Livin' On The Edge

This song talks about how the world is a crazy place, but people remain stuck in their routines and refuse to change. According to the Aerosmith autobiography Walk This Way, the song was inspired by the Los Angeles riots of 1992, which took place after the white police officers accused of beating the black motorist Rodney King were acquitted.

Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith wrote this song with Mark Hudson, who has had one of the more intriguing careers in the entertainment industry. Hudson was a teen idol in the '70s, starring with his brothers on a kids TV show called the Hudson Brothers Razzle Dazzle Show. The Hudson Brothers charted three times with songs they wrote, including "So You Are A Star," which became their biggest hit. In the '80s, Mark hooked up with the producer Phil Ramone and did songwriting and production work in addition to some acting roles (he was on a short-lived TV show with Geena Davis called Sara). Mark got the gig as bandleader on Joan Rivers' late night TV show in 1989, and continued working on the program after it morphed into The Arsenio Hall Show. When Aerosmith started writing for the Get A Grip album, their record company sherpa John Kalodner set up a session with Hudson, which is where they wrote this song. Kalodner was a proponent of outside songwriters, which he felt was key to keeping the band's sound fresh. Other songwriters who wrote with Perry and Tyler on the album include Jim Vallance, Lenny Kravitz and Desmond Child.

According to Steven Tyler, those three big drum hits that you hear near the end of this song were made with the bass drum he stole from Roosevelt High School in Yonkers, New York, where he was in the marching band. Tyler was kicked out of the school after an undercover cop posing as a student busted him for drug possession. He walked off with the drum after his band played the Roosevelt senior prom.