Aerosmith : Done With Mirrors

I GOT A HARCORE MAMA

WITH A HOT HOOCHIE COO

Done with Mirrors

 is the eighth 

studio album

 by American

 Rock Band

 Aerosmith

 released on 

November 4, 1985. 

It marked the 

return to the band 

of guitarists 

Joe Perry, 

who left in 1979 

and

 Brad Whitford, 

who departed in 1981. 

The band's first album 

on Geffen Records,

 it was intended as their

 ‘comeback’. 

However,

 the record failed 

to live up to

 commercial expectations

 despite positive reviews.

Background

Brad Whitford

 revealed that producer

 Ted Templeman 

wanted to capture

 the band's aggressive,

 "out of control freight train" 

sound by removing

 the red light

 indicating that recording 

was underway

 a technique he had used

 to capture Van Halen's sound

 Templeman told the band

 to run through the songs

 in the studio 

and recorded them 

without their knowledge. 

Whitford referred to the nerves

 generated when 

knowingly recording 

songs as 

"the red light blues".

"I had a great time making that record," 

Templeman told 

The Washington Post's 

Geoff Edgers, 

"and Steven was one 

of the most amazing guys. 

But we had to do that record

 in Berkeley 

because they didn't want

 those guys to score (drugs).

 They didn't want them to be

 in L.A. or 

San Francisco. 

I wasn't familiar with the board.

 As a producer,

 if you know your room 

and the mic preamps, 

you know how things

 are going to sound.

 I don't think I made

 Joey's drums sound

 as good as they 

could have or

 Joe's guitar."

Joe Perry recalled recording

 in a 2022 interview: "... 

with the rest of the songs,

 there was a vibe to them

 where they were just 

raw and dirty.

 I still wish I could have

 maybe polished a few 

more things or maybe

 put a couple more 

overdubs on it,

 but all in all,

 I think it did what it 

was supposed to do.

 I think it kind of showed me 

what we needed to do, 

what we were, 

and where we 

needed to be

 for the next one.

 I think we had 

to do that record

 to get to the next step 

and really take ourselves 

out of the usual way we 

were writing and recording."

"Let the Music Do the Talking"

 was a rerecording

 of the title track 

from the first album

 by

 The Joe Perry Project, 

with altered lyrics 

and melody. 

According to Chuck Eddy, 

Aerosmith's version is

tougher than the original, 

"while still appropriately letting 

Joe's guitar talk–like an elephant, 

no less-–while 

Tyler discussed 

somebody being his 

'brand-new drug'."

 The music of 

"The Reason a Dog" 

have been

 compared to 

the Police's

 "Invisible Sun"

 (1981), 

while its lyrics espouse

 "tail-wagging canines 

teaching male-nagging

 spouses life lessons". 

Elsewhere,

 "Shela"

 is a syncopated

 song which, 

according to Eddy, 

"almost goes disco,

 at least in the mid-1980s,

 ZZ Top sense of the word", 

while

 "Gypsy Boots" 

rides an 

AC/DC-esque riff 

until a switch to 

bass vamps near 

its conclusion.

The final songs 

on the vinyl edition 

are the blues song 

"She's on Fire" 

and the fast, 

straightforward

 R&B song 

"The Hop", 

featuring blues harp, 

whereas cassette 

and CD versions 

conclude with

 "Darkness", 

a dirge that 

Eddy says connects

 "foreboding old Aerosmith

 alley crawls like 

'Seasons of Wither' 

with more lucrative

 Tin Pan Alley

 moves to come."

TRACKLIST

Let the Music Do the Talking

My Fist Your Face

Shame on You

The Reason a Dog

Shela

Gypsy Boots

She's on Fire

The Hop

Darkness

Deuce's are Wild [*]

Blind Man [*]

Hole in My Soul [*]

Rockin Pneumonia and The Boogie Woogie Flu [*]

Kiss Your Past Goodbye [*]

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