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''Nine Lives'' is the twelfth studio album by American rock band
Aerosmith Aerosmith is an American rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums) and Brad Whitford (guitar). Their style, which is rooted in blues ...
, released on March 18, 1997. The album was produced by Aerosmith and
Kevin Shirley Kevin Shirley (born 29 June 1960), also known as The Caveman, is a South African music producer, engineer and mixer for many artists,Spencer et al, (2007Shirley, Kevinentry. Retrieved 4 February 2010. such as the bands Journey, Iron Maiden, ...
, and was the band's first studio album released by
Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. It was founded on January 15, 1889, evolving from the A ...
since 1982's '' Rock in a Hard Place''. In the United States, it peaked at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200 and sold over two million copies. One of the album's singles, "Pink", won a
Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal The Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal was awarded between 1980 and 2011. The award was discontinued after the 2011 award season in a major overhaul of Grammy categories. Beginning in 2012, all solo or duo/group ...
. Until ''
Music from Another Dimension! ''Music from Another Dimension!'' is the fifteenth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released on November 6, 2012, by Columbia Records. Their first studio album since 2004's ''Honkin' on Bobo'', as well as the first to feature all-new ...
'', ''Nine Lives'' was their longest album, at 63 minutes.


Production

Early recordings took place at
Criteria Studios Criteria Studios is a recording studio in North Miami, Florida, founded in 1958 by musician Mack Emerman. Hundreds of gold, platinum, and diamond singles and albums have been recorded, mixed or mastered at Criteria, for many notable artists and ...
in Miami, Florida, where the band worked with producer Glen Ballard. There,
Steven Tyler Steven Victor Tallarico (born March 26, 1948), known professionally as Steven Tyler, is an American singer, best known as the lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, piano, and percussion. ...
and Ballard co-wrote the lyrics for "
Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees) "Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)" is a song by American hard rock band Aerosmith that appeared on the band's 12th studio album, '' Nine Lives'' (1997). The song was written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Glen Ballard, who had signed on ...
", " Taste of India" and "
Pink Pink is the color of a namesake flower that is a pale tint of red. It was first used as a color name in the late 17th century. According to surveys in Europe and the United States, pink is the color most often associated with charm, politeness, ...
". Other collaborators, including
Desmond Child John Charles Barrett (born October 28, 1953), known professionally as Desmond Child, is an American songwriter and producer. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2008. His hits as a songwriter include Kiss's " I Was Made for Lo ...
and
Taylor Rhodes Taylor Laurence Rhodes is an American songwriter, producer, and musician from Nashville, Tennessee, most notable for his work with hard rock band Aerosmith since 1993. Music career 1980s In 1987, Rhodes co-wrote the lead-off minor hit title ...
, joined Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry to write songs. Child previously collaborated with Aerosmith on such hits as "
Angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles ...
". "
Crazy Insanity, madness, lunacy, and craziness are behaviors performed by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity can be manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person or persons becoming a danger to themselves or to ...
" and " Dude (Looks like a Lady)". Only a week before rehearsals, drummer
Joey Kramer Joseph Michael Kramer (born June 21, 1950) is an American musician best known as the drummer of the hard rock band Aerosmith, which was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Life and career Kramer was born in the Bronx, New Yor ...
was suffering from depression, having grieved the loss of his father a few years prior. Retrieved July 10th, 2016 With Kramer unavailable, rumors began to circulate that the band would disband. Steve Ferrone was brought in to play drums until Kramer was able to return.Newman, Melinda
"Aerosmith to Get Global Record Push From Columbia"
''Billboard'', 15 February 1997. Retrieved Jul 10th, 2016
"I came back with a nice perspective on what I bring to the table in Aerosmith," Kramer reflected. "That was healthy for me. We ended up rerecording because people were listening to the tracks and were saying some negative stuff about it and saying the band didn't sound the same." Originally set for a summer release in 1996, the album was delayed, because Columbia Records felt dissatisfied with the nine tracks that Aerosmith and Ballard had produced."Record Heaven – Aerosmith – Nine Lives"
Retrieved Jul 10th 2016
Further issues occurred in July that year, when the band asked their manager Tim Collins to step down after almost twelve years of partnership. In his 2014 autobiography ''Rocks: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith'', Perry recounted that Aerosmith felt betrayed by Collins, as he would pit the members against one another. , pages=391 With their longtime manager gone, the band decided to hire in-house producer
Kevin Shirley Kevin Shirley (born 29 June 1960), also known as The Caveman, is a South African music producer, engineer and mixer for many artists,Spencer et al, (2007Shirley, Kevinentry. Retrieved 4 February 2010. such as the bands Journey, Iron Maiden, ...
, and set up at
Avatar Studios Power Station at BerkleeNYC, formerly known as Avatar Studios (1996–2017) and Power Station, is a recording studio at 441 West 53rd Street between Ninth and Tenth avenues in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. The ...
in New York City. Shirley, who had also worked with Journey, helped with the album's overtones and instruments, particularly the guitar sounds. In a 1997 MTV special promoting the making of ''Nine Lives'', Tyler declared: "He's got it somewhere stuck between '' Toys in the Attic'' and '' Rocks''."MTV – Making Nine Lives. Retrieved Jul 10th, 2016 The new sessions began in September 1996, and continued to November. Following the shift in production, Kramer recovered from his depression, and returned to the studio. Instead of playing his tracks over Ferrone's, the band rerecorded from scratch on all of the completed tracks with Kramer. John Kalodner, Columbia's A&R executive was brought back to supervise the project, after he had been pushed off the production in Florida by Collins. He helped trim the twenty-four songs that had been written to thirteen. Initially, the band called the album "Vindaloo" after adding in elements of
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...
n music throughout some of the songs, including a
sarangi The sārangī is a bowed, short-necked string instrument played in traditional music from South Asia – Punjabi folk music, Rajasthani folk music, and Boro folk music (there known as the ''serja'') – in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. It is ...
intro by Ramesh Mishra on the song, " Taste of India". But upon completing the track "Nine Lives", the band felt that would make the perfect title, serving as a metaphor for the album's troubled conception.


Artwork

The booklet for ''Nine Lives'' contains 12 pieces of album art (including the cover). Each picture contains a smaller version of the previous picture within itself. The final picture is included in the first, creating an infinite loop. It was designed by Stefan Sagmeister. The original cover art, inspired by a painting in a book by
A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada Abhay Charanaravinda Bhaktivedanta Swami (; 1 September 1896 – 14 November 1977) was an Indian Gaudiya Vaishnava guru who founded ISKCON, commonly known as the " Hare Krishna movement". Members of ISKCON view Bhaktivedanta Swami as a rep ...
, features Lord
Krishna Krishna (; sa, कृष्ण ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme god in his own right. He is the god of protection, compassion, tenderness, and love; and is on ...
(with a cat's head and female breasts) dancing on the head of the snake demon,
Kāliyā Kaliya (IAST: Kāliya, Devanagari: कालिय), in Hindu traditions, was a venomous Nāga living in the Yamunā river, in Vṛndāvana. The water of the Yamunā for four leagues all around him boiled and bubbled with poison. No bird or ...
. The
Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
community protested, feeling the artwork was offensive. The band had been unaware of the source of the artwork, and the record company apologized, leading to the next prints removing the art from the cover and booklet. The new cover features a cat tied to a circus knife-thrower’s wheel.


Reception

In his
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Music ...
review,
Stephen Thomas Erlewine Stephen Thomas Erlewine (; born June 18, 1973) is an American music critic and senior editor for the online music database AllMusic. He is the author of many artist biographies and record reviews for AllMusic, as well as a freelance writer, oc ...
compared ''Nine Lives'' to previous Aerosmith albums stating, “Nine Lives, in contrast, is overlabored, with Aerosmith making a conscious effort to sound hip and vibrant, which ironically simply makes them sound tired." He also criticized the album's troubled production saying, "Not only are the performances perfunctory, but the songs aren't catchy -- no matter how hard it tries, 'Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)' never develops a hook, and it is not an exception". Elysa Gardner from ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' was more favorable in her 1997 review concluding, "For those who simply can't abide a collection of Aerosmith tunes without its share of
power ballad A sentimental ballad is an emotional style of music that often deals with romantic and intimate relationships, and to a lesser extent, loneliness, death, war, drug abuse, politics and religion, usually in a poignant but solemn manner.J. ...
s, ''Nine Lives'' doesn't disappoint".


Outtakes

Some releases of ''Nine Lives'' feature different track listings, most notably the two Japanese editions which both feature the song "Fall Together". The song was included as a B-side on the album's first single "Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)". The track " What Kind of Love Are You On" was originally titled "What Kind of Lover You Want", and was one of many outtakes left from the recording sessions in Florida. The song was re-titled "What Kind of Love Are You On" and features in the 1998 movie ''
Armageddon According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...
'', as well as its associated
soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...
. The track was later featured on the European re-release of the album's third single "Pink". Unfinished tracks that were discarded during the recording sessions in Florida include, "Bacon Biscuit Blues", "Bridges Are Burning", "Heart of Passion", "Loretta", and "Trouble". Tyler also mentioned a song called "Where the Sun Never Shines" during an
MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
interview shortly after the album's release.MTV – Prima interview 1997. Retrieved Aug 19th, 2016


Track listing


Personnel

Aerosmith *
Steven Tyler Steven Victor Tallarico (born March 26, 1948), known professionally as Steven Tyler, is an American singer, best known as the lead singer of the Boston-based rock band Aerosmith, in which he also plays the harmonica, piano, and percussion. ...
– lead vocals, keyboards, hand organ, piano, harmonica,
hammer dulcimer The hammered dulcimer (also called the hammer dulcimer) is a percussion- stringed instrument which consists of strings typically stretched over a trapezoidal resonant sound board. The hammered dulcimer is set before the musician, who in more tra ...
, percussion * Joe Perry – guitar,
slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos t ...
,
dulcimer The word dulcimer refers to two families of musical string instruments. Hammered dulcimers The word ''dulcimer'' originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers". Variants of ...
, backing vocals * Brad Whitford – guitar, acoustic guitar * Tom Hamilton – bass guitar,
Chapman Stick The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and is used to play bass lines, melody lines ...
*
Joey Kramer Joseph Michael Kramer (born June 21, 1950) is an American musician best known as the drummer of the hard rock band Aerosmith, which was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001. Life and career Kramer was born in the Bronx, New Yor ...
– drums Additional personnel * David Campbell – arranger, conductor (track 2) * Ramesh Mishra
sarangi The sārangī is a bowed, short-necked string instrument played in traditional music from South Asia – Punjabi folk music, Rajasthani folk music, and Boro folk music (there known as the ''serja'') – in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. It is ...
*
John Webster John Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies '' The White Devil'' and '' The Duchess of Malfi'', which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and c ...
– keyboards, backing vocals *Suzie Katayama - strings, conductor Production *Producers
Kevin Shirley Kevin Shirley (born 29 June 1960), also known as The Caveman, is a South African music producer, engineer and mixer for many artists,Spencer et al, (2007Shirley, Kevinentry. Retrieved 4 February 2010. such as the bands Journey, Iron Maiden, ...
and Aerosmith *Engineers Mark Hudson, Joe Perry, Rory Romano, Elliot Scheiner, Kevin Shirley, Steven Tyler *Second engineerRory Romano *MixingElliot Scheiner, Kevin Shirley *Mastering Leon Zervos *ProgrammingSander Selover *Horn arrangementsDavid Campbell, Steven Tyler *String arrangementsDavid Campbell *Guitar techniciansJim Survis *Guitar technicians (Additional)Lisa Sharken, Archie Avila *Drum technicianAndy Gilman *Production engineerDavid Frangioni *Art directionChristopher Austopchuk, Gail Marowitz *Photo art directionChristopher Austopchuk, Gail Marowitz *PhotographyF. Scott Schafer *CalligraphyJeanne Greco *StylistFiona Williams-Chappel Credits verified from the album's liner notes.


Charts


Weekly Charts


Year-end charts


Certifications


Awards

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...


References


External links


Steven Tyler talks about "Where the Sun Never Shines" (Aerosmith outtake)
on YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Nine Lives (Aerosmith Album) Aerosmith albums Albums produced by Kevin Shirley Albums with cover art by Stefan Sagmeister Columbia Records albums Hinduism-related controversies Obscenity controversies in music 1997 albums Indian mythology in music Religious controversies in music