From Toxic Twin to Soul Mate
Review of Joe Perry
by Dave Wilkie

With the self-titled Joe Perry due in stores May 5, the legendary rock veteran steps from stage left and grabs the spot in the middle for his first solo project in quite a few years.

So I heard online that you could listen to the album for free at VH1.com and thought I’d check it out. I didn’t expect much from this project, having been mildly disappointed with most everything Perry did after “Combination,” and pretty disappointed in the industrialization of the Aerosmith brand. From Dodge to Sony, or from The Gap to the SuperBowl, Disneyworld and NASA, the dudes got dangerously close to overexposure there for a time.

“Shakin’ My Cage” opens like an Aerosmith of Old song, but quickly becomes more primitive and punky in its repeated chorus. Some extremely searing solos pepper this thing, reminding you right off the bat why Perry is Perry. Never a frenetic fretwork technician, Perry has always had soul, even when supplying random fills on syrupy ballads. He's the same here. It's not how fast and furious he plays, and he does, but it's more the way he plays. Or as Keith Richards once said, "It's not what you play, it's what you DON'T play."

“Hold On Me” is again Aerosmithian, with all the explosive guitar you’d expect from the guy who writes most of the best music for the band. And you think you know where this album is leading when suddenly “Pray For Me” comes across as a haunting dirge with a very sweet acoustic solo toward the end. Here we might be finding out why Joe’s been wearing crosses in his later years and talking about “how many sunsets you got left.” The guy’s obviously been doing some thinking.

“Can’t Compare” could’ve come from Draw the Line, Aero’s last great studio album (Pump excluded). Perry lets loose here in that same late 70s style – though the hooking chorus is very modern. Perry is no Tyler in the vocal department, but he holds his own here better than he ever has.

Music aside, the reason this is automatically a monumental album is that Perry steps up to do what he hasn’t done in a while – write words and sing. The titles of the tracks alone reveal a far more searching artist than we typically find in the lyrics of the good-times-party-sex rock of Boston’s baddest. Perry devotes much of the lyrical content to his woman in an almost “sacred feminine” vein. His “muse” supplies his desire for the spiritual and the whole project seems like a gift for his wife. He relies on her to keep him on the straight and narrow, and most aero-biographers will tell you that this lady made him a better man. On “Talk Talkin’” he sings about the “woman [who] was born for me” and it’s nice when an older married couple (and let’s face it – Joe is eligible for the AARP) are still in love. On Joe Perry, he lays out his love and devotion to his soul mate, and yet in true Perry fashion, he rocks the hell out of it, showing he is still intimately acquainted with the crooked roads of the devil’s music. The vocals were muffled, having streamed this online through pretty lame speakers. (And no, it’s not theft if Columbia and Sony are allowing you to hear it. It’s not downloadable quality anyway.) Interested fans will need the liner notes for lyrics, which from what I can tell are a little more introspective than Mr. Tyler’s latter works.

The VH1 media player says it’s from Roman Records – Columbia Records, and yet the Roman Records website hasn’t been updated since the Porch Ghouls toured with Aerosmith and Kiss in ‘03. Porch Ghouls have since disbanded and reformed under the name Eldorado and the Ruckus and have a new album on Roman. One would hope that Joe’s “fledgling” Roman Records would “fledge” a little more. But you can tell from this album why he signed the Ghouls in the first place. It’s that same straight ahead blues-punk-rock, though El Dorado Del Rey has a thing or two to learn from A J Perry.

The Doors’ “Crystal Ship” gets covered and Perry sounds better singing low. It’s a very moody song with another sweet solo that is downright haunting. In fact, everything about this album is haunting. The words, the music, even the Elvis cover shot devised by Ross Halfin, grumpy photographer to the stars.

A standout is “Push Come to Shove,” a damn good jam, although this is the sort of groove that needs the shrieks, screams and groans of a Tyler. Perry keeps it laid back in a Zeppelinesque style. And if the “Who’s better? Page or Perry?” question is still being kicked around out there, Perry settles it here. And I don’t think James would mind handing the crown to its rightful heir. “Twilight” is a nice blues club instrumental, smoky and sinister. I could hear Hendrix saying, “I like this kid…what’s his name?” Page whispers to him, “That’s Elvis.”

“Ten Years” is a big downshift, and you start to wonder if Don Henley is going to start singing here sometime soon. An anniversary song to his wife, it is bare in its honesty. Joe is like some blue-collar biker dude who can’t wait to get home to be with his chick. “The ocean of our love can be a stormy sea – but in the end it’s just you and me,” Here’s where he might’ve used the word-smithing of the other Twin, but Joe is telling his girl (and all those crazy female fans of his who’d sell their souls to touch his boot) that he’s taken – and glad to be.

There’s something very 1980s happening on “Dying To Be Free,” and I’m not sure what it is, but it’s not bad. The vocals on this lame little player are too hard to decipher, but it’s got that whole “Combination” “Conflict of Interest” vibe. Maybe a breakup song, but who knows. I’m sure there is a Rock Lyrics Analysis elective at some community college somewhere that will include the optional Perry Module. “Mercy” closes the album like a live show – a catchy old Aerosmithy riff covered in the shotgun spray of jaw dropping Perry solos.

I didn't expect to come away a fan again, but this thing beats the crap out of Perry’s first solo efforts, which had a rotating few unknown frontmen. Matured, seasoned and looking like Elvis of old, Perry finds the combination, the key to the vault, and takes his place as a very able singer, songwriter and frontman.