Joe Perry: Joe Perry : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

A Joe Perry solo joint? about time! Aerosmith heads revere his Joe Perry Project albums from the early Eighties, when the band was on the skids: Side Two of Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker was the best Aerosmith-related skree between Rocks and Pump. On Joe Perry, he not only plays mean guitar (which figures) but sings (which doesn't). He also writes, produces and plays almost every note, totally avoiding the all-star-guest thing that would have sunk this album. He handles blues bulldozers ("Shakin' My Cage"), ballads ("Ten Years"), instrumentals ("Twilight") and covers of the Doors' "The Crystal Ship" and Woody Guthrie's "Vigilante Man." It works because Perry isn't trying to build a new superstar franchise -- he's just a guitar freak doing his thing in the basement studio. Verdict: wicked pissa!