The Back-Burner: Aerosmith Outtakes & Demos

‘Wham Bam!’ was originally recorded in 1991/92 and intended for the Get A Grip album. It was written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and Richie Supa. Supa co-wrote other Aerosmith songs such as ‘Chip Away The Stone’, ‘Lightning Strikes’, ‘Amazing’ and ‘Pink’.

Wham Bam was kicked off the album after the A&M attempt in 1992. It’s speculated that was considered to be included in “Big Ones” as it was played live in the 05-08-1994 show at the Marcus Amphitheater Milwaukee, WI.

A 1992 demo of the song leaked online around 2012. The demo starts with drums followed by the guitar riff till the full band kicks in. As the verse vocals start, the click track can be heard on the back. The pre-chorus feature a double layer of vocals intended to have Perry complementing Tyler’s lines live. The chorus hits very high pitched vocals on top of the F chord. The guitar solo section is interesting, but the solo in the demo is clearly a work in progress. After the last chorus, the song ends in an extended jam on a D chord.

Lyrics, again, play around a sexual theme. A guy hasn’t had sex in 7 years, finding a girl to do it and sex being even better than the first time, and doing it all night long. Includes fun and playful sex references, like about penises (“touch it, make it red hot”), vaginas (“and I kissed her butterfly”), fingering (“had my fingers in her pie”), and a comic-like title/chorus line to represent the clapping sound of wet bodies having quick and intense sex (“wham bam!”).

This is one of many songs that were recorded as demo’s by Aerosmith but never made an album. It was rumoured that this song (as well as up to 20 other outtakes) were being ‘revisited’ during the 2006 sessions when the band was recording a few tracks for the ‘Devil’s Got A New Disguise’ compilation.

Good enough to have made Get A Grip?
Would you like to hear this re-recorded?
What do you like about this track?

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

Wham Bam!
(Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Richi Supa)

I got a hole in my heart
Lord, I gotta do some patchin’,
Got the seven-year itch, girl,
We gotta do some scratchin’,

Lay down momma
Got a holy resurrection,
You got the uu-ii baby
This is sweeter than confection, haha, oh

You don’t need no invitation
Grab the devil by the tail,
If you got the fascination,
Touch it, touch it, touch it, touch it,
Make it red hot!

Wham bam – it was better than the first time
Love jam – had my fingers in the pie
Wham bam – we were swingin’ from the grapevine
Wham bam – and I kissed her butterfly

You got me climbin’ up the walls
Gotta scrape me off the ceiling,
Slow down baby
we don’t want to blow the feeling,

We got the fiy-aa,
like a burnin’ volcano,
I kinda hope this feelin’ never slips away,
That’s what I pray for, yeah

Yea, the train kept a-rollin’
Screamin’ all night long – Do it! do it!
We’re gettin’ down and dirty – do it! do it! do it! do it! do it!

Wham bam – it was better than the first time
Love jam – had my fingers in the pie
Wham bam – we were swingin’ from the grapevine
Wham bam – and I kissed her butterfly…