Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler on ‘Lover Alot’ – Track-by-Track Premiere
Click to listen to Aerosmith’s ‘Lover Alot’
RollingStone.com will be premiering Aerosmith‘s Music From Another Dimension! album, one track at a time, in the weeks leading up to the November 6th release.
This driving rocker is an echo directly from Aerosmith’s earliest hit-making years, and could arguably fit easily on any of their classic Seventies albums. A collision of guitars erupts behind an excited Steven Tyler, who rips through an avalanche of innuendo and explicit sexuality: “You get a thrill from the smell of her hair/You get a high from the taste of her wet/It’s certified, bu-bu-bu-but chu ain’t getting there yet!”
It begins with a false start and a groan from drummer Joey Kramer, then dives in without a break until it crashes to a shriek and a close. It’s the kind of sound many fans have expected to come with the return of producer Jack Douglas, chief collaborator on Aerosmith’s first decade of career-defining work. (Douglas also plays some percussion on “Lover Alot.”)
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“He had been pummeled by people too: ‘Do a record with Aerosmith, and make it sound like the old days,’ and all that shit,” says guitarist Joe Perry of the producer. “So I think he had more of an agenda of how to get it to sound, but he never sat in a room like this and said, ‘Listen guys, I really think we should get a record that’s a little bit of Rocks and a little bit of Toys, but a little bit of Permanent Vacation, but not so much that.’ He did it from the background, because Jack can be a pretty sneaky fuck too.”
The song began to develop with Tyler and Perry at early album sessions in Boston. The guitarist picked up a six-string baritone bass, and Tyler says he aimed for a vibe of “dancing around the fires and being tribal.”
The final track is a speedy, hard-rocking rant, but the band was also careful about what to leave out. “It’s a classic case of what you don’t play,” says Perry. “You leave holes and that makes you want to move. It’s one of those things you just feel.”