rated Aerosmith singles you have loved 1973-1976

Those last five are massive.

Last Child gets me every time

yeah it's probably "back in the saddle" for me. i don't normally get bummed by long-running acts "tarnishing" their legacy with a lot of post-peak crud, but the absolute hugeness of post-comeback aerosmith means that the first things i instinctively think of when i hear the name are the pump singles, alicia silverstone, and shitty michael bay movies.

I typed up a whole long story about my complicated relationship with this band but it comes down to how fucking great they were at one point & how they were tailor-made for a murkier age - they'd disagree I'm sure because the real money for them was later but up through Live Bootleg they are basically untouchable

I think the best vocal take here, which for me are/were a big part of this band's appeal, is "Same Old Song and Dance"; the best vocal on Rocks imo is "Sick As A Dog" which has more of that fitful trembling tight-neck delivery which to me made their best numbers crackle with a kinda frightening energy. "Last Child" is amazing too esp when he goes falsetto but I think among the hits I gotta go with "Same Old Song and Dance" just for the call-back on "You can look....butyouaintgonnafinditaround" in the last verse. "Back In the Saddle" is really close though - I don't know, really. That opening before the vocal is just pure electricity, and the vocal take is more of that youngest-heart-attack-victim vibe that just gets me

i don't normally get bummed by long-running acts "tarnishing" their legacy with a lot of post-peak crud, but the absolute hugeness of post-comeback aerosmith means that the first things i instinctively think of when i hear the name are the pump singles, alicia silverstone, and shitty michael bay movies.

also this is kinda otm but the thing is it's not about the hugeness. it's the disparity between how unquestionably great they really were vs. how shitty they became, and how it makes you hear their old stuff as being more like the new stuff; without the new stuff, you might not even notice the goofy grandpa vibe that tyler actually finds attractive & appealing

i know this isn't an argument worth having again but man the best later Aerosmith hits are so much better than anything their '70s peers managed at that late date, totally different appeal than their early stuff but really not as bad as you make out

I wish more rock singers paid attention to Tyler's singing.

yeah, not enough raspy scatting these days

I dislike the material released immediately before and after Pump: that run of awful Permanent Vacation singles and the indiscriminate loudness of the Alicia Silverstone videos. Generally Pump is the rare thing: the consolidation after the comeback that is a good album in its own right.

i don't hate the pump singles at all. if nothing else they are "beloved pop music of my youth" staples i will groove to when they come on the radio. when they started going all-ballads-all-the-time, i'll admit to hating for sure.

aside from "walk this way" (via the run dmc remake) and "dream on" and "sweet emotion" (via the re-releases), i never even heard any of the classic stuff until i was an adult, though.

i love the shit out of Pump but i know old man underrated is gonna come along and grouse about that

my mom's a big fan of the '70s stuff so i heard a lot of "Mama Kin" and "Same Old Song And Dance" growing up but yeah aside from the big staples you don't really hear a lot of these on the radio anymore

yeah i was kinda surprised to see they never had a top twenty hit until permanent vacation.

I dislike the material released immediately before and after Pump: that run of awful Permanent Vacation singles

Permanent Vacation is such a better record than Pump (and both are so much better than Get a Grip). But that's neither here nor there...we're talking about the 70s. Every one of the tracks in this poll is a shade of great, but "Back in the Saddle" is fucking all-time.

"Dream On" and "Walk This Way" were top 10! Aerosmith seemed to do way better on the singles charts than most other big '70s hard rock bands

haha were they? wiki made it look like they didn't go top ten until they got re-released/remade. consider me corrected.

I feel kind of cheesy doing so--given the REM associations--but I knew when I clicked on this thread I'd be voting for 'Toys'...

it looks like "Dream" and "Walk" both reached chart peaks after being reissued, but circa Rocks, not really very long after their original releases

Aside from Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, none of the other rock musicians in the video are the Aerosmith members; instead, they were played by Roger Lane, J. D. Malo and Matt Stelutto - respectively rhythm guitarist, bassist and drummer for the largely unknown hair metal outfit Smashed Gladys.

this always cracks me up for some reason.

Man, that's just cold. But...have you seen Brad Whitford?

lol @ "old man underrated"

aerosmith weren't a going concern when the run dmc 'walk this way' vid was done. tbh at the time i had no idea what aerosmith looked like (i knew the music somewhat via my dad), so i thought it was a parody of the rolling stones a la willie nelson and boy george in the 'just a gigolo' video.

i attended high school 1973-1976 so these singles were the original soundtrack to basement pot parties and long nights of aimless oldsmobile cruising- sigh. the local FM stations in cincinnati jumped on that first album and never let up, as many times as i heard "walk this way" junior year i never got tired of sick of it unlike, say, "bohemian rhapsody." by '77 punk rock (& college) reshaped my worldview and i stupidly decided that aerosmith and led zep were dinosaurs. somewhere around 1985, just before the run dmc collaboration, I rediscovered aerosmith in a big way and marveled at how sly slick and wicked that initial run of four albums was. i can't remember hearing "draw the line" on the radio but i'd add it to this list.

one distinguishing and often unremarked factor is that the kramer/hamilton/whitford rhythm section is right OTM behind the flamboyant frontmen - these guys were tight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxXI2BPRzaA&feature=related

Back In The Saddle

As a rock snob, I always looked down my nose at Aerosmith. I was too young for their 70s heyday and the 80s/90s hits were just too slick. But a couple years back I heard Rocks for the first time and it hit me like a tornado. That is one hell of a record.

^^ same reaction

"Same Old Song And Dance" for me. It was the song that made me a fan.

Growing up in northern New England I just assumed they were huge everywhere. I heard all of these regularly on the radio in the early 80s, as well as deeper cuts from the era like "Sick As A Dog" and "Nobody's Fault", "Big Ten Inch" and "Round And Round", and "Lord of the Thighs". Their comeback didn't seem like a comeback because they were still omnipresent. I think all my friends got the Greatest Hits cassette as a birthday or christmas present by the time they turned twelve (my friend Kyle gave me a copy in 1983 when I turned eleven).

i have listened to "back in the saddle" approximately 15 times since this poll was started, so thanking u some dude.

i am gonna use this as my I'm Gonna Get Shit Done soundtrack until Shit Gets Done, just like marky mark.

apparently pre-'85 aerosmith albums aren't on spotify which is pissing me off right now.

they're showing up on spotify for me

are u in usa?

Not me, was just discovering that too! Wanted to listen to "Last Child," I remember really loving that on the red-and-white greatest hits. Have to go with "Sweet Emotion" anyway - that riff is a monster and it basically has everything I need out of the band in one song.

actually strike that the only pre-dmc aerosmith i'm seeing are get yr wings/toys/rocks, which kinda defeats the purpose of spotify cuz who doesn't already own those. i come to you for night in the ruts spotify! give me night in the ruts!

i'm usa through and through. i'm a 'premium' user though so maybe that's it? weird if so.

btw spotify users check out a track called 'animal crackers' and tell me post-comeback aerosmith doesn't hold it's own w/ their 70s peak.

i'm premium too! wtf. going to restart spotify.

yeah, no--the entire first disc of the 2002 greatest hits is grayed out so there is some kind of intent here. sucks cause i really wanted to give a close listen to some of these tunes.

youtube is here friend here it sounds like. they're all there, i am pretty sure.

does this work? - http://open.spotify.com/album/3VNTh6evo3MyUsStAiatcY

or these? - http://open.spotify.com/album/5Uv5LmSKTT9okGkr3l9MjR http://open.spotify.com/album/36IxIOGEBAXVozDSiVs09B http://open.spotify.com/album/6ts9DsFiEy3H9yIYiggLdq

how the fuck you gonna have the last action hero soundtrack spotify and no 'big gun'? cmon man.

Listening to a couple other things, I'm starting to think I really should check out these guys' albums. I was always put off by stuff like their "Come Together" cover and "Dream On" which just seem so dreary and by-the-numbers, but when they rock they rock pretty hard.

lol balls

i was kind of happy the "Come Together" cover was post Done With Mirrors and therefore easy to leave out of this poll because i really really hate that

yeah i get an album not available on all those except, weirdly, the second to last track on get your wings.

i will prob listen on youtube but hate sound quality there most of the time.

What? Come Together was on the original Greatest Hits album from 1980 and taken from the horrible Sgt. Pepper's movie.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Come_Together#Aerosmith_version

Apparently, it was their last "hit" until Permanent Vacation too, so maybe leaving it off was a cheat.

brain fart, meant to say post-Draw The Line

ah okay

i know this isn't an argument worth having again but man the best later Aerosmith hits are so much better than anything their '70s peers managed at that late date, totally different appeal than their early stuff but really not as bad as you make out

I hate to disappoint you so let me just say that you saying this is like somebody saying repping for Blueprint 3 on a Reasonable Doubt thread

I mean yeah ok Deep Purple didn't have any singles worth hearing in '89 but "Janie's Got A Gun" and "Love in an Elevator" are still total, unredeemable shit from a band that ruled for about seven years

you crazy, perry's solo on elevator is wonderful

plus lesley ann warren c'mon man

I'm sure there's some pretty decent rapping on Recovery, too, but that doesn't mean I'm going to listen to it

what about brian johnson era ac/dc? would you listen to 'big gun'?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKmYlnQv_dg

I think Brian Johnson era AC/DC is different - all of Back in Black, some of For Those About to Rock, feel like the singles stay solid for quite some time - I heard one Johnson AC/DC track, late stuff from like Flick of the Switch I think or even later, on the closing credits of a soundtrack at some point and was like, fuckin A, this is the good stuff. Whereas Aerosmith after Done With Mirrors is an almost completely unique instance of a band just going completely to shit. I guess if I loved early Green Day maybe Green Day would be analogous here. Or Rod Stewart 1995-present vs. the Small Faces

xpost that's the one! solid fucking jam

95 is yr cutoff mark for rod stewart??? 'all downhill once he started covering oasis'

well in '93 he did that one jam on the 3 muskateers soundtrack with bryan adams & sting, I mean you gotta admit that shit was classic

if you like 'all for love' there's this song aerosmith did for armageddon that's right up yr alley

the point of '95 for rod stewart was actually "at this point we are so far from everything that made him good that you can see how people born in '75 would feel justified in saying 'he has always sucked" - similar situation as w/aerosmith imo

I'll be boring and vote for "Dream On", but that's because I have a warm memory from when I first heard it in the '70s. "Train Kept A-Rollin'" will always be a Yardbirds cover for me (although of course the Yardbirds' versions were themselves covers of an old blues standard). "Walk This Way" is one of the definitive riff-rockers all all time for me.

Rod Stewart? Forget 1995, he went sharply downhill after "Never a Dull Moment", and was almost a complete washout by 1980.

playing more into yr argument than i'd like really but the situation is probably worse w/ aerosmith - unlike w/ rod stewart or metallica or van halen or maybe even green day where everyone 'knows' the later stuff pales in comparison this cw hasn't really emerged for aerosmith i don't think, plus unlike w/ rod stewart where 'maggie may', 'you wear it well', 'stay with me', etc still get played at least as much on the radio 'love touch' (or more really ime) the only aerosmith i hear w/ anything near the regularity of 'rag doll', etc are the 'sweet emotion'/'walk this way'/'dream on' triumvirate and those were (i'm guessing) by far their biggest hits of the 70s and (more importantly i'd guess) all got major pushes at some point on mtv - 'walk this way' w/ run dmc, 'sweet emotion' got a video w/ that box set that got as much play as any of their other hits, and 'dream on' had a vma performance that entered rotation. i don't think the dropoff is as much as you do, i'd put it closer to brian johnson ac/dc than something like coverdale/page or recovery or balance or whatever, but at the same time i can look at last.fm stats where everything in the top 15 outside of the triumvirate is post-dmc and fucking 'jaded' has twice as many plays as 'back in the saddle' and still react w/ some degree of horror. at the same time 'simply the best' has three times as many plays as 'river deep mountain high' and i'm alot more likely to hear 'like a prayer' or 'blame it on the rain' on the atlanta oldies station than i am the kinks or the beach boys. everything gets erased eventually.

i used to hear a few more of these a lot when I listened to the radio; I remember "Back in the Saddle", "Last Child", "Mama Kin" (my #2), and "Train Kept a Rollin" getting played a lot even five years ago, though things may have changed since then...

I barely heard "Toys" back then, though, and this is probably the reason I still yelp when I hear it today; it hasn't lost its exoticism.

Inspired by this thread, I sang "Last Child" at karaoke tonight. This was a very bad idea but I don't blame Aerosmith.

draw the line wasn't a single? its on the greatest hits and it would've gotten my vote...

oh, right, 1977. sweet emotion then (but the full album version, not the edit on greatest hits)

"Draw the line" was a promotional freebie. backed with "bright light fright".

I'd have voted it.

They did a fair few "in the" songs as singles then? Toys, Rats and Back in the saddle, attic and cellar, variously...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

what a great band

voted back in the saddle

these results are pretty otm, although "Mama Kin" and "Train" and "S.O.S." probably deserved better

Don't get the love for Saddle tbh

it fucking smokes iirc

ahh not as much as Mama Kin

Mama Kin 0

missed this poll, but this is so much smdh

You guys have inspired me to finally buy the next dollar copy of Rocks I stumble across. I'm excited!

Enjoy it.

Listening to it for the first time - and it's pretty solidly rocking. Definitely get the idea of why people would hate the later stuff as shiny sellout garbage, even if I did grow up with it and can't really separate it out of my mental image of the band. But this is nice, very nice.

holy shit, "Nobody's Fault." How did I sleep on these guys so long?!

too much nine lives on the huddle house jukebox i'd guess. aerosmith is like rod stewart where the early, 'good' stuff is so ridiculously great that i can understand why some ppl despise the later sellout stuff so much.

yup.

Sick as a dog
you'll be sorry
Sick as a dog
'cause you're really ain't that young

haha, balls, i owned Nine Lives in high school! Doesn't hold up so well though some of those cuts will pop into my head every now and then. I like "Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees)" well enough, and the other uptempo songs ("Something's Gotta Give," "Crash") are about as good a 'hard rock' as I could expect from anybody at that age (and after that many drugs). I even have almost-fond feelings about "Pink," though "Taste of India" is kind of embarrassing.

"s.o.s." robbed

I keep wondering why it is that prime era Aerosmith (1973-1976) didn't really make as big of a splash in the UK as it should have done. Here, you could almost be fooled into thinking that Aerosmith were some '80s thing that came into being alongside Bon Jovi.

Gems is a damn fine way to start

Not sure which ASmith thread to bring this up but might as well be here. Been thinking a lot about Perry’s style - in particular his tendency toward chromatic runs. In particular : three mile smile - lick and a promise - sweet emotion verse - even fucking walk this way. It’s pretty characteristic to my ears at least. Less sure about his solo prowess but as a rhythm player, dude ranked an A.

^ otm

I'm surprised "Toys" didn't get more love here. To me that track is the place where Aerosmith takes it to the next level, and truly becomes something to contend with unto themselves, beyond the sum of their influences. It's a blistering declaration of intent, and to me it feels like they were able to keep riding its wave of propulsive energy right through Side B of Draw the Line, even if in ever more dissolute and despondent, after-after hours fashion. If you binge listen to the albums in chronological order, I think you'll see what I mean.