If it was Tom Hamilton writing these lines, he’d probably choose to speak on Rocks. Nevertheless, Permanent Vacation is equally important – maybe even more – since it marks the return of Aerosmith to the first line, after they had already fell to the bottom.

A few years before its release, the band, in fact, didn’t exist… Joe Perry had gone since 1979 to make the Joe Perry Project and two years later, while Steven Tyler was recovering in the hospital from a motorbike accident, Brad Whitford recorded Whitford/St. Holmes with Derek St. Holmes (ex-Ted Nugent). Aerosmith were in decay due to the abuses… the same abuses that led Joe Perry to the emergency exit. The not really successful ‘Night In The Ruts’, released in 1979, was the product of the situation of the band at that time, while the several member changes didn’t bring the expected freshness to the band.  The accident of Tyler was probably a good excuse for some extra creative stagnancy, which made Whitford run away.

The band was Tyler, Hamilton, Kramer, Jimmy Krespo and Rick Dufay. Even though Tyler hadn’t decreased his drug abuse at all, the economical problems and the arising bands of Van Halen and Iron Maiden, were a strong motive to bring the band in the studio. Despite the effort of Steven Tyler to bring the band to its former glories – or maybe because of that – ‘Rock In A Hard Place’ was considered long gone by, regardless of the enthusiasm of the ‘new’ members. Aerosmith seemed to have reached the nadir of their career. People didn’t attend their shows and Tyler couldn’t control his “weaknesses”, falling off the stage from time to time. The timing, though, wasn’t bad at all. Maybe Joe Perry was reading encouraging reviews; however, the discouraging sales (Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker of 1983 sold in the USA only 40000 pieces) and his divorce brought him closer to Brad Whitford.

The reunion of the band, and their success later on, is attributed first of all to Joe Perry’s manager, Tim Collins. Bringing Perry and Whitford to the live shows of Aerosmith and Tyler to the concerts of The Joe Perry Project, he put the foundation for a new beginning. Crespo and Dufay were anyway having a hard time coping with Tyler and thus, in April 1984, Aerosmith announced their reunion and tour in small clubs, in order to win the promoters and audience’s trust. This tour remained in history as “Back In The Saddle” and bits of it can be found in the live album “Classics Live II” (released later, in 1987). Through legal fights, they managed to release themselves from Leber-Krebs, which had the rights of the production of all their albums and which had signed with Columbia for seven more studio albums, and now Aerosmith, after a long time, were out of contract.

They were lucky though. John Kalodner, A&R in Geffen, accepted to sign them and Aerosmith entered the studio for another album. Nevertheless, most of their personal problems weren’t solved... mainly their drug addiction, restraining them from unfolding their talent. ‘Done With Mirrors’ didn’t impress a lot, just reaching gold status in the U.S.A, but at least convinced Aerosmith themselves that it would take something more than a reunion to get back to the top.

Again, Tim Collins made the moves. He persuaded the five musicians to share their complaints – with most of them pointing to Tyler -, inducing the latter to seek psychiatric assistance and finally the whole band was put to detoxication. The results of the change were obvious even from the first rehearsals.Now, the musicians dedicated all their creative time in music. For ‘Permanent Vacation’, John Kalodner proposed Desmond Child to help the band adjust to the 80s requirements, and with his help, “Angel” and “Heart’s Done Time” got written really quickly. Holly Knight (who had co-written “Better Be Good To Me” by Tina Turner and “Love Is A Battlefield” by Pat Benatar) helped sort the lyrics and the title of “Rag Doll”, initially called “Rag Time”. Another contributor was Jim Vallance, who shared the credits on “Magic Touch”, “Rag Doll”, “Simoriah” and “Hangman Jury”.

Permanent Vacation was released in September 1987, under the supervision of producer Bruce Fairbairn, who played an important role controlling the sound of the album and the studio atmosphere. The album sets off like a well oiled machine, with “Heart’s Done Time”, written only in a few hours and including the voices of two killer whales. Catchy “Magic Touch” comes second and ”Rag Doll” follows, reminding of good old Aerosmith. Clarinets end the song, mixing rock with jazz. “Simoriah” lifts the tempo up, with a full blown sound and Steven Tylers voice leading the rest of the instruments. “Dude (Looks Like A Lady)” is apparently the superhit of the album. The inspiration seems to be multidimensional: A girl – who wasn’t a girl eventually – that Tyler had seen as a kid; a bar, where the latter was drinking with Vince Neil, many years later, and the waiters were wearing women’s clothes, making Tyler comment “Dude, he looks like a lady”; or even Vince Neil himself. Anyway, this song was the first single, winning two prizes for its video clip – where Kalodner (of Geffen) is doing a cameo wearing a wedding dress, a reference to his constant pick of white clothes. “St. John” brings blues to the foreground and “Hangman Jury” travels us to the Mississippi Delta. Tyler says that this song is based on a traditional blues number, coming from the slavery years. However, blues musician Huddie William Ledbetter (aka Lead Belly, 1888 – 1949) had recorded it under the title Line’Em and as a result, one year after its release in ‘Permanent Vacation’, the beneficiaries of Lead Belly (Folkway Publishing) sued Aerosmith for the blues part of the song. On the other hand, the band had asked for permission by Taj Mahal, who had also recorded the song, thinking falsely that it was his own. The fast paced “Girls Keep Coming Apart” mixes rock with rhythm’n’blues and the power ballad “Angel”, also the second single, was signed by Desmond Child and reached number 3 of Billboard. The homonymous track of the album expresses the need of Aerosmth to control the pressure in an alternative way, instead of following their old addictions. In “I’m Down”, Aerosmith cover the Beatles, adjusting the track to the album’s times. The closer of the album is “The Movie”, a soothing instrumental, with celtic narration.

‘Permanent Vacation’ went really well, reaching No 11 of Billboard and turned platinum before the end of the year. The most important was that it showed to Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer what they can achieve if they focus to the only thing that brought them together in the first place: their passion for music. The good run held for a few years at least and brought Aerosmith to the top of the league.