‘Janie's Got a Gun’ is a song by American rock band Aerosmith and written by Steven Tyler and Tom Hamilton. The song was released as the second single from Pump in 1989, peaking at number four on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart in 1990. In Australia, the song reached number one, becoming Aerosmith's first of two number-one singles there. It also reached number two in Canada, number 12 in Sweden, and number 13 in New Zealand.
The song describes a young woman planning her revenge for childhood abuse. It won the band a 1990 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal. On the album, ‘Janie's Got a Gun’ is preceded by a 10-second instrumental called "Water Song", which features the work of instrumentalist Randy Raine-Reusch, who uses a glass harmonica, wind gong, and bullroarers to produce the special effects heard at the start of the song.
Tyler came up with the main riff using a low-tone setting on his keyboard. Hamilton created the bassline. The guitars and drum parts were configured later and Tyler wrote the lyrics. In a 1994 interview with Rolling Stone, Tyler described the origin of the song: “I wrote the song in my basement, just fucking around. "Oh, Janie's got a gun." I got goose pimples. I sat for months, waiting for the oracle door to open. Then I looked over at a Time magazine and saw this article on 48 hours, minute by minute, of handgun deaths in the United States. Then I got off on the child abuse angle. I'd heard this woman speaking about how many children are attacked by their mothers and fathers. It was fucking scary. I felt, man, I gotta sing about this.”
Tyler took nine months to complete the lyrics, which were also inspired by stories he heard in rehab from another addict who turned to drugs after being abused by her father. He explains, "In the 1980s I was in a recovery program where I met so many women who had experienced incredibly painful and debilitating sexual, mental and physical abuse. Those events put them on a path of suffering that led to anything from abusing drugs to self-harm to many other self-destructive behaviors to mask the pain. It was also around that time that I wrote the song ‘Janie's Got a Gun,’ which tells the story of a young girl who is abused by her father." The singer declared, "I got really angry that nobody was paying homage to those who were abused by mom and dad."
In 2015, Tyler started a charity, Janie's Fund, which raises funds to provide counselling, trauma care, housing and medical care to troubled young women. Tyler explains, "Over the 30 years since that song was released, I've often thought about what could be done to prevent this kind of abuse."
Label – Geffen
Songwriters – Steven Tyler, Tom Hamilton
Producer – Bruce Fairbairn
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]Dum, dum, dum, honey, what have you done?
Dum, dum, dum, it's the sound of my gun
Dum, dum, dum, honey, what have you done?
Dum, dum, dum, it's the sound
Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah
Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah
[Chorus 1]
Janie got a gun
Janie got a gun
Whole world's come undone
From lookin' straight at the sun
What did her daddy do?
What did he put you through?
[Verse 2]
They said when Janie was arrested
They found him underneath a train
But, man, he had it comin'
Now that Janie's got a gun
She ain't never gonna be the same
[Chorus 2]
Janie got a gun
Janie got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run
Tell me now it's untrue
What did her daddy do?
He jacked a little bitty baby
The man has got to be insane
They say the spell that he was under
The lightning and the thunder
Knew that someone had to stop the rain
[Chorus 3]
Run away, run away from the pain, yeah, yeah yeah yeah
Run away, run away from the pain, yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Run away, run away, run, run away
[Guitar Solo]
[Chorus 2]
Janie got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run
[Verse 2]
What did her daddy do?
It's Janie's last I.O.U
She had to take him down easy and put a bullet in his brain
She said, "'Cause nobody believes me. The man was such a sleeze
He ain't never gonna be the same"
[Chorus 3]
Run away, run away from the pain, yeah, yeah
Yeah yeah yeah
Run away, run away from the pain, yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Run away, run away, run, run away
[Chorus 2]
Janie's got a gun
Janie got a gun
Janie's got a gun
Now everybody is on the run
[Outro]
Janie got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run (Honey, honey, what's the problem?)
Because Janie got a gun (Tell me it ain't right)
Janie got a gun (Was it Daddy's cradle robbing that)
Her dog day's just begun (Made you scream at night?)
Now everybody is on the run
Janie got a gun
Janie got a gun
Her dog day's just begun
Now everybody is on the run