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Rating: AEROSMITH - PERMANENT VACATION (1987, GEFFEN)
TRACK LIST:
01) HEART’S DONE TIME
02) MAGIC TOUCH
03) RAG DOLL
04) SIMORIAH
05) DUDE (LOOKS LIKE A LADY)
06) ST. JOHN
07) HANGMAN JURY
08) GIRL KEEP COMING APART
09) ANGEL
10) PERMANENT VACATION
11) I’M DOWN
12) THE MOVIE
In 1987 there is a big celebration on the dirty streets and grimy sidewalks of American metropolises: the explosion of Guns N’ Roses, with the unstoppable street-style charge of “Appetite For Destruction” and the aggressive confirmation of Motley Crue with the raw and gritty “Girls, Girls, Girls” brings street rock definitively to the fore, resurrecting seventies ghosts thought to be forever dissolved.
Aerosmith do not stand by and watch, and after the release of a respectable platter like “Done With Mirrors” (produced by Ted Templeman, already with Van Halen and David Lee Roth, and quickly becoming a gold record in the USA), they attack the new generation with a product of the highest quality, which manages to project the formula that had made them great in the previous decade directly onto the reckless scene of the moment. Steven Tyler's inimitable voice bursts with violence into a musical context that fits perfectly with the party-oriented attitude of the Boston combo: “Permanent Vacation”, also thanks to the production of Bruce Fairbairn (listen, if you have the chance, to his work with Poison in the delightful “Flesh & Blood”) flies high in the charts and sells five million copies in the USA alone, bringing Aerosmith back to the attention of a broader audience, in a scene setting more suited to their talent. The dark times are just a memory, and new and exciting scenarios are opening up for the east-coast quintet.
Exalted by internationally significant singles with notable appeal such as the legendary “Rag Doll” and “Dude (Looks Like a Lady)” enhanced by a powerful horn section, the album stands out especially for an extraordinary cohesiveness, so much so that “Permanent Vacation” can be identified as the best work released by the 'Smiths since the powerful “Toys In The Attic”. The Tyler/Perry duo returns to the author ballad with the wonderful “Angel”, a successful episode also in terms of songwriting, capable of satisfying the refined palates that have long been fasting and able to expand the fab-five's audience to the horde of girls in love with the slows of Motley Crue, Ratt, and Great White, all groups heavily indebted to the same Boston band. The atmosphere permeating this album is that of times gone by: Joe Perry is incredibly inspired, it would be enough to listen to one of the aforementioned singles or his superb work on “Magic Touch” and the swamp-song “Hangman Jury”, to justify my words. Great is also the work behind the skins of Joey Kramer, portrayed here in one of his most convincing performances ever. Above all this, to give the band that extra gear necessary to snatch the scepter from the new rulers, come like a bolt from the blue the war cries of vocalist Steven Tyler, perfectly at ease transforming a classic composed by John Lennon, the rhythmic “I'm Down”, into a shocking explosive piece.
Far more dynamic and less ingratiating than the subsequent and more sold “Pump” (seven million copies in the USA), this platter shows the rawer and wilder soul of Aerosmith, taking the calendar back to the mid-70s and thus giving us one last unforgettable work before the total conversion to the so-called “sentimental-financial” trend that will increasingly characterize all of the group's subsequent albums (see the mediocre “Nine Lives” or the anonymous “Just Push Play”), filled with insipid ballads and totally devoid of magnetic energy.
“Permanent Vacation” is the clear proof of how one can succeed in producing a classy album, where prose and poetry indulge in amusing confrontations and achieve global success without by necessity descending into a banal commercial operation. In my opinion, the present album represents the last chance for every rocker to hear Aerosmith genuinely playing truly epochal songs, supreme syntheses of a glorious past and a present more lively than ever. Everything that follows, is pure vanity.
(Enrico Rosticci)
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Magic Touch (04:39)
somebody better call a doctor, doctor
or wake me up with a shove
I'm gonna knock you off your rocker, rocker
cause I think I'm in love
I tried to get a message to ya
but you walked the other way
I need your magic touch, don't you know
I got a habit and I can't let go
feel the fire burnin slow
you better get it while it's hot now babe
cause I can't let go
don't need no wedding with a shotgun, shotgun
so don't you push me too far
don't try to take me for a fool child, who child
do you think that you are
you really got it coming to ya
it's gonna come as no surprise
I need your magic touch, don't you know
I'm after you and now I can't let go
take it easy, take me slow
you better get it while it's hot now babe
cause I can't let go
you never know what you got
till they take it away
I'm comin ready or not
gonna get you some day
I need your magic touch, don't you know
I'm after you and now I can't let go
feel the fire burnin slow
I got a habit and I'm back for more
your magic touch don't you know
I'm after you and now I can't let go
feel the fire burnin slow
you better get it while it's hot now babe
cause I can't, can't, can't let you go
03 Rag Doll (04:27)
Rag doll, livin' in a movie
Hot tramp, daddy's little cutie
You're so fine, they'll never see ya leavin' by the back door, man
Hot time, get it while it's easy
Don't mind, come on up and see me
Rag doll, baby won't you do me
Like you done before
I'm feelin' like a bad boy
Mmm, just like a bad boy
I'm rippin' up a rag doll
Like throwing away an old toy
Some babe's talkin' real loud
Talkin' all about the new crowd
Try and sell me on an old dream
A new version of the old scene
Speak easy on the grapevine
Keep shufflin' in the shoe shine
Old Tin Lizzie, do it till you're dizzy
Give it all ya got until you're put out of your misery
Rag doll, livin' in a movie
Hot tramp, daddy's little cutie
You're so fine, they'll never see ya leavin' by the back door, man
Hot time, get it while it's easy
Don't mind, come on up and see me
Rag doll, baby won't you do me
Like you done before
Yes I'm movin', yes I'm movin'
Get ready for the big time
Tap dancing on a land mine
Yes I'm movin', yes I'm movin'
Old Tin Lizzie, do it till you're dizzy
Give it all ya got until you're put out of your misery
Rag doll, livin' in a movie
Hot tramp, daddy's little cutie
You're so fine, they'll never see ya leavin' by the back door, man
Hot time, get it while it's easy
Don't mind, come on up and see me
Rag doll, baby won't you do me
Baby won't you do me
Baby won't you do me
Like you done before
Yes I'm movin', yes I'm movin'
Get ready for the big time
Get crazy on the moonshine
Yes I'm movin', I'm really movin'
Sloe gin fizzy, do it till you're dizzy
Give it all you got until you're put out of your misery
Rag doll, livin' in a movie
Hot tramp, daddy's little cutie
You're so fine, they'll never see ya leavin' by the back door, man
Hot time, get it while it's easy
Don't mind, come on up and see me
Rag doll, baby won't you do me
Like you done before
Rag doll, livin' in a movie
Hot tramp, daddy's little cutie
You're so fine, they'll never see ya leavin' by the back door, man
Hot time, get it while it's easy
Don't mind, come on up and see me
Rag doll, baby won't you do me
Like you done before
04 Simoriah (03:23)
walkin the live of a razor's edge
take it as far as she goes
slice of the sky on a silver wedge
higher and higher we go
ooo simoriah
ooo simoriah
ladies in black put a spell on me
feels like my head is going round and round
round and upside down
ladies in white ain't my cup of tea
so be it, I need it, long legs, big eyes
she drives me crazy
ooo simoriah
ooo simoriah
countin the eyes of the dragonfly
callin on dreams from within
she knows the way and she makes me high
so be it I need it
long hair, blue eyes
she drives me crazy
05 Dude (Looks Like a Lady) (04:28)
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Cruised into a bar on the shore
Her picture graced the grime on the door
She a long lost love at first bite
Baby maybe you're wrong, but you know it's alright
That's right
Backstage we're having the time
Of our lives until somebody say
Forgive me if I seem out of line
Then she whipped out her gun and tried to blow me away
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
So never judge a book by its cover
Or who you're gonna love by your lover
Love put me wise to her love in disguise
She had the body of a Venus, Lord imagine my surprise
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
(Baby let me follow you down) Let me take a peek dear
(Baby let me follow you down) Do me, do me, do me all night
(Baby let me follow you down) Turn the other cheek dear
(Baby let me follow you down) Do me, do me, do me, do me
Ooh what a funky lady
She like it, like it, like it, like that
Ooh he was a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude looks like a lady
Dude, dude, dude, dude looks like a lady
Dude, dude, dude, dude looks like a lady
Dude, dude, dude, dude looks like a lady
Dude, dude, dude, dude looks like a lady
06 St. John (04:12)
John was bad he gave it everything he had
John he prayed for all the people ever made
John was cool he never did no afterschool
late at night when he praised the lord
he laid his hand down upon the sword
lay down upon the sword
lay down upon the sword
lay down upon the sword
lay down your bloody sword
John St. John be cool
tell the people they'll follow you
John St. John be cool
tell the people they'll follow you
late at night when he praised the lord
he lay his hands down upon the bloody sword
laid down upon the sword, down, down upon the sword
laid down upon the sword, getting down upon the sword
laid down upon the sword, laid it down upon the sword
laid down upon the sword, "late night tv roared"
07 Hangman Jury (05:33)
Me and my old lady sittin' in the shade
Talkin' about the money that I ain't made
Singin' whoa boy, dontcha lie on the track-a-lack-a
Whoa boy, dontcha lie on the track
Whoa boy, dontcha lie on the track-a-lack-a
Whoa boy, dontcha lie on the track
And if I could, I surely would
Stand on the rock that Moses stood
Singin' whoa boy dontcha lie on the track-a-lack-a
Whoa boy, dontcha lie on the track
Whoa boy, dontcha lie on the track-a-lack-a
Whoa boy, dontcha lie on the track
Drank so much hooch it made my eyes be gettin' blurry
They say I nailed her to the wall
A stitch in time don't mean a thing
No hangman jury could make me crawl
'Cause I'm a poor boy, dontcha lie on the track-a-lack-a
Whoa boy, dontcha lie on the track-a-lack-a
Whoa boy, dontcha lie on the track
Whatcha do with a gun that's loaded
Shot her dead and her heart exploded
Tell me baby now d-dontcha worry
Like lying to the hangman jury
I swear I didn't know that .45 was loaded
In fact my memory ain't too clear
That's not to say she didn't get what she deserved
'Least that's the way it looked from here boy, when you lie on the track-a-lack-a
Here boy, when you lie on the track-a-lack-a
Here boy, when you lie on the track
Ohh, her love came tumblin' down, yeah
Ohh, when love come tumblin' down
Ohh, (Let's get outta here) When love come tumblin'
And every night she'd take her thing into the city
And in the mornin' make me beg
'Cause if I'd taken all her real nitty gritty
I'd smack her right upside the head boy, dontcha lie on the track-a-lack-a
Hey boy, dontcha lie on the track
Hey boy, dontcha lie on the track
Ohh, when love come tumblin' down
Ohh, when love come tumblin' down
Ohh, when love come tumblin'
Poor boy sweatin' in the hot summer night
Hangman waitin' for the early morning light
Singin' hey boy, dontcha lie on the track-a-lack-a
Hey boy, dontcha lie on the track
Hey boy, dontcha lie on the track-a-lack-a
Hey boy, dontcha lie on the track
And if I could, I surely would
Stand on the rock that Moses done stood
Singin' hey boy, dontcha lie on the track-a-lack-a
Hey boy, dontcha lie on the track
Hey boy, dontcha lie on the track-a-lack-a
Hey boy, dontcha lie on the track
09 Angel (05:11)
I'm alone, yeah, I don't know if I can face the night
I'm in tears and the cryin' that I do is for you
I want your love, let's break the walls between us
Don't make it tough, I'll put away my pride
Enough's enough, I've suffered and I've seen the light
Baby
You're my angel, come and save me tonight
You're my angel, come and make it all right
Don't know what I'm gonna do about this feeling inside
Yes it's true, loneliness took me for a ride
Without your love, I'm nothin' but a beggar
Without your love, a dog without a bone
What can I do, I'm sleepin' in this bed alone
Baby
You're my angel, come and save me tonight
You're my angel, come and make it all right
Come and save me tonight
You're the reason I live
You're the reason I die
You're the reason I give when I break down and cry
Don't need no reason why
Baby, baby, baby
You're my angel, come and save me tonight
You're my angel, come and make it all right
You're my angel, come and save me tonight
You're my angel, come and make it all right
Come and save me tonight
Come and save me tonight
Come and save me tonight
Come and save me tonight
Come and save me tonight
10 Permanent Vacation (04:51)
I got a letter from a friend the other morning
He say it's hot down by Montego Bay
I got the point and now I think it's finally dawning
Yeah yeah, I got to get away
I got to take myself a permanent vacation
The sky's the limit but my plane won't fly
My nose is clean and Lordy don't need no sedation
Yeah yeah, and that's the reason why
I really need it, really really need St. Tropez
I want a tan where the sun it never shines
I really need it, really really need St. Tropez
You best believe it that I got to get away
I got a sister, man she really got a pinhead
She think she kinky but she can't get straight
She say she livin' but I kinda think she's brain dead
Just excess baggage on a late night freight, yeah
I really need it, really really need St. Tropez
I want a tan where the sun it never shines
I really need it, really really need St. Tropez
You best believe it that I got to get away
I gotta take me on a permanent vacation
The girls be cummin' down in Cayman Brac
I gotta hand it to a firm situation
Yeah yeah, I got to cut me some slack
I really need it, really really need St. Tropez
I want a tan where the sun it never shines
I really need it, really really really really really really really really really
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Other reviews
By zelda
Permanent Vacation is the typical expression of the band’s versatility.
Abandon all hope you who listen of defining this album as uniform in terms of genre.
By Battlegods
"Rag Doll" is the "Walk This Way" of the eighties, a track that should simply be appreciated and listened to.
Permanent Vacation is a work that achieved great success but sometimes is also slightly underrated.
