“Jesus Is on the Main Line” testifies to the power of prayer. The Lord also gets props on “You Gotta Move,” which says people need to be ready when God calls.
Unfortunately, that song uses drug references and mentions a deal with the devil (“I was hanging with the devil when we made a pact/I’m drinking welfare whiskey, smoking food stamp crack”). Lead singer Steven Tyler gets his needle stuck on all the ways his woman makes him hot (“Temperature”). On the very next song he wails about nights of passion while imploring his partner to remain faithful to him (“Stop Messin’ Around”). On “I’m Ready” a lascivious, drunken lout plays up his bad-boy image while making a play for a woman in a bar (“I’m drinking TNT and smoking dynamite/I hope some schoolboy pick a fight … One more drink, honey; I wish you would/Take a whole lot of loving to make me feel good”). A woman’s sexual prowess proves so potent that it can bring “Eyesight to the Blind.” In addition to ogling a shapely woman, Tyler employs mild profanities and the crude phrase “kiss butt” (“The Grind”).
Not many acts can maintain their cultural relevance throughout a 30-year recording career. Tyler and Co. continue to defy the odds and avoid self-parody, as evidenced by their ties to pro football. Lyrically, Aerosmith hasn’t grown much, still screeching about sex and booze.
