Artist: AEROSMITH
Album: NINE LIVES (CD)

Release date: 1998
Media type: CD

Nine Lives is the twelfth studio album by American hard rock band Aerosmith, released in 1997 (see 1997 in music). The album was produced by Aerosmith and Kevin Shirley, and was the band's first studio album released by Columbia Records since 1982's Rock in a Hard Place. It peaked at #1 at the Billboard Charts. One of the album's singles, "Pink", won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.

The booklet for Nine Lives contains 12 pieces of album art (including the cover). Each picture contains a smaller version of the previous picture within itself. The last picture is included in the first, creating an infinite loop. It has been designed by Stefan Sagmeister, who allegedly has never received his fee for this work due to the controversy described below.

The original album art aroused the anger of some Hindus, who felt the artwork, taken from Hindu imagery and altered by giving the dancing figure a cat's head, was offensive. The image depicts Lord Krishna with a cat's head dancing on the head of the snake demon Aghasura, a popular episode from Sagmeister's childhood. The band had been unaware of the source of the artwork, and the record company apologized, and changed the artwork to the revised version seen above.

Strangely enough, some copies with original covers have found their way to music store shelves in India, where Hinduism is the majority religion, and have not raised any further controversy.


TRACKLIST:

"Nine Lives" (Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Marti Frederiksen) – 4:01
"Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees)" (Tyler, Perry, Glen Ballard) – 3:26
"Hole in My Soul" (Tyler, Perry, Desmond Child) – 6:10
"Taste of India" (Tyler, Perry, Ballard) – 5:53
"Full Circle" (Tyler, Taylor Rhodes) – 5:01
"Something's Gotta Give" (Tyler, Perry, Frederiksen) – 3:37
"Ain't That a Bitch" (Tyler, Perry, Child) – 5:25
"The Farm" (Tyler, Perry, Mark Hudson, Steve Dudas) – 4:27
"Crash" (Tyler, Perry, Hudson, Dominik Miller) – 4:26
"Kiss Your Past Good-Bye" (Tyler, Hudson) – 4:32
"Pink" (Tyler, Richard Supa, Ballard) – 3:55
"Attitude Adjustment" (Tyler, Perry, Frederiksen) – 3:45
"Fallen Angels" (Tyler, Perry, Supa) – 8:18

LINE-UP:

Tom Hamilton – bass, Chapman stick
Joey Kramer – drums
Joe Perry – guitar, vocals, dulcimer, slide guitar
Steven Tyler – lead vocals, harmonica, keyboard, percussion, hammered dulcimer
Brad Whitford – guitar

Additional personnel:
David Campbell – conductor
Ramesh Misra – sarangi
John Webster – keyboard