The Back-Burner: Aerosmith Outtakes & Demos

“Bacon Biscuit Blues” is a song left from the 1996 sessions for Nine Lives. It was written by Tyler and Perry with Richie Supa, a long-time friend of the band and co-writer of songs like Pink, Chip Away and Lightning Strikes. “Bacon” is believed to have made it all the way to the end of the production process, from the Glen Ballard sessions in South Beach to the Kevin “Caveman” Shirley sessions in New York.

It’s perhaps most well know for having been played live regularly during the 1997/1998 part of the Nine Lives tour. This partial version, with only 2 verses (no pre-chorus or chorus), worked as an intro to “Monkey on my Back” during much of the Nine Lives tour. It featured the full band jamming on the key of A, and was led by Joe Perry’s slide guitar ending on an extended solo jam.

Steven and Joe also performed a full acoustic version at the Howard Stern show on 22/09/1997, which included the pre-chorus and chorus and followed the structure of the studio version (Tyler’s harmonica playing mimics the melody featured in “Hangman Jury” in this version, but the studio outtake contains an alternate melody). This version was featured in the old AF1 hotline for a few years.

During the intro, Steven comments “it’s going to be in the next record”, it’s unknown which record he was referring to. This lead to speculation that the song was considered for inclusion in the Armageddon soundtrack, as the band re-entered the studio to record new tracks (I don’t Want to Miss a Thing and What Kind of Love Are You On?), they also talked about “doing a blues album” that didn’t happen at the time (but eventually came to fruition with Honkin’ On Bobo). It’s a heavy blues influence song, so would have been a perfect fit for “Bobo”, but it is unknown if it was even considered during the 2003/2004 sessions.

In 1998, old-time Aerosmith producer, Jack Douglas, while working on the production of the live album “A Little South of Sanity”, commented to press 8 that “Biscuit Blues” was intended to be included in the live compilation of hits, but remained unreleased. Compared to the studio outtake, the live version is a completely different iteration of the song in terms of chords, rhythm and style. It is still unknown if they were considering the live version or the studio version, much in the style of the Classic Live! albums, containing one previously unreleased studio track at the end. Examples of the partial live versions of the song can be found in popular bootlegs of the following shows: Devore 18/10/97, New Heaven 17/01/97, Philadelphia 15/01/98, Phoenix 13/10/97.

The studio outtake is a largely acoustic playful blues song in the key of Cm. The structure contains 3 verses and 2 choruses. The song starts with a soft harmonica, much ala “Hangman Jury”, followed by an acoustic intro that leads to the first verse. Some great harmonies join during the pre-chorus, where a number of layered low vocals join humming in crescendo. The chorus kicks in as the mandatory rock section of the song with a full band, including distorted guitars and drums. The repetition of “rise up” 4 times every chorus makes it memorable, fun and poppy sounding at times. Back vocals and harmonica fills are present during the second verses. After the 3rd half verse is over, the song goes on to an additional instrumental part over the same verse riff, as a sort of outro featuring acoustic guitars, violins and banjo playing arrangements following melodies reminiscing old classic blues songs.

There are several studio versions of the song (at least 4 completely different ones), with small changes in lyrics, music arrangements and structure. For example, one of them doesn’t have a chorus (no “Rise Up” part at all). These many iterations are a clear indication of deep production work, giving the song different opportunities and approaches; and the fact that it was constantly played live is evidence that the band liked the song very much and were looking for a way to get it released.

Lyrics were pretty much the same throughout the many different versions, verses 1 and 2 contained only minimal variations. In classic Aerosmith fashion, they speak of sex in a playful way (“rise up”/erection, wet/oven/tickle/sop, etc), not any real deeper meaning.

The chorus also had small differences, while the acoustic version went:

Rise up – early in the morning
Rise up – late at night
Rise up – gotta get me a warning
Rise up – gonna whet your appetite

The studio version was slightly different and missed 3 of the “rise up”‘s:

Rise up, early in the morning,
You’re my sweet potato pie,
I’ve been leaking up my fingers,
So I can wet my appetite…

Throughout the years Tyler kept prompting bits of the verses during radio interviews or events, known examples are the Howard Stern interview from 1998/2001, and during the 10th Annual Ride for Children on 15/10/04, when Richie Supa played the riff acoustically and Steven followed.

A fan covered the song based on samples leaked, lyrics and independent research.

Lyrics:
Put your biscuits in the oven
Honey, put your buns in bed
I wanna come inside your kitchen
Wanna taste your shortening bread

I want to jump into your skillet
Honey, tickle your home fries
I gotta hambone working fill it
Won’t you try it on for size

Uh uh uh uh uh
Baby ask me no questions
I’ll tell you no lies
Put your biscuits in the oven
Honey, watch my dumpling

Rise up, early in the morning,
You’re my sweet potato pie,
I’ve been leaking up my fingers,
So I can wet my appetite…

Gonna shake and bake you honey
I want a catcher in the rye
I wanna sop up all your gravy
From your deep-dish apple pie

So open up your menu
I wanna slice your honeydew
I love it honey when you
Do me like you do

Uh uh uh uh uh
And if you ask me no questions
And tell me no lies
Put your biscuits in the oven
Honey, watch my dumpling

Rise up, early in the morning,
You’re my sweet potato pie,
I’ve been leaking up my fingers,
So I can wet my appetite…

Now if you ask me no questions,
I ain’t got much to lose,
Honey let’s turn on the fire,
I’ve got the bacon biscuit blues…

Studio version chords:
Verse: riff in Cm
Chorus: G – F

Live version chords:
Verses: A