Eat the Rich (Aerosmith song)

"Eat the Rich"
File:Aerosmith Eat the Rich.jpg
Single by Aerosmith
from the album Get a Grip
Released	April 17, 1993
Format	Cassette, CD, 10" vinyl
Recorded	1992
Genre	Hard rock
Length	4:10
Label	Geffen
Writer(s)	Steven Tyler Joe Perry Jim Vallance
Producer(s)	Bruce Fairbairn
Aerosmith singles chronology
"Livin' on the Edge" (1993) "Eat the Rich" (1993) "Fever" (1993)
Alternative cover

"Eat the Rich" is a song performed by American hard rock band Aerosmith. It was written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Jim Vallance. It was released as the second single from the band's 1993 album Get a Grip. The song had success on rock radio, peaking at number five on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. In the UK, where the song was the second single released from the album, it peaked at number 34, and in Canada, it peaked at number 45. The band's next four singles and correlating videos were able to garner more mainstream success for the album.

A fan favorite

The song quickly became a fan favorite, despite not having much mainstream success, and drew a rousing reaction from crowds when it was used as the band's opening song on the Get a Grip Tour. The band has played the song several times on their recent tour, the Route of All Evil Tour, despite being generally limited to a 13-song setlist.

The song was featured on the band's 1994 Geffen Records-era greatest hits album Big Ones as well as the first song on the live double-album A Little South of Sanity.

Song structure

The song features a heavy drum beat by Joey Kramer and clear, well-defined guitar parts by Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, as well as a strong bass groove by Tom Hamilton, and emotional lyrics (as well as an unusual belch at the end of the track) delivered by Steven Tyler. On Get a Grip, the song is preceded by a 23-second track called "Intro" which features heavy bass, rapid, quasi-tribal drumming, reversed singing chorus of "Eat the Rich", and rapid-fire lyrics by Steven Tyler and a little sample of Aerosmith's classic "Walk This Way" riff right at the end, before "Eat the Rich" starts. "Intro" also features a line from "F.I.N.E.*," a song from their previous album, Pump.

Music video

The music video features footage of the band recording parts of the song in the studio, as well as odd-ball occurrences such as eyeballs, bones, and other things which may suggest the cannibalistic undertones of the song. The video was directed by Greg Vernon and featured acting from John Kalodner.

Other

In addition to "Amazing," "Eat the Rich" is featured on Tecmo's Dead or Alive 4 video game opening. It was one of the looped songs on Revolution X, Aerosmith's game by Midway Games but it was heard for a short time after playing.

Foghat released a cover of "Honey Hush", back in 1974, with a similar intro guitar riff as the main riff in "Eat the Rich."

Track listing

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Eat' the rich" (LP Version)	4:15
2.	"Fever" (LP Version)	4:19
3.	"Head first" (Previously unreleased)	5:05
4.	"Livin' on the edge" (Demo version)	5:08