Aerosmith- Permanent Vacation- Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton
The fact that you think you know the story behind Aerosmith and their fabled resurrection with Permanent Vacation in 1987 is due in great part to several things: 1) the zealous publicity from then-new manager Tim Collins, utilizing the clout of music mogul David Geffen’s record label, plus 2) the prime years of MTV. But the stakes for this phoenix-like comeback could not have been higher, or the outcome more uncertain.
You see, when the label released Done With Mirrors in 1985 , the actual first post-rehab Aerosmith album with the original members, the Boston quintet had only a glorious past with those first four Aerosmith albums in the Seventies as legacy. Then two forgettable studio ones plus a dud live album treaded water before both guitarists, Joe Perry (who co-wrote most of the songs with Steven Tyler ) and Brad Whitford each bailed out of the band for separate projects. So much was made of Aerosmith’s deterioration by drugs ( lead singer Steven Tyler can be heard forgetting the lyrics to a third of the songs on the VHS video Aerosmith Live Texxas Jam ’78 ) that most fans completely miss the fact that copious cocaine and heroin abuse simply magnified the stark personality differences between the two songwriters, Tyler and Perry, as well as the lone lucid man in the middle, bass player Tom Hamilton.