Fave Song From "Rock In A Hard Place"

Been listening to this a lot the last 2 days so...I gotta go with Jailbait,Lightning Strikes, and Bolivian Ragamuffin.

I voted for Bolivian Ragamuffin. Great stream of conscience poetry from Mr Steven Tyler

"Lightning Strikes". Top 5 Aero song for me.

Bitch's Brew - for me. Killer album IMO

skullsmasher wrote:

Bitch's Brew - for me. Killer album IMO

Great song especially love to bridge of the song when Tyler lets out this classic set of lyrics:

manny wrote:

skullsmasher wrote:

Bitch's Brew - for me. Killer album IMO

Great song especially love to bridge of the song when Tyler lets out this classic set of lyrics:

I've been thinkin'
Ran my hands through the sands of time
Yeah and I've been drinkin'
Just to make this here song rhyme... yea
(Oooh what the hell ya wanna do)
(I've been drinkin' with the... hi...)

My fave part too. I have this album on vinyl, cassette and cd. Dont know why it didn't do better for the band?

I went with Lightning Strikes. Great tune and not played out at all by classic rock radio. Peace.

I too went with "Lightning Strikes". Gotta cool little tale about that song. Wanna hear it? Here it goes...

The last time Aerosmith came to town, they played at the arena where I work. At around 4:30 in the afternoon, the entire band, minus Steven Tyler, takes the stage to rehearse. After tuning up for a few minutes, the band kicks into "Lightning Strikes", basically playing the main riff over and over while Joe and Brad just go off for like 20 minutes, trading leads back and forth. I had chills running up my spine and a grin from ear to ear. Aside from a few roadies, techs and a handful of security guards, it was like watching my own private concert. Joe F'n Perry is the man!! And Brad is certainly no slouch either! I think I enjoyed that little preview better than the actual concert that night.

I went with Lightning Strikes, though, I dont really dig on this album much anymore.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I too went with "Lightning Strikes". Gotta cool little tale about that song. Wanna hear it? Here it goes...

The last time Aerosmith came to town, they played at the arena where I work. At around 4:30 in the afternoon, the entire band, minus Steven Tyler, takes the stage to rehearse. After tuning up for a few minutes, the band kicks into "Lightning Strikes", basically playing the main riff over and over while Joe and Brad just go off for like 20 minutes, trading leads back and forth. I had chills running up my spine and a grin from ear to ear. Aside from a few roadies, techs and a handful of security guards, it was like watching my own private concert. Joe F'n Perry is the man!! And Brad is certainly no slouch either! I think I enjoyed that little preview better than the actual concert that night.

Awesome!

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I too went with "Lightning Strikes". Gotta cool little tale about that song. Wanna hear it? Here it goes...

The last time Aerosmith came to town, they played at the arena where I work. At around 4:30 in the afternoon, the entire band, minus Steven Tyler, takes the stage to rehearse. After tuning up for a few minutes, the band kicks into "Lightning Strikes", basically playing the main riff over and over while Joe and Brad just go off for like 20 minutes, trading leads back and forth. I had chills running up my spine and a grin from ear to ear. Aside from a few roadies, techs and a handful of security guards, it was like watching my own private concert. Joe F'n Perry is the man!! And Brad is certainly no slouch either! I think I enjoyed that little preview better than the actual concert that night.

What a great story!!!

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I too went with "Lightning Strikes". Gotta cool little tale about that song. Wanna hear it? Here it goes...

The last time Aerosmith came to town, they played at the arena where I work. At around 4:30 in the afternoon, the entire band, minus Steven Tyler, takes the stage to rehearse. After tuning up for a few minutes, the band kicks into "Lightning Strikes", basically playing the main riff over and over while Joe and Brad just go off for like 20 minutes, trading leads back and forth. I had chills running up my spine and a grin from ear to ear. Aside from a few roadies, techs and a handful of security guards, it was like watching my own private concert. Joe F'n Perry is the man!! And Brad is certainly no slouch either! I think I enjoyed that little preview better than the actual concert that night.

That is way cool! I didn't know that song was still in their set list nowadays.

I picked "Lightning Strikes" as well. Believe it or not, it was the first Aerosmith song I ever heard. (Yea, I was late getting on their wagon... haha). I was about 11 or 12 and I saw the video for that song on MTV when the album came out and thought "Wow, that was kick ass." I bought the tape a few days later, got hooked, and eventually went all the way thru their back catalog. Though ROCK IN A HARD PLACE may not be the all-around best Smith album it's still a sentimental favorite for me.
Useless trivia, the "Lightning Strikes" video holds the dubious distinction of being the first music video shot in 3-D, which was kind of pointless since most people watching MTV didn't have 3-D glasses handy to see the effect when the video came on.

Fat Freddy wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I too went with "Lightning Strikes". Gotta cool little tale about that song. Wanna hear it? Here it goes...

The last time Aerosmith came to town, they played at the arena where I work. At around 4:30 in the afternoon, the entire band, minus Steven Tyler, takes the stage to rehearse. After tuning up for a few minutes, the band kicks into "Lightning Strikes", basically playing the main riff over and over while Joe and Brad just go off for like 20 minutes, trading leads back and forth. I had chills running up my spine and a grin from ear to ear. Aside from a few roadies, techs and a handful of security guards, it was like watching my own private concert. Joe F'n Perry is the man!! And Brad is certainly no slouch either! I think I enjoyed that little preview better than the actual concert that night.

That is way cool! I didn't know that song was still in their set list nowadays.

I picked "Lightning Strikes" as well. Believe it or not, it was the first Aerosmith song I ever heard. (Yea, I was late getting on their wagon... haha). I saw the video on MTV when the album came out and thought "Wow, that was kick ass." I bought the tape a few days later and though it may not be the all-around best Smith album it's still a sentimental favorite for me.

Useless trivia, the "Lightning Strikes" video holds the dubious distinction of being the first music video shot in 3-D, which was kind of pointless since most people watching MTV didn't have 3-D glasses handy to see the effect when the video came on.

Oddly enough, they did not play that song as part of the concert, which made it even cooler to hear. In fact, did Joe Perry even play on the studio version of that? He was out of the band by that time wasn't he, Brad too for that matter? I don't know if either one of them has writing credits on that song/album, but I think Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay (sp?) were the hired-guns at that point. My guess is that it's just a cool riff for the guys to jam on when warming up.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Oddly enough, they did not play that song as part of the concert, which made it even cooler to hear. In fact, did Joe Perry even play on the studio version of that? He was out of the band by that time wasn't he, Brad too for that matter? I don't know if either one of them has writing credits on that song/album, but I think Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay (sp?) were the hired-guns at that point. My guess is that it's just a cool riff for the guys to jam on when warming up.

It wasn't in the set list later that night? Wow, then that makes it even cooler. No, Perry didn't play on the studio album (ROCK IN A HARD PLACE) that the song first appeared on (Crespo and Dufay were the guitar team on that). Though I have read somewhere that Joe Perry has said he "wishes he had written that song" so I guess he just likes that tune a lot.

Our good friend Wikipedia tells us that the song "Lightning Strikes" was written by long-time friend of the band Richie Supa (who also helped write one of my all-time favorite Aero-tunes "Chip Away the Stone"). Brad Whitford is also credited with rythym guitar on that song.

Lightning Strikes. I love that song.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Brad Whitford is also credited with rythym guitar on that song.

That sounds right. If memory serves, Whitford was still in the band when they recorded the ROCK IN A HARD PLACE album but he bailed right afterwards so they brought in Rick DuFay for the road work.

Rick Dufay plays on the majority of the albums tracks, 'Rock In a Hard Place' was the 'Chinese Democracy' of its day, it took several years for it be recorded due to delays, at one point recording was suspended when Steven Tyler was involved in a motorcycle that tore off his heel, so that delayed the completion of the album for several months.

Brad Whitford left early during the recording sessions fustrated with the lack of progress and left to form the short lived band Whitford/St. Holmes and that is when Rick Dufay came in.

The album I believe went gold not long after it was released.

I went with Lightning Strikes, mostly because of nostalgia...the first band I ever worked for (as a guitar tech, grunt) used to cover this song and it was my first exposure to it. It always brings back memories for me.

Lightning Strikes for me as well.

Jailbait is one of my top 5 favorite Aerosmith songs.

"Lightning Strikes" but overall I think that the entire album is solid, including the "poetic" portion. LOL! Of course I am a bit of an Aero-fanatic.

I've enjoyed all the colloborations between Aerosmith and Richie Supa. "Lightning Strikes" and "Chip Away At the Stone" are two of my favorites.

Second choice would be "Bi+ch's Brew" or "Rock in a Hard Place (Cheshire Cat)". "Jailbait" is a good song as well. Also like the funk vibe of "Jig Is Up.". Aerosmith have always mixed hard rock, heavy metal and bits of blues, funk and r&b.

I've never really heard this one. Without Perry and whitford, it's just not Aerosmith to me.

You doing yourself a disfavor by ignoring this one. It's a great album IMO.

biddle wrote:

I've never really heard this one. Without Perry and whitford, it's just not Aerosmith to me.

This a great underlooked classic and you should check it out.