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| "F.I.N.E.*" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Aerosmith | ||||
| from the album Pump | ||||
| Released | 1989 | |||
| Recorded | 1989 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock | |||
| Length | 4:09 | |||
| Label | Geffen | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Joe Perry Steven Tyler Desmond Child | |||
| Producer(s) | Bruce Fairbairn | |||
| Aerosmith singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"F.I.N.E.*" is a song by rock band Aerosmith. It was written by lead singer Steven Tyler and lead guitarist Joe Perry. The song title is an acronym for "Fucked Up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional", as stated in the album's liner notes. The song, totaling four minutes, nine seconds, is the second track on the band's 1989 album Pump. It was released as a promotional single to rock radio in 1989, and reached No. 14 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart.
Song information
"F.I.N.E." is an upbeat, hard rock song, similar to "Young Lust" both lyrically and musically. Its raunchy lyrics focus on youth angst and lasciviousness, and the verses feature the line "I'm ready" after each line, suggesting sexual arousal, or being "ready" for sex. Tongue-in-cheek lyrics are prevalent, including "she's got the Cracker Jack, now all I want's the prize", "I got the right key baby, but the wrong keyhole", "I shove my tongue right between your cheeks", etc. The chorus repeats the word "Alright", followed by a person who thinks the narrator is alright, including "your daddy", "your mama", "my old lady", "my little sister", "my brother", "even Tipper" (a reference to Tipper Gore who headed the Parents Music Resource Center censorship campaign during this time), and "Joe Perry" (a reference to Aerosmith's lead guitarist).
The song uses a "loose verse/tight chorus" structure, whereby the verses use a pentatonic melody that sometimes clashes with the chords that make up the harmony, while in the chorus the melody and harmony are more tightly coordinated and the non-chord notes resolve.
The only mentions of the term "F.I.N.E." are in the line "my brand new baby looks so F-I-N-E fine" and in a bridge towards the end of the song, where Tyler sings, "Everything about you is so F-I-N-E fine". Later on the Pump album, in "What It Takes", is the line, "Girl, before I met you I was F-I-N-E fine".
F.I.N.E. was one of the potential titles brainstormed for the album that became Pump, but was blocked by Geffen A&R man John Kalodner. If one looks closely at the trucks on the front cover, the word FINE can be seen on their side.
"F.I.N.E." – "Such a good fuckin' song!" said Tyler – ends with a snippet of the singer doing a variation on a line from "Hangman Jury" from Permanent Vacation.
The song emerged from some jamming between Tyler and Perry. Tyler said that "I sat down at the drums and hit this rhythm that came out of guitar lick. One inspired the other." According to Perry, Kalodner brought Childs in to work on the bridge of a different song that ended up not being used on the album. But the band needed a bridge for F.I.N.E. and the discarded one worked in this song.
Aerosmith biographer Martin Power described the song as Aerosmith's "best moment since Rocks' "Lick and a Promise." He says that it "doesn't so much rock as spontaneously combust" with piled up guitars, broken drumskins and a groove that is uniquely Aerosmith's, while Tyler "rides the musical wave" with his vocal performance. Power describes the final line as a "killer punchline": "I hear that you're so tight you loving squeaks/And I'm ready, so ready."
Meaning of acronym
In the album liner notes, F.I.N.E. is said to stand for "Fucked up, Insecure, Neurotic and Emotional," which Tyler described as being his "constant state." The acronym was popularized by the Aerosmith song for clinical use.
This may have an association to the rehabilitation programs such as A.A. and N.A. Many such programs use this phrase to describe the feeling of your life being out of control.
The acronym is also discussed in the movies The Italian Job and Scream 2 and in the show Happy Valley (series 1 episode 4). As well as the movie "Deadpool 2".
Liv Tyler also references this as a nod to her father at the end of the movie Super starring Rainn Wilson. During her scene with the rehabilitation group session she is heard stating "fucked up, insecure, neurotic, and emotional."
In other media
The song is featured in Walt Disney World's Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith in the coaster car with the license plate "BUHBYE" which also features "Young Lust" and a reworked version of "Love in an Elevator" that is re-titled as "Love in a Rollercoaster".
F.I.N.E. was also the name of a hard rock band from Portland, ME.
F.I.N.E. was also used as part of a quote in The Italian Job twice during the movie.
F.I.N.E. was also referenced in the BBC drama Happy Valley by Sgt Catherine Cawood in Season 1 Episode 4.
References
- Rivadavia, Eduardo (September 12, 2014). "Aerosmith's 'Pump' Songs, Ranked Worst to Best". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved March 6, 2023.
No bells, no whistles, just honest-to-goodness hard rock
- "F.I.N.E. by Aerosmith Songfacts". Songfacts. Retrieved 2018-03-31.
- Spicer, Mark (2017). Rock Music. Taylor & Francis. p. 220. ISBN 9781351550697.
- Ingham, Chris (June 2001). "Play for today". Classic Rock #28. p. 50.
- ^ Power, Martin (1997). The Complete Guide to the Music of Aerosmith. Omnibus Press. p. 93. ISBN 0711955980.
- Perry, Joe; Ritz, David (2015). Rocks: My Life in and Out of Aerosmith. Simon & Schuster. p. 247. ISBN 9781476714592.
- Bienstock, Richard (2020). Aerosmith, 50th Anniversary Updated Edition: The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Bad Boys from Boston. Voyageur Press. pp. 140, 142. ISBN 9780760369364.
- Frank, Britt (2022). The Science of Stuck: Breaking Through Inertia to Find Your Path Forward. Penguin. p. 176. ISBN 9780593419458.
- "Italian Job, The Script at IMSDb". www.imsdb.com. Retrieved 2016-02-14.
