Street Jesus

Album: Music from Another Dimension! (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • The origins of this song lie in a twangy lick that rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford had been playing since the mid 1990s. Though it had been recorded as demos before, it had never been developed into an actual song. "I just thought it was this great, driving rock lick, that it was so Aerosmith, but nobody ever heard it," Whitford told Rolling Stone. "We would play it sometimes and jam on it quite a bit."

    During Aerosmith's 2011 sessions for Music From Another Dimension!, singer Steven Tyler heard Whitford playing it. "He said, 'What's that?' He grabbed it and started playing it on the piano and singing and he started writing," recalled the guitarist to Rolling Stone. "I brought in the old lick and it was done. We had it."
  • A very tall man who wanders the streets of Los Angeles dressed as Jesus Christ was the inspiration for Tyler's lyrics. The vocalist explained during a London listening party: "When I would come to work everyday, I would come across Fairfax and there would be a guy walking that looked like Jesus."
  • Tyler sings, "Somebody stole my shoes Man, I could smell the booze. "I had a bunch of one-liners or 10-liners about a story like that," he explained to Rolling Stone, "about the holes in my shoes and the holes in his hand, teaching in church what you learn in the street."
  • The track was debuted by drummer Joey Kramer on a radio station in Texas in August 2012.

Comments: 2

  • Neon God from AustinI remember when this song debuted. Joey Kramer played it on KLBJ on afternoon while Brother Beto was DJing.
  • Lisa Low Mcmeans from TexasOne liners playing in his head...Jesus calling Steven Steven Tyler. Calling all The Messengers...Believe, Receive and Get to Rocking The Message.
    #JesusRocks
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