Welcome to the "Did You Know?" section. Now, this is the section in which I try to ask you the question "did you know?" about something about The Joe Perry Project. Now...if you would like to send Crossfire a "did you know?" of your own or you have a comment or question about something listed here...you can send it to the following address: cross_fire@mailcity.com
Albums
Let The Music Do The Talking
"Let The Music Do The Talking" was originally released in March of 1980...and Re-Released on Tuesday, July 25th, 1989.
"Let The Music Do The Talking" reached #47 on the charts.
"Let The Music Do The Talking" has sold over 250,000 copies!
"Let The Music Do The Talking" was originally going to be called "Guitar Wars."
"Let The Music Do The Talking" was finished in just six weeks!
Joe is holding the master tape of the finished album on the cover of "Let The Music Do The Talking."
There were two different covers of "Let The Music Do The Talking"....The first [released in 1980] had "The Joe Perry Project" underneath "Let The Music Do The Talking"......And on the second [released in 1989] had both phrases were printed together side by side.
I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again
"I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again" was released in June of 1981 and Re-Released on Tuesday, August 21st, 1990.
"I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again" reached #100 on the charts.
"I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again" was originally titled "Soldier Of Fortune."
The Project brought the Record Plant's sound truck [for the recording of "I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again"] on Washington Street in front of the Boston Opera House, in the city's notorious "Combat Zone" where every day there'd be something going on...like pimps beating up their whores right in front of the sound truck!!!
Most of the vocals on "I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again" were live reference vocals [recorded with the intention of re-doing them more carefully later on]. Joe Perry decided he liked the way they sounded and so they were kept on.
Jack Douglas was originally supposed to produce "I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again"...but didn't because he was working of John Lennon's "Double Fantasy" and "Milk And Honey."
"Shit House Shuffle" was the last thing that the Joe recorded with the band for more than five years was recorded on May 30th, 1979 and later was turned into "South Station Blues" on "I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again." You can find both on the third disc of the Aerosmith boxed set "Pandora's Box."
Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker
"Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker" was released in September of 1983 and Re-Released [in Canada] on Tuesday, April 12th, 1994.
"Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker" has sold over forty thousand copies.
The original title for the song/album "Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker" was "No Time For Women."
"Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker" is dedicated to Joe Perry's son Adrian.
Joe put a disclamer on the back LP cover [and the CD liner notes] of "Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker" which stated "There are no synthesizers on this album."
"Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker" was almost never released! Halfway through the recording MCA Records tried to drop Joe. The company's management changed and they had a new president [former agent...Irving Azoff] and The Joe Perry Project was not a priority to Azoff. In the end, MCA figured it would be cheaper to finish the record--and bury it--than to buy out my contract. Then it came out later that year and went unpromoted and unheard and of course it bombed.
The reason Joe Perry looks the way he does on the cover of "Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker" is because Cowboy Mach Bell introduced Joe to a hairdresser named Glenda and [a at the time homeless] Joe moved in with her and she did his hair for the photo shot.
Songs
Let The Music Do The Talking
"Discount Dogs" was originally named "Discount Drugs."
"The Mist Is Rising" was written at 4:00 A.M. at Joe Perry's in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.
"Life At A Glance" was written on the night of November 15th, 1979...And played as an encore the next day at the Joe Perry Project's first gig!
I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again
"Listen To The Rock" and "East Coast, West Coast" were originally recorded by Charlie Farren's first band "Balloon."
The Joe Perry Project recorded a version of the Elvis Presley song "Heartbreak Hotel" [with Joe Perry on lead vocals] for "I've Got The Rock 'N' Rolls Again"...intended as a single...but for whatever reason, it was shelved.
Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker
Joe Perry does a six string bass solo on "King Of The Kings."
Mark Parenteau is the guy who "performs" the Chains on "Women In Chains."
"Women In Chains" came from a band in Nashville, Tennessee.
"Adrianna" was about a "hospitable" girl Joe Perry met in Caracas, Venezuela.
Joe met his future wife [Billie Montgomery] on The Joe Perry Project's "Black Velvet Pants" video shoot.
The "Black Velvet Pants" video was filmed at the Strand Theater in Dorchester, New Hampshire.
Miscellaneous
All the while The Joe Perry Project was in it's first rehearsal's in the summer of 1979...Drummer Ronnie Stewart kept his day job at E.U. Wurlitzer's music store in Boston.
Steven Tyler and Brad Whitford [of Aerosmith] both went to The Joe Perry Project's first show.
Joe Perry bought six thousand dollars worth of heroin for the Project's first tour!
The members of The Joe Perry Project listened to 100 audition tapes until they came up with Charlie Farren.
In late 1982...while Brad Whitford was doing a month's worth of dates with the Project...Brad & Joe Perry wrote a song together called "Wait For The Night."
Joe Perry's [then girlfriend...and hairdresser] Glenda punched [Joe's future wife...and by the way also married at the time] girlfriend Billie Montgomery in the face when she saw that Joe and Billie were making out...all this while Joe was STILL not divorced from his first wife Elyssa!!!
Joe Perry's future wife Billie was friend's with Mach Bell's then girlfriend [and future wife] Julia before Joe and Billie ever met!
Cowboy Mach Bell supported Joe's decision to go back to Aerosmith...saying "Go ahead, man. We don't wanna stand in your way."
There was almost a forth Joe Perry Project album! Joe Perry's manager Tim Collins sent a tape of "Once A Rocker, Always A Rocker" to Geffen...and a bunch of other record company's...but nothing ever came of it. Aerosmith signed with Geffen a few months later and The Joe Perry Project broke up.
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