Aerosmith- Pump @35- Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford, Joey Kramer
Pump by Aerosmith hasn’t aged a lick since I hosted the world premiere broadcast to all of North America thirty-five years ago. Pump still blows me away, from the stun gun opener “Young Lust”, through the strutting “F.I.N.E. (I’m Ready)”, the naughty-but-nice “Love in an Elevator”, the true life “Monkey on My Back”, and the ear candy production and no-nonsense story of “Janie’s Got a Gun”. And that’s just side one of Pump, Aerosmith’s tenth album.
Released in September 1989, Pump by Aerosmith is a thumbs up three-dimensional hard rock masterpiece, with the legendary band’s deepest well of songwriting, blistering performance chops, and the most innovative production of any hard rock album to date, courtesy of the late Bruce Fairbairn and Bob Rock. Regardless of the metric you choose to measure Pump‘s greatness, its blazing energy and cinematic presentation combined with unforgettable songs to result in one of their biggest sellers (over 7 million+), Aerosmith’s first Grammy award (“Janie’s Got a Gun”), and their first album to spawn three Top 10 Billboard hits (“Janie”,”Love in an Elevator”,”What It Takes”). But the power of Pump lies in its pounds per square inch of album tracks:”Young Lust”, “F.I.N.E. (I’m Ready)”,”Monkey on My Back”,”The Other Side”,”My Girl”, and “Don’t Get Mad, Get Even”. Pump was the second jewel in Aerosmith’s triple crown of multi-platinum post-recovery albums, following the superb 1987 head turner Permanent Vacation and preceding the equally popular Get a Grip, a creative era that re-established the band as America’s hard rock champions. Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford, and Joey Kramer of Aerosmith pay at the Pump by joining me for this classic rock interview In the Studio. – Redbeard