Pump | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | September 12, 1989 [1] | |||
Recorded | January–June 1989 | |||
Studio | Little Mountain Sound, Vancouver, Canada | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 47:44 | |||
Label | Geffen | |||
Producer | Bruce Fairbairn | |||
Aerosmith chronology | ||||
| ||||
Singles from Pump | ||||
|
Pump is the tenth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith. It was released on September 12, 1989, by Geffen Records. The album peaked at No. 5 on the US charts, [4] and was certified septuple platinum by the RIAA in 1995. [1]
The album contains the hit singles "Love in an Elevator", "The Other Side", "What It Takes", "Janie's Got a Gun", which all entered the Top 40 of the Hot 100. It also has certified sales of seven million copies in the U.S. to date, and is tied with its successor Get a Grip as Aerosmith's second best-selling studio album in the U.S. ( Toys in the Attic leads with nine million). It produced a variety of successes and "firsts" for the band including their first Grammy Award ("Janie's Got a Gun"). [5] "Love in an Elevator" became the first Aerosmith song to hit number one on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The album was the fourth best-selling album of the year 1990. [6]
In the UK, it was the second Aerosmith album to be certified Silver (60,000 units sold) by the British Phonographic Industry, achieving this in September 1989.
Pump was the second of three sequentially recorded Aerosmith albums to feature producer Bruce Fairbairn and engineers Mike Fraser and Ken Lomas at Little Mountain Sound Studios.
Two video documentaries on the recording, Things That Go Pump in the Night and The Making of Pump , were released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1990, with the latter also released on DVD in 1997.
In December 1988, Aerosmith got together at Rik Tinory Productions in Cohasset, Massachusetts to rehearse and compose new songs, as the band members thought the isolated nature of the studio would help their creativity. Over 19 songs were written, split between an "A-list" with songs considered possible hits, such as "Love in an Elevator" and "What It Takes", and the "B-list" having songs yet to be developed such as "Voodoo Medicine Man". Producer Bruce Fairbairn focused on getting as many hooks on the songs as possible. [7]
Some songs proposed for the album, though never released in their original form, include "Girl's Got Somethin'", "Is Anybody Out There", "Guilty Kilt", "Rubber Bandit", "Sniffin'", and "Sedona Sunrise". Many songs also had alternate titles, for example, "Voodoo Medicine Man" was originally titled "Buried Alive" and "News for Ya Baby". The majority of these songs can be seen in photos of the studio's whiteboard and in footage from The Making of Pump.
In January 1989, the band went to Vancouver to again record at Fairbairn's Little Mountain Sound, where the producer had helmed Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet and New Jersey . "I don't even listen to Bon Jovi," Steven Tyler protested, "so we didn't say, 'Oh, shit, they had a great album,' and go up there." [8]
Aerosmith were at Little Mountain Sound at the same time that Mötley Crüe were recording their album Dr. Feelgood. As a result, Steven Tyler and the Margarita Horns (Aerosmith's horn section) contributed backing vocals and instrumentation to several tracks on that album. During the vocal sessions, Mick Mars' guitar sound leaked from the room next door due to Mars' volume and many amplifiers. [9]
The intention with the album was exploring a rawness that had been glossed over for a commercial sound in Permanent Vacation . [10] Joe Perry declared that "When we went to do this album, we knew what we wanted, we wanted to strip off a little fat we felt on our last one. We didn't say 'We need a drug song or a child abuse song,' but when they fit, we used them. That's Aerosmith: we aren't bound by any rules." This escape from the rules led to the instrumental interludes between the songs. [11] The interludes were done with the collaboration of musician Randy Raine-Reusch, who was brought to the studio after Perry and Tyler visited his house to search for unusual instruments to employ. [12] Many of the lyrics employ sexual themes, which Tyler attributed to having "making up for the lost time" he spent using drugs instead of having sex in the 1970s. [10]
On a 1989 MTV special entitled "Aerosmith Sunday", Brad Whitford explained the album title with "Now that we're off drugs, we're all pumped up." [14]
Steven Tyler regretted not putting lyrics in the album booklet, something that happened because Geffen was afraid the Parents Music Resource Center would protest over lyrical content with many sex and drugs references. [15] To remedy this omission, the lyrics were included in the tour program. The album cover features a black and white photo of a smaller International K Series truck on top of a larger International KB Series truck, both with their cargo beds removed. The chrome International markings on the hoods have been replaced with the letters "F.I.N.E.", short for "Fucked Up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional" as stated in the album's liner notes.
Aerosmith found themselves in a lawsuit after a small rock band named Pump sued Aerosmith's management company for service mark infringement. [16] Aerosmith won the case. [14] Aerosmith also found themselves in legal trouble when the songwriting team Holland–Dozier–Holland threatened to sue the band over the main melody in Aerosmith's song "The Other Side" which sounded similar to the melody in the song "Standing in the Shadows of Love". As part of the settlement, Aerosmith agreed to add "Holland–Dozier–Holland" in the songwriting credits for "The Other Side".
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [17] |
Blender | [18] |
Christgau's Record Guide | B+ [19] |
Encyclopedia of Popular Music | [20] |
The Great Rock Discography | 8/10 [21] |
MusicHound | 4/5 [22] |
Q | [23] |
Rolling Stone | [5] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [24] |
Spin | favorable [25] |
The album received mostly positive reception, and has since been called "a high-water mark of the glam metal era", that "stands toe to toe against Aerosmith's undisputed mid-'70s classics." Many critics noted its more classic hard rock sound than the pop metal of its predecessor. [26]
"At a time when young guns from Mötley Crüe to Poison were doing their level best to hoist the heavy metal crown from the likes of Def Leppard and Bon Jovi," noted Q , "it took a bunch of hoary, addled old stagers like Aerosmith to come up with the year's best metal album." [27]
"Aerosmith is still the reigning king of the hard-rock double entendre," wrote Rolling Stone . "But Pump – like, real subtle – has more going for it than locker-room laughs, such as the vintage high-speed crunch (circa Toys in the Attic) of 'Young Lust', the sassy slap 'n' tickle of 'My Girl' and the kitchen-sink sound of 'Janie's Got A Gun'." [28]
"If fried brains is your idea of a rock dream, the first side will do the job at least as good as whatever raging slab is also your idea of a rock dream," wrote Robert Christgau. "For five songs, everything loud and acrid about them just keeps on coming--not even tune doctors can stave off the juggernaut. Of course, this band's idea of a rock dream is also the traditional 'Young Lust' and 'Love in an Elevator'--OK as far as it goes, but I could do with more 'Janie's Got a Gun,' in which an abused teenager offs her dad." [29]
"Messrs Tyler and Perry" observed Hi-Fi News & Record Review , "have cleaned up their act, hoovered their nostrils, added a few more items of choice veg to their cod-pieces and come up with a stonker." [30]
Spin placed it at No. 279 on their list of "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years", and said "Aerosmith gets no respect for locating that perfect sweet spot between the shamelessness of ‘80s sleaze-metal and the self-aware wink of proto-ironic ‘90s MTV culture". [31] The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die . [32]
Loudwire ranked the album fourth in their ranking of Aerosmith studio albums, and said, "'Pump,' like its multiplatinum predecessor, 'Permanent Vacation,' unabashedly catered to '80s hair metal trends with glossy mega-productions like "Love in an Elevator" and the Grammy-winning "Janie's Got a Gun," but it also did a commendable job of reviving the vintage Aerosmith style on loads of amazing tunes". [33]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Young Lust" | Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Jim Vallance | 4:19 |
2. | "F.I.N.E.*" | Tyler, Perry, Desmond Child | 4:08 |
3. | "Going Down/Love in an Elevator" | Tyler, Perry | 5:38 |
4. | "Monkey on My Back" | Tyler, Perry | 3:56 |
5. | "Water Song/Janie's Got a Gun" | Tyler, Tom Hamilton | 5:40 |
6. | "Dulcimer Stomp/The Other Side" | Tyler, Vallance, Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, Eddie Holland [34] [35] | 4:56 |
7. | "My Girl" | Tyler, Perry | 3:10 |
8. | "Don't Get Mad, Get Even" | Tyler, Perry | 4:48 |
9. | "Hoodoo/Voodoo Medicine Man" | Tyler, Brad Whitford | 4:41 |
10. | "What It Takes" (Includes an instrumental hidden track composed & performed by Randy Raine-Reusch) | Tyler, Perry, Child | 6:28 |
Total length: | 47:44 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
11. | "Ain't Enough" | Tyler, Perry | 5:02 |
Total length: | 52:46 |
Aerosmith
Additional personnel
Production
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
Decade-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [55] | 2× Platinum | 140,000^ |
Canada (Music Canada) [56] | 7× Platinum | 700,000^ |
Germany (BVMI) [57] | Gold | 250,000^ |
New Zealand (RMNZ) [58] | Platinum | 15,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [59] | Gold | 100,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [60] | 7× Platinum | 7,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Slippery When Wet is the third studio album by American rock band Bon Jovi, released on August 18, 1986, by Mercury Records in North America and Vertigo Records internationally. It was produced by Bruce Fairbairn, with recording sessions taking place between January and July 1986 at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver. The album features many of Bon Jovi's best-known songs, including "You Give Love a Bad Name", "Livin' on a Prayer", and "Wanted Dead or Alive".
Keep the Faith is the fifth studio album by American rock band Bon Jovi, released on November 3, 1992, by Mercury Records. It is Bon Jovi's last studio album to feature all five original band members as bass guitarist Alec John Such was dismissed from the band in 1994, though it was not his last release with the band. It is Bon Jovi's first album to not be produced by either Lance Quinn or Bruce Fairbairn. The album was produced by Bob Rock and was recorded at the Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, British Columbia. Keep the Faith marked a change to a "more serious interpretation of the band's pop-metal groove". It is also Bon Jovi's longest album to date, clocking in at 66 minutes.
Aerosmith is an American rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of Steven Tyler (vocals), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums), and Brad Whitford (guitar). Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has also incorporated elements of pop rock, heavy metal, glam metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many subsequent rock artists. Aerosmith is sometimes referred to as "the Bad Boys from Boston" and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". The primary songwriting team of Tyler and Perry is sometimes referred to as the "Toxic Twins".
Steven Victor Tallarico, known professionally as Steven Tyler, is an American singer and songwriter, best known as the lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the keyboards, harmonica and percussion. He has been called the "Demon of Screamin'" due to his high screams and his powerful wide vocal range. He is also known for his on-stage acrobatics. During his performances, Tyler usually dresses in colorful, sometimes androgynous outfits and makeup with his trademark scarves hanging from his microphone stand.
Get a Grip is the eleventh studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released in April 1993 by Geffen Records. Get a Grip was the band's last studio album to be released by Geffen before they returned to Columbia Records.
Just Push Play is the thirteenth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, co-produced by song collaborators Marti Frederiksen and Mark Hudson and was released on March 5, 2001. Just Push Play debuted at No. 2 within the Billboard 200, selling over 240,000 copies in its first week, and was certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America within a month of its release.
Honkin' on Bobo is the fourteenth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released on March 30, 2004, by Columbia Records. The album includes 11 covers of blues and blues rock songs from the 1950s and 1960s, with one new song, "The Grind". The album pays tribute to Aerosmith's earliest influences and showcases a rawer sound when compared to their more recent commercial efforts. Honkin' on Bobo was produced by Jack Douglas, who was Aerosmith's producer on a vast majority of their 1970s output.
Bruce Earl Fairbairn was a Canadian record producer. He was active as a producer from 1976 to 1999, and is considered one of the best of his era. His most successful productions are Slippery When Wet and New Jersey by Bon Jovi, Permanent Vacation, Pump, and Get a Grip by Aerosmith, The Razors Edge by AC/DC, and Balance by Van Halen, each of which sold at least three million copies. He was originally a trumpet player, then started a career as a record producer for Canadian rock band Prism. Fairbairn won the Canadian music industry Producer of the Year Juno Award three times. He produced albums for many well-known international artists such as Loverboy, Blue Öyster Cult, Bon Jovi, Poison, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Scorpions, Van Halen, Chicago, The Cranberries, INXS, Kiss and Yes. His style was notable for introducing dynamic horn arrangements into rock music productions. Fairbairn died suddenly on May 17, 1999, due to unknown causes.
O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits is a greatest hits album by American hard rock band Aerosmith, released in 2002 by Columbia Records and Geffen Records. A double-disc album, it includes 27 of the band's biggest hits in chronological order and spans the band's entire career to that point, but does not include any songs from the albums Night in the Ruts, Rock in a Hard Place, or Done With Mirrors. Aerosmith's collaboration with Run-DMC on "Walk This Way", however, is included, as are two new songs, "Girls of Summer" and "Lay It Down", which the band recorded in Hawaii.
The Razors Edge is the twelfth studio album by Australian rock band AC/DC. Released on 24 September 1990, through Albert Productions/CBS Records International in Australasia and Atlantic Records in Europe, it was recorded in 1990 in Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, Canada, and was mixed and engineered by Mike Fraser and produced by Bruce Fairbairn. It was a major comeback for the band, featuring the hits "Thunderstruck", "Are You Ready" and "Moneytalks". This is the only studio album to feature Welsh drummer Chris Slade, who was the drummer for AC/DC from 1989 to his dismissal in 1994.
Permanent Vacation is the ninth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released by Geffen Records on August 25, 1987. The album marks the band's shift to a pop-metal sound that they would maintain up to 1993's Get a Grip.
Nine Lives is the twelfth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released on March 18, 1997. The album was produced by Aerosmith and Kevin Shirley, and was the band's first studio album released by Columbia Records since 1982's Rock in a Hard Place. In the United States, it peaked at number one on the Billboard 200 and sold over two million copies. One of the album's singles, "Pink", won a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. Until Music from Another Dimension!, Nine Lives was their longest album, at 63 minutes.
A Little South of Sanity is a live album by American hard rock band Aerosmith, released on October 20, 1998, by Geffen Records. The two-disc album features recordings taken while the band was on the Nine Lives Tour, which began in 1997 and was still ongoing at the time of the live album release, and the Get a Grip Tour, which the band was on tour with from 1993 to 1994.
Big Ones is a compilation album by American rock band Aerosmith, released on November 1, 1994 by Geffen Records. Big Ones features 12 hits from the band's three consecutive multi-platinum albums, Permanent Vacation (1987), Pump (1989), and Get a Grip (1993), as well as the hit "Deuces Are Wild" from the compilation The Beavis and Butt-Head Experience (1993), and two new songs, "Blind Man" and "Walk on Water", which were recorded during a break in the band's Get a Grip Tour. These songs were also included on the band's 2001 compilation album, Young Lust: The Aerosmith Anthology. Big Ones is the band's second best-selling compilation album, reaching #6 on the Billboard charts, and selling four million copies in the United States alone. The album quickly became a worldwide hit reaching the Top 10 in nine countries before the end of the year.
"Janie's Got a Gun" is a song by American rock band Aerosmith and written by Steven Tyler and Tom Hamilton. The song was released as the second single from Pump in 1989, peaking at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart in 1990. In Australia, the song reached number one, becoming Aerosmith's first of two number-one singles there. It also reached number two in Canada, number 12 in Sweden, and number 13 in New Zealand.
"Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" is a song by American rock band Aerosmith. It was released as the lead single from the band's ninth studio album Permanent Vacation in 1987. The song was written by lead singer Steven Tyler, lead guitarist Joe Perry and songwriter Desmond Child.
"Love in an Elevator" is a song performed by American rock band Aerosmith, written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry. It was released in August 1989 as the lead single from their third album with Geffen Records, Pump, released in September. It peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached No. 1 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The RIAA certified it gold.
Devil's Got a New Disguise: The Very Best of Aerosmith is a compilation album by American hard rock band Aerosmith released on October 17, 2006. It has sold more than 265,048 copies in the U.S. as of May 2008.
"What It Takes" is a power ballad by American rock band Aerosmith. Written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Desmond Child, it was released in 1989 as the third single from the critically and commercially successful 1989 album Pump. "I'll put some ballads on an album," Tyler remarked, "if that's what it takes so that some young kid can get to hear a 'Young Lust' or 'F.I.N.E.*'."
Music from Another Dimension! is the fifteenth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released on November 6, 2012, by Columbia Records. Their first studio album since 2004's Honkin' on Bobo, as well as the first to feature all-new material since 2001's Just Push Play, its release marks the longest gap between Aerosmith's studio albums. The album was released in a single CD edition, along with a deluxe version. It is the last album in Aerosmith's recording contract with Sony/Columbia Records and was produced by Jack Douglas, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Marti Frederiksen. It is also their longest studio album with total track time of nearly 68 minutes.
Click on individual song pages for dates.