Night in the Ruts is the sixth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released on November 16, 1979, by Columbia Records.

[3] The relationship between Aerosmith and Jack Douglas also became frosty and unstable when the producer divorced his wife, whom the band had liked.

[4] This, combined with weak sales of Draw the Line, led to Columbia stepping in, with Douglas reflecting in the band memoir Walk This Way, "The label finally put a lot of pressure on them.

It's ironic, because we were out on the road, playing stadiums to huge amounts of people, and yet the band was getting ready to die.

The situation came to a head on July 28, 1979, at the World Series of Rock in Cleveland, Ohio when Perry left the band halfway through the tour after a heated argument with Tyler.

Guitar parts for the remaining songs were recorded by Brad Whitford, Richie Supa, Neil Thompson, and Jimmy Crespo.

"[8]Aerosmith spent the summer at Mediasound Studios in New York trying to finish off the album with producer Gary Lyons.

[17] Rolling Stone writer David Fricke described the album's best tracks "like inspired outtakes from Rocks and Toys in the Attic", showing Aerosmith's return to their basic sound; however, he found "the deviations from this norm ... disastrous, if not in concept then in execution," as in the cover of Shangri-Las ballad "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" "wavering inconsistently between hard rock and the Spectorian grandeur of the original".

[18] The Village Voice critic Robert Christgau considered the opening song "No Surprize" the only "promising" track on the album.

[12] The Globe and Mail opined that "they're playing here from mere force of habit and not even a rocked-up version of 'Remember (Walking in the Sand)' can disguise the fact that this is humorless, spiritless drivel.

"[19] Critic Greg Prato of AllMusic offered a more charitable commentary in a historical context, calling it "a surprisingly coherent and inspired album.

"[11] In his Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal, Martin Popoff found the album "a solid record" and a "triumph amidst adversity" which, even with the "band at its least energetic, coherent and cohesive", exudes "the canny genius of years spent welding modern flash rock to the blues.

"[13] Tyler has expressed great satisfaction with Night in the Ruts, calling it his favorite album[20] and cryptically enthusing to Stephen Davis in 1997, "Heroin.

"[21] Perry also insisted to Guitar World in 1997, "We were still fucked up, but the record sounds more cohesive than Draw the Line.