa ...
" with
Run–D.M.C. Run-DMC (also spelled Run-D.M.C.) was an American hip hop group from Hollis, Queens, New York City, founded in 1983 by Joseph Simmons, Darryl McDaniels, and Jason Mizell. Run-DMC is regarded as one of the most influential acts in the history of ...
However, he found much of the rest unadventurous and too "somber", negatively comparing "Livin' on the Edge" to a
Bon Jovi Bon Jovi is an American rock band formed in 1983 in Sayreville, New Jersey. It consists of singer Jon Bon Jovi, keyboardist David Bryan, drummer Tico Torres, guitarist Phil X, and bassist Hugh McDonald. Original bassist Alec John such quit t ...
song, and lamenting the outside contributions from songwriters and collaborators. Ultimately, Coleman determined that, "for a spirited half-hour or so, Aerosmith pretty much gets over on sheer awe-inspiring technique".
Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...
was more positive in a contemporaneous review for ''
Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...
'', saying that while it "occasionally exploits their rap connection", remains faithful to Aerosmith's template of "fast ones and slow ones; lyrically it's fuck me and fuck you", but with such superpro crunch and commitment that no good-timing headbanger will give a shit." Christgau highlighted "Cryin'" as "the classic" on the album, while saying that "the closest thing to a duff cut sthe 'meaningful' Livin' on the Edge, which could be a hit anyway." He later ranked it 64th on his "Dean's List" accompanying '' The Village Voice''s annual
Pazz & Jop Pazz & Jop was an annual poll of top musical releases, compiled by American newspaper '' The Village Voice'' and created by music critic Robert Christgau. It published lists of the year's top releases for 1971 and, after Christgau's two-year abs ...
critics poll of the year's best albums, and assigned it an A-minus in his 2000 book '' Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s''.


Track listing

Immediately after "Amazing," a snippet of " Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well," by
Lucky Millinder Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millinder (August 8, 1910 – September 28, 1966) was an American swing and rhythm-and-blues bandleader. Although he could not read or write music, did not play an instrument and rarely sang, his showmanship and musical ...
, 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.


Personnel

Aerosmith *
Steven Tyler Steven Victor Tallarico (born March 26, 1948), known professionally as Steven Tyler, is an American singer, best known as the lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, piano, and percussion. ...
– lead vocals, keyboards, mandolin, harmonica, additional percussion, arranger * Joe Perry – guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Walk On Down" *
Brad Whitford Bradley Ernest Whitford (born February 23, 1952)Putterford, Mark (1991) ''The Fall and Rise of Aerosmith'', Omnibus Press, Strong, Martin C. (2001) ''The Great Metal Discography'' (2nd edn.), MOJO Books, , p. 11-13 is an American musician who i ...
– guitar, lead guitar on “Fever”, “Gotta Love It”, and “Flesh” * Tom Hamilton – bass guitar, bass solo on “Gotta Love It” *
Joey Kramer Joseph Michael Kramer (born June 21, 1950) is an American musician best known as the drummer of the hard rock band Aerosmith, which was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Life and career Kramer was born in the Bronx, New Yor ...
– drums Additional personnel *Paul Barontrumpet *
Desmond Child John Charles Barrett (born October 28, 1953), known professionally as Desmond Child, is an American songwriter and producer. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008. His hits as a songwriter include Kiss's "I Was Made for Lovi ...
– keyboards on "Crazy" * David Campbell – orchestra arrangements on "Crazy" and "Amazing" *
Bruce Fairbairn Bruce Earl Fairbairn (December 30, 1949 – May 17, 1999) was a Canadian record producer. He was active as a producer from 1976 to 1999, and is considered one of the best of his era. His most successful productions are ''Slippery When Wet'' an ...
– trumpet, production *
Don Henley Donald Hugh Henley (born July 22, 1947) is an American musician and a founding member of the rock band Eagles. He is the drummer and one of the lead singers for the Eagles. Henley sang the lead vocals on Eagles hits such as "Witchy Woman", " Desp ...
– background vocals on "Amazing" *Sandy Kanaeholo –
log drums A slit drum or slit gong is a hollow percussion instrument. In spite of the name, it is not a true drum but an idiophone, usually carved or constructed from bamboo or wood into a box with one or more slits in the top. Most slit drums have one slit ...
on "Eat the Rich" *
Tom Keenlyside Thomas William Keenlyside (born 1950) is a Canadian saxophonist and flautist from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Biography Born and raised in Vancouver, Keenlyside grew up hearing many genres of music on the radio that his parents left t ...
saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to ...
*
Lenny Kravitz Leonard Albert Kravitz (born May 26, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter. His style incorporates elements of rock, blues, soul, R&B, funk, jazz, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, pop and folk. Kravitz won the Grammy Award for Best Male ...
– background vocals on "Line Up" *Melvin Liufau – log drums on "Eat the Rich" *Wesey Mamea – log drums on "Eat the Rich" * Ian Putzbaritone saxophone *Bob Rogerstrombone *
Richard Supa Richard "Richie" Supa (born Richard Goodman) is an American songwriter and guitarist best known for his work with Aerosmith, The Rascals and Richie Sambora. Supa released several albums under his own name, including ''Supa's Jamboree'' (1971, ...
– keyboards on "Amazing" *Liainaiala Tagaloa – log drums on "Eat the Rich" *Mapuhi T. Tekurio – log drums on "Eat the Rich" *Aladd Alationa Teofilo – log drums on "Eat the Rich" *
John Webster John Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies ''The White Devil'' and ''The Duchess of Malfi'', which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and care ...
– keyboards Production *EngineersJohn Aguto, Ed Korengo, Ken Lomas, Mike Plotnikoff, David Thoener, Karl Heilbron *Pre Production EngineerTony Lentini *Mixing Brendan O'Brien *Mastering
Greg Fulginiti Gregory Fulginiti (born February 13, 1951 in Cape May Court House section of Middle Township, New Jersey) is an American recording and mastering engineer. Fulginiti grew up in Wildwood, New Jersey and graduated from Wildwood High School in 196 ...
at Masterdisk *Mastering SupervisorDavid Donnelly *ProgrammingJohn Webster *Production coordinationDebra Shallman *Guitar technicianDan Murphy *Art directionMichael Golob *Cover designHugh Syme *PhotographyEdward Colver, William Hames *
John Kalodner John David Kalodner is a retired American A&R (artists and repertoire) executive. History John David Kalodner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and was a writer and photographer at ''Concert'' magazine. He went on to be a photographer for v ...


Charts


Weekly charts


Year-end charts


Certifications and sales


Awards

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
Metal Edge ''Metal Edge'' was a magazine covering heavy metal music published by Zenbu Media. The magazine was founded in the summer of 1985, during the height of glam metal's success. Zenbu Media acquired ''Metal Edge'' in February 2007. Both ''Metal Edg ...
Readers' Choice Awards


See also

*
Get a Grip Tour The Get a Grip Tour was a concert tour by American hard rock band Aerosmith that lasted over eighteen months, from early June 1993 to mid-December 1994. The tour was put on in support of the band's third consecutive multi-platinum album '' Get a ...


References


Bibliography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Get A Grip 1993 albums Aerosmith albums Geffen Records albums Albums produced by Bruce Fairbairn Albums recorded at A&M Studios Albums recorded at Little Mountain Sound Studios