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Crazy, Aerosmith's 1994 hit single from the album Get a Grip, became one of the most highly requested videos on MTV and on various radio stations during the mid-1990s. Back when the station played videos, you could count on this one popping up several times a day. Featuring young actresses Alicia Silverstone and lead singer Steve Tyler's daughter Liv, of later Lord of the Rings fame.

The song plays on nigh ancient Blues tropes, as might be expected from Tyler, who started his career as a drummer for blues bands around New York. It's a sickeningly pathetic song about abuse and co-dependency, and it's not surprising that the band reportedly avoids playing it in their sets despite constant fan nagging to perform the track. The opening section discusses how he wants to maintain a relationship in which, by his own admission, they spend more time getting in fights than in being intimate:

"Come Here baby
You know you drive me up a wall the way you make good on all the nasty tricks you pull
Seems like we're makin' up more than we're makin' love
And it always seems you got somn' on your mind other than me
Girl, you got to change your crazy ways
You hear me"

And then he sings more about his own dependency on a clearly destructive relationship that he still desperately wants to preserve:

"I'm losin' my mind, girl
Cause I'm goin' crazy

I need your love, honey
I need your love"

Musically, it's a lurching and loud song reliant on repetitive guitar chords leavened by expressive - perhaps too active - blues guitar solo and with a mid-song musical cameo of a banjo.

Posts by Day: Monday, April 28, 2008

Crazy