Aerosmith C/D?

The 70s stuff, from what I know of it (Greatest Hits and Toys In the Attic + any remaining singles), is great. His voice was fantastic then. It's really tragic what happened to it. It's almost hard to believe he's the same man who sang "Dream On". The song "Toys In the Attic" is great - has this urgent but almost kind of spooky feel. "Walk This Way" actually did something new with the Stooges sound. Agree about "Back In the Saddle" too, also like "Draw the Line". I also like "Rag Doll" and if I'm in a mood to deal with it, "Angel". After that, they truly became one of the worst bands of all time. Nothing can justify "Janie's Got a Gun" or the "Crying"/"Crazy"/"Amazing" trilogy. Perhaps not entirely coincidentally, that was when I'd started listening to campus radio. At that point I think I really saw them as fundamentally evil, a symbol of corruption of the rock industry. In fact, when my friend and I started our first band and were seeking a drummer, I made sure to note that he hated Aerosmith before we met.

Heh, Permanent Vacation was one of the first albums I ever 'got' (taped off my friend).

But the next two? Woah! One of the best one-two punches in rock. I mean, on Rocks all they tried to do was rewrite Toys in the Attic, but it worked wonderfully and probably even produced a superior album (not marred by one-and-done like "Big Ten Inch Record"). Toys does get major points for "Walk This Way", hard as it is to hear that song with anything approaching fresh ears (and I don't know what the heck Sundar is talking about w/r/t The Stooges?! I couldn't think of a more inapt comparison). The "Uncle Salty" - "Adam's Apple" sequence is one of my favorite rock moments.

But Rocks? Well what can you say, one of the best heavy metal records ever. It was like they were teetering on the verge of this interesting American reformulation of metal, and the record where they had really expanded their ideas and dropped a few more overt references. The differences in just riffage and layering and production in Perry's work on this record vis-a-vis the first two is impressive. "Sick As a Dog" is my favorite Aerosmith tune. Anyway, this record pretty much set the template for Guns n' Roses.

Then they threw it all away for Draw the Line. I think it's a wonderful record, but somewhat poignant after the assiduousness of the last two. They were kind of back to the Stones again. Too much booze and drugs. But for all that I think it is their most underrated album, no question. "Critical Mass" really captures that kind of vaguely psychedelic feel they could capture. The Perry-sung "Bright Light Fright" totally punk rock. "I can't find my shoes / the only thing on TV is the good morning news". "Sight For Sore Eyes" another of their great funk hybrids (actually more proto-disco given Kramer's hi-hat pattern). Destroy that "Milk Cow Blues" cover though (but search "Walking the Dog" from the first one! And the Necros totally stole their arrangement of it too).

I really couldn't give a shit about anything after that. Done With Mirrors had some cool stuff.

And of course, wouldn't you know, dave q gets at why this record is so great better than I ever could.

"Combination" off of Rocks has one of my favorite guitar riffs ever. Along with "Nobody's Fault" they are definitely songs that should be better known.

There is just something completely wrong with someone who wrote "Lord of the Thighs" calling up Diane Warren and the people behind Bryan Adams up for songs. They have made tons of cash from their comeback, but outside the song "Hangman Jury", I just think it is overcooked crud.

Along with ZZTop and Lynyrd Skynyrd, they were probably the better American rock and roll bands of the 70s, before punk rock happened.

Even if I'd said "They actually did something new with Lawrence Welk's sound"?

Iggy sang about boredom and never getting laid, he probably just stood in the corner if he in fact went to dances. I can't imagine him uttering "hey diddle-diddle" under any circumstances. The I'm-a-badass of Raw Power is all about compensating for never being invited to the party. Tyler's already there, getting his big ten-inch sucked.

Plus musically I can't think of a Stooges song that is built upon a single string riff (yeah "Dirt" but that's a different kettle of fish); they're all about slashing chords. The Stooges are rhthymically great - both bands rock - but I can't imagine them leaning on a breakbeat the way "Walk This Way" does. I love drawing neat parallels between all sorts of disparate stuff, but this is one case where I just don't hear it.

See I think they were taking from Zep a bit on this track. Specifically in that centrality of the heavy drumbeat overlaid with the "killer riff". The greatest riffs, the ones that play around with rhythm, are wonderful things; but in another sense they don't leave much to negotiate - you get on that train and ride. The Stooges seem more open-ended to me, always with this sense that the whole thing could derail at any time, even if it never does. Actually what happens is that Steve McKay comes along and goes EEEEEAIAIEEEGHRRRYYYYYAA

Put me on the hating side of post-70s Aerosmith (and banish Steven Tyler from all future awards shows while you're at it).

i bought 'rocks' about a year ago, and like it, but still haven't given it enough spins. to be amended today perhaps

i've owned pump for about 17 years. still holds up as a pretty tight and interesting rock record with plenty of sleazy hook. have always liked 'janie's got a gun' too. guess i've never got over the soft spot i had for it when i was about 8.

Rocks kicks all sorts of ass. I can't believe the same band that did "Combination" did the crap they did after their "comeback".

Ultimately, there are really two Aerosmiths -- the hirsute, drug-gobbling cut-throats of the 70s and the yawnsomely clean n' sober hitmakers and sports bar jukebox fodder of the late 80's through today. Obviously, the former takes a giant, runny, narcotic-laced shit all over the latter.

Best song they ever did: "Back in The Saddle."

hahah 'drug-gobbling cut-throats'

im gonna steal that one.

I'm saying a prayer for the desperate hearts tonight. How high can you fly with broken wings?

The first three are super classic, the rest up through Done with Mirrors are classic and everything after kind of a dud.

you people need to refine your purism, I've heard that Done With Mirrors is OK but everybody knows Night in the Ruts is garbage. First album through Draw the Line all various degrees of great including some of my favorite rock moments ever (that last verse of "Draw the Line," the entirety of "Sick as a Dog," loads more). Out to pasture therafter with the possible exception of Done With Mirrors from which I've never heard a note.

to me the biggest tragedy of Aerosmith is that Tyler was once a pretty good/maybe great lyricist - on Rocks and all throughout that early stuff there are really smart turns of phrase, a real ear for how to deliver a line for maximum impact, and what always sounded to me like a genuine love of words & their sounds, of phrases and how they ring. Later, you get fuckin' "livin' it up while I'm goin' down." Ugh.

haha 'living it up while i'm goin down' was surely yet another triumphant winner in the tyler canon of punning genius!

everybody knows Night in the Ruts is garbage

I don't.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8FG_L3BZ5dY

Post-Done With Mirrors, well, I think "Jaded" is kind of lovely, sort of. Beyond that, yeah, lyrics and vocals both down the tube, obviously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=705LEH3j2g0

lyrics and vocals both down the tube

(Not to mention rhythm section.)

you people need to refine your purism, I've heard that Done With Mirrors is OK but everybody knows Night in the Ruts is garbage.

Man, I love Night in the Ruts. It's just so wasted an desperate sounding. As for some critical consensus, I know a lot folks who dig NitR.

In 2010, guitarist Joe Perry revealed his distaste for the album, stating that:[3]

“ I don't think we've made a decent album in years. Just Push Play is my least favorite. When we recorded it there was never a point where all five members were in the room at the same time and Aerosmith's major strength is playing together. It was a learning experience for me: it showed me how not to make an Aerosmith record.

Just Push Perry

Vaccinate your ass with a phonograph needle

Can anyone transcript the jive on "No Surprize?"

No surprize is their pinnacle. Thank you

Oh shit, same time on those posts!!!!

"situation feeble"

The back stage is rocking and we're coppin' from the local police

Aw, the justice of peace

Here are twentey-five hot rocks.

Today my brother told me that session guitar maestro Dick Wagner played the rave-up/solo on Aerosmith's cover of Train Kept a Rollin'. Is this common knowledge that I somehow missed? Anyone else heard this rumour?

Feel like there was some discussion of that recently but its not on this thread, apparently?

A guy passed me on the street the other day who liked an alternate-universe Steven Tyler, in which he never made it in music and instead went to business school and became a tubby middle manager who was late for his 10 a.m. meeting.

I could've sworn there was a thread recently where someone (Neanderthal?) was slagging off Aerosmith for not even playing on their earlier records and the Train Kept a Rollin thing was mentioned along with session work by the Alice Cooper band guys via Bob Ezrin...? this doesn't ring a bell with anybody?

ah here it is: Aerosmith's Greatest Hits (1980)

Wimmels was the one who brought up Wagner

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits (1980)

somewhat surprised AlS doesn't much go for the band's 90s ballads… them's the best of the power variety that ever was… or "Don't Wanna miss a Thing" is the ne plus ultra of Diane Warren…

I like "Thing" more than I did in 1998, but it still sounds like Tyler's passing a hernia.

A friend at the time said she hoped to date a guy who said the things Tyler does to her.

ew

http://www.detroitrocknrollmagazine.com/2015/02/aerosmiths-train-kept-rollin-who-did.html

But few people know that they had a little help along the way when, during the recording, Record Producer Jack Douglas saw the now legendary session man Steve Hunter sitting outside the studio taking a cigarette break from a different session and he asked Steve to play a solo over the first half of the track.

It was very quick Steve recalls, he got his own guitar which he thinks would have been a 1959 Les Paul TV Special. They took some time to get a sound, then, ran through the track. But, as he did not have the vocal in his headphones they ran through it again this time with the vocal in, and Steve nailed it.

He got paid about $750 for doing it, then, as it turns out, 'Train' had a huge impact on the career of the young, inexperienced Aerosmith. They went on to bigger and better things, becoming one of the highest paid, most domineering bands in Rock Music.

Unbeknownst to Steve, Douglas also enlisted his session companion Dick Wagner to play the solo over the second half simulated live ‘Yardbirds’ section.

Neither Hunter or Wagner got a credit on the album, as ‘ghosting’ as it’s sometimes called was fairly common practice at that time.

Hunter has no idea why he was asked to record the solo; as he says, it was none of his business. The rest of the band we’re all there, they were very nice to him and he was never asked to teach anybody what he played.

In 2013 Joe Perry played a solo on Steve's solo album 'The Manhattan Blues Project' (The Brooklyn Shuffle) alongside his buddy Johnny Depp, so clearly there are no hard feelings and why should there be.

Statement from Steve Hunter

"Aerosmith was in Studio C of The Record Plant and I was doing work with Bob Ezrin in Studio A. I had a long wait between dubs and was waiting in the lobby. Jack Douglas popped his head out of Studio C and asked "Hey, do you feel like playing? I said sure, so I grabbed my guitar and went in" "I had two run thru’s, then Jack said "great' that's it! That turned out to be the opening solos on 'Train Kept A Rollin’ " steve hunter 2/1/2015

This also came up recently during a discussion of Lou Reed's Rock n Roll Animal.

Here: Velvet Underground Trainspotting Question

Thanks. I must now, with hanging head, after telling him he's wrong, tell my brother he was right. D'oh!

Alfred's list is fine. I really just can't get with most reformed Aerosmith, but one track out there that I think fits with the old druggy 70s music is "Hangman Jury" off of Permanent Vacation.

When I was a kid, I got a three of Aerosmith's LPs as 8-tracks and that was the format I really heard them first in. I can't remember what track it was but one on 'Draw the Line' clicked to a new track in the middle of a song nearly in time that was pretty hilarious.

I love how "no surpiZe" is a latter day origin story for the band..."and old Clive Davis said he surely gonna make us a star" and Tyler's raspy "smoking up the axle grease" and how the track descends into Draw the Line coked up mania by the end with a greedy rant of "ascap, bmi , if Japanese can make tea then where the fuck my royalties?"

Just noticed today that the version of “same old song and dance” on Wings is different - a little more loose - than the one on Greatest Hits

https://i.imgur.com/coX6KrS.jpg

New font on the logo?

I made it to the end of “live bootleg” and by the time they make it to “I ain’t got you” / “mother popcorn” / “train kept rolling” it’s clear that they’re just a bar band that struck it big

I'd rather be O.D.in' on the honk of her bobo

Better: I'd rather be honkin' on the crack of her bobo

“I ain’t got you” has some Tyler honkin’ and it’s as mediocre abs cliched as you’d expect

I’m deep in an Asmith YouTube hole. Watching the “making of pump” documentary. I can’t believe there’s accordion on “what it takes.”
Joe justifying commercialism by saying “if I were a purist I’d be playing in a coffee shop in Cambridge. I’m an entertainer. I play arena rock”

any thoughts on the 1971 practice tape? called “the road starts hear”? i love it. very strange rolling stone review here which harps on the sound quality? calling it “dusty” and “a fossil” etc which is just… what? it sounds… frankly amazing?? maybe the reviewer got a copy with some bad juju rubbed into it? its bobo already honked?

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/aerosmith-1971-road-starts-hear-review-1261908/

Fossil butt rock

very happy i saw aerosmith for $25 last year, now that this expensive farewell tour has been announced

https://i.imgur.com/kUQzNNN.png

Now we know where Giger got his inspiration for Alien

Not that I'd really be interested in seeing them (once back in the 90s was enuff, thanks), but done touring for good:

It was 1970 when a spark of inspiration became Aerosmith. Thanks to you, our Blue Army, that spark caught flame and has been burning for over five decades. Some of you have been with us since the beginning and all of you are the reason we made rock ‘n’ roll history.

It has been the honor of our lives to have our music become part of yours. In every club, on every massive tour and at moments grand and private you have given us a place in the soundtrack of your lives.

We’ve always wanted to blow your mind when performing. As you know, Steven’s voice is an instrument like no other. He has spent months tirelessly working on getting his voice to where it was before his injury. We’ve seen him struggling despite having the best medical team by his side. Sadly, it is clear, that a full recovery from his vocal injury is not possible. We have made a heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision - as a band of brothers - to retire from the touring stage.

We are grateful beyond words for everyone who was pumped to get on the road with us one last time. Grateful to our expert crew, our incredible team and the thousands of talented people who’ve made our historic runs possible. A final thank you to you - the best fans on planet Earth. Play our music loud, now and always. Dream On. You’ve made our dreams come true.

“Throw me in the slam / catch me if you can…”

part of me is bummed that i never saw them but the window of time when i personally would have WANTED to see them probably closed 20 years ago :/

I saw them on the Pump tour fwiw

And maybe the permanent vacation tour too? I can’t remember. I do recall the people in the row in front us smoking the biggest doobie I’d ever seen

Tourin' On Bobo

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.boston.com/culture/music/2018/08/07/original-aerosmith-tour-van-found-western-massachusetts/%3famp=1

They found the van but did they find Tom’s cache? Not likely

i almost saw them on that tour they did w Kiss in the early 00’s but couldnt go for some reason

(also that was when my ever-seeing-Kiss window closed)

I saw that episode of American Pickers, which is still a good watch, esp for ancient metal objects.
Good discussion of Aerosmith in pop-rock historical context (also vs. Kiss) over on Good books about music, starting circa April 17 2021.

Oh but speaking of books, the best thing by far about Tyler's "Rock 'N' Roll Memoir, Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? is the title: considering the clever smell of his best lyrics (in the 70s,yes), and some good interview quotes, I thought this might be obnoxiously engaging (and maybe drop a little interesting info, like he once told Rolling Stone, "Aerosmith would be nothing without Blodwyn Pig"), and maybe I missed the good stuff, but the skims hit the skids, rants got uglier and stupider and more repetitive, couldn't go on (I couldn't, he could).

I saw them in 1985 on a weird bill, it was an all-afternoon concert with the Hooters, Joe Walsh, Aerosmith and Foreigner. Foreigner was the headliner, because unlike Aerosmith they were still having hits. Aerosmith definitely felt like the oldies act at the show to me, because I was 15 and everything of theirs I knew via radio was at least 10 years old. They were good, I remember "Train Kept a-Rollin'" rocking in particular. But if I'd ranked that bill by likelihood of being major MTV presences over the next decade, they would have been at the bottom.

‘85…I wonder if Walsh and the A boys were doing lines backstage…probs

Doing lines off some hooters, no doubt.

I saw them in Knoxville with Joan Jett opening, maybe ‘91, incredible show. Joan Jett rocked harder tbrr

Just looked it up, I guess that was the Pump tour, 1990, but obv those were not the songs we were there to hear