The song Joe Perry called “one of the best” riffs he ever came up with
Boston’s Aerosmith are one of hard rock’s most enduring survivors.
They can now take it easy on a permanent resting laurel of elder rock stateman, safely dwelling on a pedestal afforded to rock bands as vintage as Aerosmith’s over 55 years of trucking. Yet, all the usual trappings had come down on the band: drugs, infighting, and a rapidly shifting climate that threatened their relevancy, all tested the band’s resolve more than once.
Aerosmith’s crucial success factor was their malleability. Once the kings of hard rock orbiting the likes of AC/DC or ZZ Top, the 1980s’ pop sheen pulled Aerosmith to a new strata of commercial renewal, helped in no small part by their and Run-DMC’s rap rework of ‘Walk This Way’ in 1986. Before long, Aerosmith were back, cutting Platinum sellers in the States, Permanent Vacation and Pump pushing the gang to stars of the MTV age along with Guns N’ Roses and Mötley Crüe.
Yet, once again, Aerosmith found themselves navigating rock’s fickle waters. In a few short years, glam metal was old hat, pop rock inauthentic, and grunge ruled the waves. They didn’t completely abandon their tested formula, dropping 1993’s Get a Grip to hefty unit shifts and the last of the pop LPs in the eyes of many fans, but when gearing up for album number 12, the gang sought to jump back into their hard rock roots.
Going back to basics with producer Kevin Shirley, a rawer approach in the studio yielded an old-school way of thinking for 1997’s Nine Lives. Everything played live, captured on analogue gear, and only allowing some degree of separation between members to make overdubs possible, the more urgent recording process would lend a hand to realising the album’s title track, a sketch lacking a proper intro and only beginning with a count-off.
It turned out, guitarist Joe Perry looked back to one of his heroes to finish the lick, as well as wrest a riff he counted as one of his finest. Recalling The Yardbirds’ novel use of feedback, Perry cast his mind back to ‘Stroll On’s dual buzzing noise via Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck’s twinned distortion. Such a pleasing racket pointed the way forward after ‘Nine Lives’ difficult gestation.
“I was thinking about that, so rather than count ‘Nine Lives’ off, I didn’t say anything; I just hit that first note while standing in front of the amp and let it feedback,” Perry revealed to Guitar Player in 2024. “Brad [Whitford, rhythm guitarist] did the same thing, and that’s the beginning of that song.”
Job done. If it’s good enough for both Page and Beck, a blast of feedback distortion can sometimes be exactly the kick the doors down arrival of those about to rock. It can’t hurt to scatter some cat howls all over the first few seconds, too, purring all over ‘Nine Live’s skulking intro.
“Maybe it’s not what you call a ‘riff’, but for me, it’s one of the best ways to start a song, and it’s one of my favourite guitar things that I’ve done,” Perry concluded, “it was right off the top, the tape was rolling, and we didn’t rehearse it, that’s what Aerosmith is about, you know?”
