The Back-Burner: Aerosmith Outtakes & Demos

“Take it Easy” is a song Aerosmith considered during the recording process of their 1987 album, Permanent Vacations. The song may have started production in early 1986 during an aborted session with producer Rick Rubin (rather than with Bruce Fairbairn). 

It’s an upbeat 205BPM song driven by a Hamilton/Kramer jam, the song runs the same bass riff in the key of A with minimal guitar work. The lack of other chords makes the song feel monotonous, never reaching its climax and leaves the listener wanting more and different sections.

Lyrics seem to talk about the people rushing through their day to day, forgetting to slow down, take a break to enjoy life. While Tyler delivers his vocals clearly and in a very rhythmic fashion, most of them are clearly leftover rhymes, often unfinished, trying different things, hence including 5 verses.

A small partial-version was often played live during their 2003 “Rocksimus maximums” tour, prior to “Sweet Emotion”. The live version included the first verse and a chorus following a new progression by Hamilton at the end. This led to fan speculation about its possible inclusion in a future release. A few bootlegs on YouTube include the segment: Omaha, NE 11-6-03, New York 11-16-03, Bridgeport, CT 11-14-03, Boston 11-26-03, and Washington 11-20-03.

In 2010, when one of our contributors asked Tom directly if they would consider releasing or playing “Take it Easy” again, Hamilton seemed to have forgotten about it saying:

Take it Easy? an outtake from Permanent Vacations? man, you guys know our songs even better than we do!

Tom Hamilton to fans in Peru, 2010

A song with the working title “Easy” was considered during the 2001 and 2006 sessions, but it is unclear if this was a new song or a revisited version of “Take it Easy” (it was later proven to refer to a new song written with Marti Frederiksen for the JPP album).

Everybody’s talkin’ ’bout what it is and what it ain’t
What kinda house and what kinda paint
Everybody seems to be steppin’ in time
But it’s much too fast and I gotta remind ya

Oooooohhh Gotta take it easy
Oooooohhh Gotta take it easy

Oh I’m kinda feelin, Saturday nights (?)
God I’m afraid, gotta pull out the stops
Everybody sooms to be marchin’ in time
But it’s much too fast and I gotta remind ya

Oooooohhh Gotta take it easy
Oooooohhh Gotta take it easy

New kid smokin in a bar tonight
Who be pullin on a piece of pipe
Where you’re sitting is where it’s at
Gotta get off your ass cause you’re gettin too fat

Oooooohhh Gotta take it easy
Oooooohhh Gotta take it easy

Sweepin’ up the tombs with your paranoid yups
Later hop the stores when you clean your cups
Everybody’s livin in the middle of the line
But it’s much too much and I gotta remind ya

Oooooohhh Better take it easy
Oooooohhh Better take it easy
Don’t do it!

Oh I’m kinda feelin, Saturday nights (?)
God I’m afraid, gotta pull out the stops
Everybody sooms to be marchin’ in time
But it’s much too fast and I gotta remind ya

Oooooohhh Gotta take it easy
Oooooohhh Gotta take it easy…