Aerosmith released Done With Mirrors on November 4, 1985, putting their reunited lineup back on record. Their eighth studio album brought guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford together with Steven Tyler, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer for a fresh start with Geffen Records. The five had already returned to the stage together. Writing and recording new material would test how much of their old connection remained.
“Let the Music Do the Talking” reached directly into Perry’s years away. Originally the title track of the Joe Perry Project’s 1980 debut, it became the opening song on Done With Mirrors. Aerosmith reworked the verses and added lyrics, with Tyler taking over a song Perry had recorded outside the band. That gave the reunion a particularly fitting introduction: material from the separation was becoming part of their shared repertoire.
Perry and Whitford had rejoined in 1984, before the Back in the Saddle tour. Perry explained in a 2025 Guitar World interview that those shows helped them get comfortable playing together again, at a point when they were touring without a record deal. The studio exposed a different kind of uncertainty. As he put it, “we were still learning how to write again.” Earlier successes hadn’t removed the pressure to produce new songs.
The songs took shape in a rented Massachusetts rehearsal space, with the musicians developing ideas for Tyler to work into finished material. Producer Ted Templeman wanted to record the band with the freedom of a live performance. As Classic Rock reported in its December 2016 feature, he removed the bulb from the studio’s red recording light and captured the musicians playing without their knowing the tape was running. The approach was designed to keep the act of recording from changing how they played.
Even the choice of studio reflected the complications surrounding the reunion. Templeman told SPIN in 2020 that management chose Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California, hoping to keep the band away from drug connections in Los Angeles and San Francisco. According to the producer, moving the sessions didn’t solve that problem. He also felt uncomfortable working in a room he didn’t know well, and believed he hadn’t captured Kramer’s drums or drawn out Tyler’s best performance. “I let them down on that record,” he said. His dissatisfaction went beyond the equipment: he wanted another chance to work with Aerosmith and was asked to produce the follow-up, but a scheduling commitment took him out of the running.
The packaging added its own complication. On the original release, the lettering ran backward, with a mirror needed to read it normally. The band’s name and album title became part of the visual trick. It was a literal treatment of Done With Mirrors that made even identifying the record require an extra look.
Perry’s later assessment left room for the album’s rough edges and for what the sessions taught him. In the Guitar World interview, he said he still wanted more polish and overdubs, but making the record helped the band recognize that its writing and recording methods needed to change. Aerosmith headed to Vancouver and began working with outside songwriters. Their next studio album, 1987’s Permanent Vacation, included “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “Angel” and “Rag Doll.”
