When I was seventeen, it was a very good year…

So while killing a bit of time last week in Montmartre, I was doing the whole thing of following links from one story on Rolling Stone’s newsletter to associated youtube videos etc and came across a short, four minute interview from 1997 of Aerosmith on Jools Holland. I then found the videos below from the same appearance and got to thinking that, for me, that was the band’s peak, it was also when I was really starting to get back into music and had only just discovered the band.

Look at the evidence: Get A Grip in 1993 was a monster in sales terms but not that much critically speaking and not one I listen to too often. Nine Lives, however, is a powerhouse record of raw sounding rock with some real earthy tones and – for the genre – some pretty eclectic sound and instrumentation. Accordingly I listened to it while shooting beneath Paris on the metro last week and there’s still not one song I’d skip though I wouldn’t necessarily hold up Hole In My Soul as exemplary the rest of the album – Taste of India, Full Circle, Ain’t That A Bitch, the Joe Perry showcase Falling Off, Somethings Gotta Give… Fallen Angels – is a classic. Even before they changed the artwork and it shifted like hotcakes thanks to the addition of that asteroid movie song.

Seriously – check it out then buy it (it’s easily found at stupidly cheap prices).

Then I got to thinking – this wasn’t the only (for me) great album released that year. 1997 saw Radiohead’s commercial success explode in line with their critical deification with OK Computer, Built To Spill dropped the sublime Perfect From Now On, Portishead released their self-titled album, Dylan returned to the mainstream of both commerce and critique with Time Out Of Mind, Foo Fighters cracked out their still-best album The Colour And The Shape, Björk’s Homogenic came out featuring my favourite song of her’s – Joga, the only decent Everclear album was released and while the album Hand It Over wasn’t too strong and the ‘band’ ceased trading under it’s name, Dinosaur Jr’s Nothing’s Goin’ On and I’m Insane both featured on that 1997 album. I’ve already ranted about Ben Fold Five’s Whatever & Ever, Amen here and it, too was from ’97.

There was also these classics that you really need in your collection:

There was also stuff from The Get Up Kids, Mogwai, the first SYR releases.. and while I may not have been awake to it all at the time, it seems like 1997 was a pretty good year for music. Hell, while it was ’98 I was still seventeen when Pearl Jam released Yield. In fact, I remember reading the review, going to buy it in WH Smith only to find that they didn’t have it in stock (back when you had to take the box to the counter for them to put the disc in) and taking OK Computer instead. It would be just over a year before I picked up Yield in a flurry of PJ consumption that included Ten and Live On Two Legs.

I’ve missed some out, without a doubt. I’m sure Scott will tell me that Blonde Redhead’s Fake Can Be Just as Good deserves mention but I’ve not heard it, yet…

Oh, yeah; the videos that started it all: