Live! Bootleg (Aerosmith Album)

''Live! Bootleg'' is a double live album by American hard rock band Aerosmith, released in October 1978. While most of the performances were drawn from concerts in 1977 and 1978, "I Ain't Got You" and " Mother Popcorn" were taken from a radio broadcast of a Boston performance on March 20, 1973.

Background

During their 1978 tour, several of the band's concerts were professionally recorded by producer Jack Douglas for radio broadcast, and subsequently bootlegged. Douglas remembers, "At the same time that we were recording that album 'Draw the Line'' we were doing live radio broadcasts. Right over the air, man. There were some amazing bootlegs made from those broadcasts." In an effort to combat the illegal records, the band's management asked Douglas to compile the double live album. The design of the album is intended to imitate the poor production of contemporary bootleg records, even going so far as to give an incorrect track listing: the song "Draw the Line" is included on the record but does not appear listed; the track is a hidden track after "Mother Popcorn".

In addition to previously unrecorded covers "I Ain't Got You" and "Mother Popcorn", the album also features a version of "Train Kept A-Rollin'" which inserts an uncredited "Strangers in the Night". The record also features the first record appearance of Richie Supa's " Chip Away the Stone" (the studio version of this song would later be released on a 1980 reissue of the " Draw the Line" single), and one of their first live performances of the Beatles "Come Together", which they recorded for the soundtrack album ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band''.

Release and legacy

The back of the CD cover includes two coffee stains over the picture of Joe Perry playing before a live audience. The original LP cover had the coffee stains, but not the picture of Perry, which was part of the gatefold artwork.

In the band memoir ''Walk this Way'', Perry recalls, "I didn't want to do a live album at the time because there were so many perfect live albums coming out, all doctored and fixed and overdubbed. Big deal. Double live album - 'standard of the industry'. I felt like we had to avoid that and do a real live album like ''Live at Leeds'' or '' Get Yer Ya Ya's Out'' or that old Kinks album." In his own 2014 memoir ''Rocks'', Perry said that the idea behind the LP confounded their label Columbia: "We were working on ''Live! Bootleg!'', an album of old shows that we intentionally wanted to sound bootlegged. A couple of those tracks were recorded off air onto a cassette. It had hiss all over it. We left on the hiss because the hiss was real. But I'm not sure Columbia ever understood our concept. They wanted a clean sound, but we wanted to keep it real. That's the thrill of a real bootleg." Singer Tyler states, "The album is a reflection of the band, as we feel and sound. It features material and experiences taken from all types of concerts we've played. It's really the essence of the whole band."

Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash has expressed his affection for the album. He explains,

Track listing

" Draw the Line" is featured as a hidden track at the end of "Mother Popcorn"

Personnel

;Aerosmith
*Steven Tylerlead vocals, harmonica
* Joe Perryguitar
*Brad Whitfordguitar
* Tom Hamiltonbass guitar
*Joey Kramerdrums, percussion

;Additional musicians
*Mark Radice – keyboards, backing vocals
*David Woodford – saxophone on "Mother Popcorn"

;Production
* Jack Douglas – producer, engineer
*David Krebs, Steve Leber – executive producers, management
*Jay Messina, Lee DeCarlo – engineers
*Julie Last, Rod O'Brien, Sam Ginsburg – assistant engineers
*David Hewitt – Record Plant Mobile operator (New York)
*Chris Stone – Record Plant Mobile operator (Los Angeles)
*George Marino – mastering at Sterling Sound, New York
*John Kosh – art direction, design
* Jimmy Ienner Jr., Barry Levine, Ron Pownall, Aaron Rapoport, Steve Smith – photography

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

Bibliography

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1978 live albums
Aerosmith live albums
Albums produced by Jack Douglas (record producer)
Columbia Records live albums