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LONG BEACH (coup2k.com) March 7, 2001 -- The Diva goes through the looking-glass and into her own private paradise with Aerosmith:
The Diva was sitting in front of her computer speakers and grinning from ear to ear. "Please would you tell me," said Alice, a little timidly, for she was not quite sure whether it was good manners for her to speak first, "why you grin like that?" "It's a Cheshire cat grin," purred the Diva, "because Aerosmith has given me a new CD!"
Ahh, the last Bush administration... I remember it well. Actually, the music is what I remember best. Around the time George H.W. Bush entered the 1988 Presidential race in October of 1987, music took off like a shot -- a HOT shot. The albums in heavy rotation at The Diva's Castle then were amazing: Guns 'n Roses' Appetite for Destruction and the Live Like a Suicide EP, The Cult's Electric, Whitesnake's Whitesnake, Motley Crue's Girls, Girls, Girls, Def Leppard's Hysteria, Ratt's Dancing Undercover, Cinderella's Night Songs, Metallica's Master of Puppets, Faster Pussycat's Faster Pussycat, L.A. Guns' L.A. Guns, and last, but certainly not least...
PERMANENT VACATION, BY AEROSMITH.
Talk about your comebacks! Amazing. Fantastic. The Phoenix rose from the ashes. ALL THE WAY from the ashes. I wasn't worthy...
For me (and I know music is a very personal thing -- people like what they like), the music I've always loved has been all about testosterone, about the male animal. The tomcat. Seduction and aggression. Like watching a panther in the wild. A window into a beautifully uncivilized corner of the masculine mind. Not that the other stuff isn't good, it just doesn't GET me, if you know what I mean. Well, Permanent Vacation GOT me. BIG time.
So, my first Aerosmith concert was an experience. (Actually, it was not technically my first live Aerosmith show. My first was the 1987 Texxas Jam, but I'd been in an accident, was on crutches, and so dopey from the pain meds the doctors had given me, that I don't really remember THAT one...)
Where was I? Oh, yes. Valentine's Day 1988. The Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas (God, I miss indoor concerts!). Dokken opened, and they were great. But then...
But then Aerosmith took the stage. And I mean THEY TOOK IT. OH MY GOD, BECKY! You know those girls they show in the old Beatles footage? The ones screaming and yelling and having the vapors? That was The Diva. That was me. Totally. I was GONE. I'm STILL not back...
So, when the new Aerosmith album, Just Push Play, was released yesterday, I had to have it. As I've mentioned before, I DO NOT SHOP. So, I sent My Consort, Chuck, out to fetch the latest Aerosmith offering for me. He dutifully brought it home, and was barely in the door before I was diving into the bag, and tearing through the CD's bubble wrap (which I consider a demonic plot), to get to the good stuff inside.
And what good stuff it is. All of it. Every single song! "Drop Dead Gorgeous" with Joe Perry on vocals, "Beyond Beautiful" (I can see why Steven loves to sing it), "Sunshine" (hats off to Lewis Carroll), "Jaded" (I downloaded three versions from Napster after the SuperBowl, and have listened to them about 3,000 times already) and yes, even the ballads -- "Luv Lies," "Avant Garden" and "Fly Away from Here" -- are utterly perfect.
So, for today, The Diva is dancing around the bunker, having a bliss fit that even the imposter in the White House can't penetrate. After four months of grief and outrage, I'm smiling... A Cheshire Cat Grin to beat the band...
NEXT: IN DEFENSE OF CHILDREN
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