Today
marks the 45th anniversary of the release of Aerosmith’s fifth studio
LP, Draw the Line, which was issued on December 9th, 1977. In many
ways, it represented the end of the band’s “classic” early era and
ushers in their entrance into a dark phase of their career before
becoming ‘80s chart toppers a few years later.
At the time the
album was recorded, the band were deeply submerged in the mire of drug
abuse and this resulted in a markedly compromised level of productivity
in the studio. Joe Perry confessed in the band memoir, Walk This Way,
"We were drug addicts dabbling in music, rather than musicians dabbling
in drugs.” It signaled the beginning of the end for his relationship
with the band at that time, a situation which would soon mean his
departure from the fold for many years before returning.
Recording
of the album took place at The Cenacle in Armonk, New York, which was a
sprawling 300 room former convent suggested by the band’s manager in
the hopes that the location would help to keep them sober by virtue of
its isolation. That strategy proved to be completely ineffective,
however, given the fact that, as Steven Tyler later recalled, "Drugs
can be imported, …we have our resources. Dealers deliver! Hiding us
away… was a prescription for total lunacy." The band’s front men, Tyler
and Perry, were so overtaken by their drug indulgences that they simply
didn’t care much about what happened with the album, opening up the
door for others to contribute a lot more than they had done on previous
records. Perry again recalls:
“A lot of people had input into
that record because Steven and I had stopped giving a fuck. "Draw the
Line," "I Want To Know Why," and "Get It Up" were the only things Steven
and I wrote together. Tom, Joey and Steven came up with "Kings and
Queens," and Brad played rhythm and lead. Brad and Steven wrote "The
Hand That Feeds," which I didn't even play on because I'd stayed in bed
the day they recorded it and Brad played great on it anyway.”
The band’s producer, Jack Douglas, offers this insight:
“So
I started Draw the Line, and for a while gave it my all. But because
they were half-hearted about the record, I was too. Steven wasn't
writing at all. The lyrics to "Critical Mass" came from a dream I had at
the Cenacle. I never expected Steven to record it, but he didn't have
anything else, so he used my lyrics as written. Same with "Kings and
Queens." Steven and I wrote the lyrics together, which was like pulling
teeth.”
The resulting album was uneven, to say the least. It was
trashed by many in the music press. Billy Altman of Rolling Stone
called the LP "a truly horrendous record, chaotic to the point of
malfunction and with an almost impenetrably dense sound adding to the
confusion." Robert Christgau considered the album the product of a band
"out of gas”. I bought the record when it came out and it was the last
Aerosmith LP I’d ever spend my coin on. However, the title track is
still my all time favorite Aerosmith song, hands down. What made me
love the band’s early works was their ability to nail the most
distinctive riffs and the hook for Draw the Line was so furious and
piercing, with that killer slide slicing through the mix, it gave me
chills every time I put it on. It was the last incredibly flash of
brilliance the band would ever muster, in my opinion. The top ten hits
they’d produce throughout the ‘80s were no more than mainstream power
pop to my ears and nowhere near the savage intensity of this song.
