The Joe Perry Project - Have Guitar, Will Travel Review

Posted by Scott Rutherford on 10.17.2009

Guess who's got the rock 'n rolls again?

If you had to pin me down and get me to say who is my favourite and most influential musical influence in my life, invariably it was be Aerosmith that comes up on top. When I was 12 and got my first guitar, it was “Rag Doll” that I was trying to learn how to play and when I started playing bass as my main instrument it was at the alter of Tom Hamilton that I learned all my early licks. They are the quintessential rock ‘n roll band and have for nearly four decades, produced some of the sexiest, blues-rock in history.

While oodles of credit goes to the insanely talented Steven Tyler, almost every song in the Aerosmith cannon has Joe Perry stamped in the “Written By” column and he has produced some of the most timeless guitar riffs this side of Jimmy Page and has been a major influence on popular guitar playing. When he ducked out the back door during the height of Aerosmith’s drug induced madness in late 1979, he formed the Joe Perry Project and released three album.

Now, you could be forgiven for not knowing this as sales for all three albums combined barely cracks 300,000 and about 250,000 of those were for the first album Let The Music Do The Talking and only because the title track was a furious burst of blue rock that if recorded by Aerosmith at the time probably would have saved the Night in the Ruts album from also ran status. Due to record company politics (they wanted Perry back in Aerosmith) and managerial blackballing (‘Smiths original managers Krebs & Leber purposely sabotaged his career for bailing out) the last two Project albums were recorded for about $3 and had zero promotion behind them and sold next to nothing and with one other good reason…they were shit.

After Perry rejoined Aerosmith the Project was consigned to history until some bright spark decided to revive the back catalogue and releaseThe Music Still Does the Talking: The Best of the Joe Perry Project which was met with curious indifference because it isn’t as if suddenly the songs got any better. However, Perry has decided to reform the band once more which is even more curious…since the Project was nothing more than a glorified solo project with a revolving door of musicians and only original bassist David Hull making it back to this current line up.

None the less, I was interested to see what Perry would make of this as I liked his 2005 solo album Joe Perry and since Aerosmith themselves haven’t released much new material in nearly a decade, Perry was bound to have a stockpile of ideas to pour into this.

The Track Listing

1. We've Got A Long Way To Go (current radio single)
2. Slingshot
3. Do You Wonder
4. Somebody's Gonna Get (Their Head Kicked In Tonite)
5. Heaven And Hell ...
6. No Surprise
7. Wooden Ships
8. Oh Lord
9. Scare The Cat
10. Freedom

First thing, I love the fact that this album is 10 tracks. It is a pet hate of mine that people cram nearly 90 minutes of music into one CD these days. Just because you can do this doesn’t mean you have to. Too many potential albums have been ruined by overcrowding and poor quality control.

The music… this is MILES better than any other Project album but conversely, this is miles behind Aerosmith and that’s okay. Really! If I wanted an Aerosmith album I would throw on Rocks and be a happy man. Perry riffs are abound here and new singer Haegan (who exhibits definite Tyler-eque traits on occasions) is a good foil for this. The band is tight and the production is clean, beefy and suitable edgy.

The big problem lies in the fact that the songs themselves lack a certain amount of refinement. Eight of the songs roll over four minutes and unless you have some serious business being laid down, you can lose listener interest quickly. This is where one of the Projects strengths comes into play…the musicianship.

This is a musician’s album. The bands’ playing is ON and the guitar work itself is some of Perry’s best since the original heyday of Aerosmith. Free of the democracy squashing shadow of Steve Tyler’s ego, Perry can just play and large segments of each song are there for him to play his guitar. 2 minute lead breaks? FUCK YEAH! Check out the instrumental “Wooden Ships”. This is the perfect balance of guitar being the central focus but played in such a way that it doesn’t come off as masturbation. Why? Because it’s Joe Fuckin’ Perry!

We are talking about one of the greatest guitarist that has ever lived and he knows songs and when too shred or play a lyrical guitar line that becomes a central hook into itself. It helps that most of these songs have a strong blues base, which has forever been Perry’s bread and butter but he never over reaches and spoils a song. Perry is the glue that holds this all together.

Sadly, while he is the undisputed star, there’s nothing really resembling a great song or even a bunch of good ones. They go in one ear and out the other leaving nothing for you to remember or for you to even hum in recognition. Call me a populist, but I do believe that any commercial release needs to have at least one moment that sells the album. First single “We’ve Got A Long Way To Go” makes a decent fist of coming up with something but lacks that last 10% to really put it over the top.

Album closer “Freedom” may be one of the most painful moments of the album. Why? The main riff is pure Aerosmith Classic Rock & Swing and the vocals just let it down and the playing overly perfect. If we had the Hamilton/Whitford/Kramer rhythm section creating the swing, Perry bringing the fire and Tyler adding the swagger, this would have been the next Aero-classic. Sadly, it stands as the almost-there bright spot on an okay album.

And I guess here’s my point. We will always refer to Joe Perry as “Aerosmith’s Joe Perry” and with good reason; left to his own devices he’s merely an exceptional guitar player with an ear for a great riff but no clue as to how to turn it into a song. People may complain about Steve Tyler and how much he needs containing when in the recording studio or else songs would veer completely off course but his maniacal, mad-scientist brain often is the catalyst for turning a great idea into a classic. Have Guitar, Will Travel shows this in spades and while Perry may have fun moonlighting he best remember that when it comes to actually doing something good, he will always be part of a much larger wheel.

The 411: Not bad but definitely well short of great. A slab of pumped up rock that can get a little too samey after a while but has some exceptional playing from Perry and really, that’s what matters on this CD. However, there is nothing done here that wasn’t done better on Perry’s last solo album which had a dirtier feel and a more straight down the line selection of songs that were more memorable. Recommended for fans of Perry only.

Final Score:  4.0   [ Poor ]