Maps of Music

Get a Grip (1993)

Where the lyrics of Get a Grip take you, and where it was really made.

Critic Steven Hyden called the cover 'the worst album cover ever', yet the album became Aerosmith's best-selling studio album worldwide.

Key places

A&M Studios in Los Angeles (1993)

Recording site A&M Recording Studios — Part of the album was recorded at A&M Studios in Los Angeles in two sessions, according to the French article, in January and February 1992. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver (1993)

Recording site Little Mountain Sound Studios — Other sessions for the album took place at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver, Canada, from September to November 1992, according to the French article. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Can-Am Recorders in Tarzana (1993)

Recording site Can-Am Studios — The album was mixed at Can-Am Recorders in Tarzana, California, after the sessions in Vancouver and Los Angeles. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Eleventh studio album by American rock band Aerosmith
• Released in April 1993 by Geffen Records
• Last studio album released by Geffen before the band returned to Columbia Records
• Best-selling Aerosmith studio album worldwide, with sales above 20 million copies

Background

• The album originally had 12 songs and was scheduled for release in the third quarter of 1992
• Geffen A&R executive John Kalodner judged the material to lack variety and a radio-friendly song
• The band went back to write more songs with outside collaborators such as Desmond Child
• Many songs recorded during the sessions were used as B-sides or never released
• Bruce Fairbairn produced the album, the last album he made with Aerosmith before his death in 1999

Recording

• Recorded at Little Mountain Sound Studio in Vancouver, Canada and at A&M Studios in Los Angeles
• Mixed at Can-Am Studios in Tarzana, California
• Mastered at Masterdisk in New York City
• Don Henley sang backup vocals on Amazing
• Lenny Kravitz offered backup vocals and collaboration on Line Up
• Many songs were co-written with outside songwriters, a pattern also seen on Permanent Vacation and Pump

Cover

• Cover art designed by album-cover artist Hugh Syme
• Shows a cow with a captive bead nipple ring through its udder and a brand of the Aerosmith logo
• An animal-rights group objected to the image, but the band confirmed it had been digitally altered
• A special edition was released in a fabric-covered case made to resemble cowhide

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Formed in Boston in 1970 by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer, and Brad Whitford after the Jam Band and Chain Reaction merged.
• The name was suggested by Joey Kramer, who had seen the word "aerosmith" in his school notebooks.
• Their first gig was at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts, on November 6, 1970.

Members

• Current lineup: Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry and Brad Whitford (guitars), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums).
• Perry and Whitford left in 1979 and 1981 and returned in 1984; the original five were reunited from 1984 onward.
• Tyler and Perry are the main songwriting team, nicknamed the "Toxic Twins".

Career

• Debut album in 1973 and Toys in the Attic (1975) and Rocks (1976) established their blues-based hard rock sound.
• The 1986 Run-D.M.C. collaboration on "Walk This Way" revived their career, followed by Permanent Vacation (1987), Pump (1989), and Get a Grip (1993).
• "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" (1998) was their only Billboard Hot 100 number one.
• Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001; sold more than 150 million records worldwide.
• Retired from touring in 2024 after Tyler's vocal injury; released the EP One More Time with Yungblud in 2025.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Rolling Stone: critic Mark Coleman said he enjoyed the title song and compared the opening track to the band's 1986 version of Walk This Way with Run-D.M.C.
• Rolling Stone: Coleman found much of the rest unadventurous and too somber, and lamented the outside contributions from songwriters and collaborators
• New Musical Express: Stephen Dalton agreed on the unusual seriousness of the themes and lyrics and questioned the many collaborations
• Playboy: Robert Christgau was more positive in a contemporary review, highlighting Cryin' as the classic cut on the album
• Christgau later ranked the album 64th on his Dean's List for The Village Voice's Pazz & Jop poll and gave it an A-minus in his 2000 book

Reappraisal

• AllMusic: Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that Get a Grip pales against its predecessor's musical diversity and lamented a lack of spontaneity
• Martin Popoff described it as a bounty of mostly strong, always professional and well-intentioned mini-suites
• Encyclopedia of Heavy Metal Music (2009): Brian Cogan and William Phillips saw it as a continuation of the formula that began with Permanent Vacation
• Aerosmith: Every Album, Every Song (2025): Andrew Rooney called sticking to the recent formula a bold move given the rise of alternative rock

Records

• Best-selling Aerosmith studio album worldwide, with sales above 20 million copies
• First Aerosmith album to reach number one in the United States
• Tied with Pump as the band's second best-selling album in the US, with over 7 million copies sold as of 1995, behind Toys in the Attic
• Third consecutive album with US sales of at least five million
• Two songs won Grammy Awards for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal, in 1993 and 1994
• Voted Album of the Year by Metal Edge readers in the 1993 Readers' Choice Awards
• Certified seven times platinum in the United States and gold in Brazil

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Immediately after Amazing, a snippet of Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well by Lucky Millinder is heard as if tuned in on an old radio.
• On June 27, 1994, Aerosmith released Head First as an exclusive digital download, a 4-megabyte WAV file for CompuServe subscribers, which was among the first major-artist digital releases of its kind.
• Head First had earlier been used as the B-side for Eat the Rich.
• Don't Stop and Head First were released as B-sides, and Can't Stop Messin' appears on several special editions as an added track.
• The cover image was digitally altered, and the band confirmed it did not depict an actual act of animal cruelty.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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