Aerosmith Band

Aerosmith is an American rock band, sometimes referred to as "the Bad Boys from Boston"[6] and "America's Greatest Rock and Roll Band". Their style, which is rooted in blues-based hard rock, has come to also incorporate elements of pop, heavy metal, and rhythm and blues, and has inspired many subsequent rock artists

 

Aerosmith
Known now as the launching pad for animated pair of lips Steven Tyler, soundtrack balladeers and 80s MTV crossover rockers, it's easy to forget that, for a time, they were simply one of the greatest hard rock bands in the world. For four albums, they were at the forefront of hard rock, marrying great songs to ferocious playing. Drugs and tension between the members had them lost in the wilderness for a decade or so, before they re-emerged making shiny, fun pop-rock in their enormous comeback. It's no accident that one of their 90s albums was called Nine Lives.

Recommended Listen:
Rocks

Crash Course:
1. Rocks
2. Get Your Wings
3. Toys in the Attic

Compilation Replacement:
Aerosmith's Greatest Hits

Signature Songs:
1. "Dream On"
2. "Train Kept 'A Rollin'"
3. "Walk This Way"
4. "Sweet Emotion"
5. "Back in the Saddle"

Personal Note:
Even if you think you know how you feel about them, listen to their early run of records first. Hard rock gets quickly dismissed by modern music fans, but when it's done as well as Aerosmith through Rocks is, there's little music out there with more ferocious energy. If you asked a Bostonian, you'd put "Seasons of Wither" and "Same Old Song and Dance" and probably "Mama Kin" in there over some of the bigger hits, but I'm trying to stay objective. I feel like most people's impression of the band comes from their fun-but-lightweight 80s and 90s material, so I stayed away from it in favor of their peak stuff. If you want the 80s stuff, Pump is the clear best. Get a Grip is a really good time, too. They also got very focused again in the '00s for Just Push Play, on which "Jaded" is probably their best latter-day single.

 

This band and Steven in general gets so much flack but they're great, Sweet Emotion Dream On and Rag Doll are probably my favorite songs

 

I think Joe Perry might be one of the more underrated guitar players, too.

Not that he's unknown. Or that there aren't other amazing guitar players flying further below the radar. But he's SO great and in the "hard rock lead guitarist" sweet spot where usually the guitar nuts are fawning. So it baffles me how they miss him.

 

Aerosmith holds such a special place in my heart!! I love this band so much because they are one of the few bands/artists that bring me and my dad together. They have been his favorite band since they first came out so I grew up listening to all their albums. His sister took me to see them when I was 11 and it was my first concert. A moment I will never forget was we had lawn seats and they came down to the lawn section and played on this little platform for 20-30 minutes. It made 11-year-old me feel really special and will always be one of my favorite concert memories. My favorite song is hands down One Way Street (but that is mainly because I'm sentimental and my dad would sit and play harmonica along to that song so I always think of that when I hear it). Rocks is probably my favorite album of theirs, with Toys in the Attic being a close second.

 

The early records are the way to go for sure. "Don't Want to Miss A Thing" is a fun song and all, but the early stuff is something special.

 

My massively uninformed and prejudiced opinion is that they're a real naff band in the Motley Crue / Bon Jovi mould.

However, I've never actually listened to them past their singles, so interested to see what I end up thinking of them this week!

 

rocks is the best album of all time

 

Correcting this opinion alone makes me happy to have picked them this week.

 

I love Aerosmith. Their early stuff is great. Hit after hit. However, I don't listen to anything past Get A Grip.

 

My classic rock-loving dad was never as into Aerosmith as Zeppelin, Rush, and other '70s bands... but I still was exposed to a fair amount of their classic stuff growing up. Those early albums are still brilliant.

 

I think "Same Old Song and Dance" and "Seasons of Wither" are probably their two best songs. "Nobody's Fault" is up there, too.

 

Such a great guitar riff in "Same Old Song and Dance." I have to agree with you in that Joe Perry is underrated in the sense that everyone knows he's great but not at a "guitar god" level.

 

First time venturing into their "lost years" (aka anything after Draw the Line until the comeback) and Night in the Ruts is better than advertised. It lacks the spark and fire of their early run, and they sound tired (or drugged out), but there is some good, dirty rock and roll on here. Lesser bands would be pretty happy with this as a deep cut of their catalog, it just marked a decent step-down for such a once-great band.

 

Aerosmith are great. I remember when I was 6 or 7 getting my hands on my Dad's copy of Toys In The Attic and loving it. I even loaded it onto my cheap mp3 player that I bought with pocket money for cleaning my room and listening to it while my Mom walked me to school.

 

I was kind of dreading this, because everything I've heard of them (which is admittedly very little), I think is absolutely fucking dreadful. I Don't Want To Miss A Thing might well be the single song I dislike the most. I think it's completely devoid of any emotion and is as saccharine and cold as possible, while trying and failing to give off the impression that it's heartfelt.

Rocks is better than I was expecting though! Far more AC/DC or Zeppelin-esque than Motley Crue. Steven Tyler has clearly got a great set of pipes on him, but he's far more interesting and dynamic as a vocalist than I think he became in later years. The band are lively and energetic, some awesome guitar riffs and solos. The electric harmonica on Rats in the Cellar is awesome, as is the last minute or so with the song building up to a massive cacophony. Probably my favourite song on the whole thing. It's raw and rough, which I think suits them a lot better than the more produced later stuff.

Lyrics are what you'd expect a hard-rock band in the mid-70s to sing about. Nothing particularly noteworthy here in that regard. This was good fun in all honesty! Happy to hear that there is some worth to them after all.

 

If you like them raw and playing harmonica, their debut is definitely worth a listen this week, too. By the time of Rocks, they were pretty much a juggernaut of rock, but there's a nice rough garage edge on the debut and more holdover blues than probably anywhere else.

 

Relistened to Get Your Wings and I stand behind my long-held, but contrary opinion that Get Your Wings is their second best, and an even better album than Toys in the Attic. "Same Old Song and Dance" and "Seasons of Wither" are the sound of a band realizing it could be great.

 

My father raised me listening to Aerosmith, as they're one of his favorite bands. I should raid his collection and see how many albums of theirs he has. I've always enjoyed them when they're on, but have never sought them out.

 

Listened to their debut album as Chris suggested! It's much muddier and rougher than Rocks, reminds me a bit of the proto-punk stuff going on at that time, MC5 and The Stooges and that. It's definitely a less refined album, Tyler's vocals are more middle of the road and less distinctively "his". The instrumentation is fine, but not as impressive and complex as on Rocks. It definitely feels 100% like a debut album, there are some missteps and they struggle a little bit to carve out a sound that's truly theirs, clearly wearing their influences on their sleeves.

I do quite like hearing them with this raw sound, compared to the overblown stuff that would show up 15 or so years later. They sound like a local rock band having fun, which I can enjoy. I think I probably prefer Rocks though, sounds like a more fully-formed and realised version of this album, with some larger production.

 

I'm a little more enthusiastic about Aerosmith than this I think, but your comparisons of it with Rocks are totally spot on. The development instrumentally in just 4 albums is pretty insane. But the rawness of the debut is always going to be charming to me.

 

Just listened to Rocks and it was totally not was I was expecting. I don't really have a lot of comments on it other than I really enjoyed it. Soooo different from their 80s/90s stuff that I knew previously. I could actually see listening to this one again sometime soon.

 

And this is why I love doing this

 

Get Your Wings falls from me as somewhere in between Aerosmith and Rocks. There's a lot more swagger and confidence than their debut, and everything is just that little bit louder and richer sounding. There's obviously an extra budget behind it, as shown in the horns and sax on "Get Your Song and Dance". I think they improved musically too, everything just sounds better.

Steve Tyler sounds more recongisable, which helps, and the band seem less indebted to their influences growing into their own a bit, and shedding some of the more dirty blues influence, for a sheeker, slightly poppier sound, while still being a full-on rock band.

I definitely do prefer this to the debut, but I also definitely prefer Rocks to this.

 

Nail on the head about the swagger and confidence. It's one of the reasons I love it so much. Not very often you can hear a band clearly coming into its own on record. And it seemed to be the moment right before they realized what kind of band everyone would peg them as. "Train Kept a-Rollin'" is just barrelhouse blues rock. "Seasons of Wither" is ambitious and melodic. "Same Old Song and Dance" has some sleazy R&B, etc. Like they just realized they could be a great band and decided to try as many ideas as they could think of.