Music / Get a Grip

Got to get a grip
Skin and bones, it ain't such a pity
^DisclaimerNo cows were harmed in the making of this album cover.

Tell me what you think about your situation
Complication, aggravation
Is getting to you
If Chicken Little tells you that the sky is falling
Even if it was, would you still come crawling back again?
I bet you would, my friend
Again and again and again and again

Something right with the world today
And everybody knows it's wrong
But we can tell 'em no or we could let it go
But I would rather be a-hanging on

—"Livin' on the Edge"

Get a Grip is the eleventh studio album by the rock band Aerosmith. It was released through Geffen Records on April 20, 1993.

After a break following Pump, the band returned to the studio in 1992 to record a follow-up. Record executives initially bemoaned a lack of radio-friendly tracks, so they recorded a few more songs later in the year, reaching out to some collaborators for some more songs.

Several of the songs, including the title track "Get a Grip" and "Amazing", deal with the band's past of drug abuse, and coming to a crossroads on dealing with addiction. They also produced several love ballads with their own twist of dysfunctional relationships, such as "Cryin'" and "Crazy".

The album was released to generally positive reviews. Robert Christgau of The Village Voice hailed it as their best album since Rocks. Mark Coleman of Rolling Stone, however, chided what he felt as a generally somber and unadventurous feeling to the album; he felt "Livin' on the Edge" sounded too much like Bon Jovi, and that the outside influence generally dragged the album down.

But Get a Grip was the first Aerosmith album to hit #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, and would ultimately go seven-times platinum in the United States. At a total of 20 million copies worldwide, it is Aerosmith's best-selling studio album. It also hit #2 in the UK. Two songs ("Cryin'", "Livin' on the Edge") hit #1 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. Its highest work on the Billboard Hot 100 was #12 for "Cryin'", as its pop chart performance was dragged down somewhat by the ongoing grunge movement.

The album spawned several music videos, some of which were popular on MTV: "Livin' on the Edge", "Cryin'", "Amazing", and "Crazy". The latter three of those became famous for starring budding actress Alicia Silverstone. "Crazy" also starred Steven Tyler's daughter, Liv Tyler, who would also become an actress in her own right.

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Tracklist:

Side One

1. "Intro" (0:24)
2. "Eat the Rich" (4:11)
3. "Get a Grip" (3:59)
4. "Fever" (4:15)
5. "Livin' on the Edge" (6:07)

Side Two

1. "Flesh" (5:57)
2. "Walk On Down" (3:39)
3. "Shut Up and Dance" (4:56)

Side Three

1. "Cryin'" (5:09)
2. "Gotta Love It" (5:58)
3. "Crazy" (5:14)

Side Four

1. "Line Up" (4:03)
2. "Amazing" (5:57)
3. "Boogie Man" (2:17)

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Principal members

• Steven Tyler – lead vocals, keyboards, mandolin, harmonica, additional percussion
• Joe Perry – guitar, backing vocals, lead vocals on "Walk on Down"
• Brad Whitford – guitar, lead guitar on “Fever”, “Gotta Love It”, and “Flesh”
• Tom Hamilton – bass guitar, bass solo on “Gotta Love It”
• Joey Kramer – drums

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That one last trope's a permanent vacation:

• Big Rock Ending: "Amazing" averts this by ending this way, only to go to a Big Band-style epilogue that samples the 1945 big band song "Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well" by Lucky Millinder. The whole album averts it with the final track, a quiet, eerie instrumental called "Boogie Man."
• Call-Back: "Amazing" does an Album Title Drop to their 1987 Career Resurrection in the line "That one last shot's a permanent vacation."
  • The intro track includes the line "You got the right key, baby, but the wrong keyhole" — paraphrasing a line from the song "F.I.N.E." on the band's 1989 album Pump — and ends with the guitar riff from "Walk This Way."
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The music video for "Amazing" is LOADED with this. The best part is when the guy knocks over his water bottle on his keyboard during his first VR sex attempt; especially the way the water pumps out of the straw.
• Dream Within a Dream: The music video for "Amazing" shows a guy living a VR fantasy with Alicia Silverstone. The ending reveals that to be part of Silverstone's own fantasy.
• Epic Rocking: "Livin' on the Edge" is just over six minutes, and three other songs fall within three seconds short ("Amazing", "Flesh", and "Gotta Love It").
• Fake Kill Scare: "Cryin'" ends with Alicia Silverstone jumping back off a bridge, only to show that she's on a wire connected to a belly button ring she got earlier in the video.
• Last Note Hilarity: "Eat the Rich", true to the title, ends with a belch. Which Steven can do on stage impromptu!
• Love Hurts: Both "Cryin'" and "Crazy" allude to this.
• Our Lawyers Advised This Trope: Some of the more dangerous activities in the VR scene come with Content Warnings. The Surgeon General's Warning appears during the Smoking Hot Sex allusion.
• No Animals Were Harmed: PETA complained about the album cover, which features a cow with a pierced udder. The band later stated the piercing was photoshopped in.
• Product Placement: Apple products are all over the music video for "Amazing".
• Smoking Hot Sex: Done at the end of the sex part of the VR fantasy in the music video of "Amazing".
• Title Track: "Get a Grip"

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So, from all of us at Aerosmith, to all of you out there wherever you are, remember: the light at the end of the tunnel may be you. Good night.