Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Rock band
For years rock critics dismissed Aerosmith as little more than a tasteless imitation of the Yardbirds or the Rolling Stones, but that didn’t keep fans from making the relentlessly hard-rocking group one of the most popular acts of the 1970s. Neither did it deter a younger generation of rockers from co-opting Aerosmith’s style to create some of the most popular bands of the 1980s. “What the critics don’t know, the little boys understand,” admitted Deborah Frost in Rolling Stone.“Aerosmith is probably the most influential hard-rock band of the Seventies. Joe Perry’s sting and stance and Steven Tyler’s scarfs and squawk have provided role models and bad attitudes for Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Ratt, Motley Crue, and every band being signed out of L.A. today.”
Aerosmith was formed in 1970 around the nucleus of guitarist Joe Perry, vocalist Steve Tyler, and bassist Tom Hamilton. The three had become acquainted during their families’ summer vacations in Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire. The following year they filled out their lineup with rhythm guitar player Brad Whitford and
For the Record…
Band formed in 1970 in Boston; original members were Steve Tyler (real name, Tallarico; born March 26, 1948, in Yonkers, New York), lead vocals; Joe Perry (born September 10, 1950, in Boston, Mass.), lead guitar; Brad Whitford (born February 23, 1952, in Mass.), rhythm guitar; Tom Hamilton (born December 31, 1951, in Colorado Springs, Colo.) bass; and Joey Kramer (born June 21, 1950, in New York, New York), drums.
Addresses: c/o Collins/Barasso Mgmt, 215 1st St., Cambridge, Mass., 02142.
drummer Joey Kramer and began playing in the Boston area. Often their only payment was the publicity they received, but their hard work soon won them a loyal local following. Their next goal was a national audience. Once again, they earned it “the hard way—making endless cross-country forays opening for anyone they could, because radio in most parts of the country wouldn’t touch their raunched-out sound,” noted Johnny Angel in the Boston Phoenix.
By 1972 their raw, loud, high-voltage sound had caught the ear of Columbia Records executive Clive Davis, who offered them a contract. Aerosmith and Gei Your Wings, the group’s first two LPs, sold modestly. Their third album, Toys in the Attic, was their breakthrough. According to Phil Hardy and Dave Laing in their Encyclopedia of Rock, it represented “the perfect distillation of the Aerosmith sound—a muscular but surprisingly agile rhythm section, with the twin guitars howling and snapping around Tyler’s vocal lines.” Toys in the Attic stayed on the charts for almost two years, eventually selling more than 4 million copies. Rocks followed the formula of Toys in the Attic and was nearly as successful. By 1978, Aerosmith was the undisputed leader of arena-rock bands.
The years of constant touring had taken Aerosmith to the top. Unfortunately, they’d also led to drug abuse of legendary proportions and the development of deep personal animosities among band members. Perry later described that period to People magazine contributor Steve Dougherty: “In the late 70s it just stopped being fun. It was like, ‘I can’t wait to finish this song so I can get backstage and do some blow,’ or, ‘Jeez, I gotta get through this solo so I can get back to my roadie and have a pop,’…We were addicted.” Tyler remembered: “I was a garbage… . Heroin, coke, valium, anything that anyone came near me with.” Aerosmith’s vitality began to fade under the strain. Audio magazine accused them of stateness in a review of their seventh album, A Night in the Ruts: “Once success struck there wasn’t far for them to go—there’s no real good instrumental virtuoso in Aerosmith, no active creative intelligence, and no visionary philosophy. It seems this group is determined to make themselves nothing more than a minor footnote in the book of rock ‘n’ roll, an afterthought to heavy metal, and the cornerstone that true mediocrity is judged by.”
Shortly after A Night in the Ruts was completed, Joe Perry walked out on Aerosmith to form his own group, the Joe Perry Project. Brad Whitford soon followed suit. Aerosmith labored on, replacing Perry with Jim Crespo and Whitford with Rick Dufay but their popularity was plunging. Then in 1981 Tyler was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. He told People he realized then that his group was about to hit bottom: “I lay there in the hospital crying and flipping out, knowing some other group was going to step into our space. Through the stupor of my medication, I pictured a spotlight. We walked out of it.” His vision was prophetic. Aerosmith was inactive for the next few years.
Finally, in 1984, Tyler and Perry made peace with each other and agreed to try putting the band back together. With no record contract and no album out, they began touring. At the same time, band members were beginning to renounce the drugs and alcohol that dominated their lives. Tyler went through four different rehabilitation programs; Perry even tried a complete blood transfusion in an attempt to rid himself of his addictions, but eventually had to submit to conventional rehabilitation The reformed group won a contract with Geffen Records, but only after auditioning for the company.
Their first reunion album, Done with Mirrors, “sported the band’s most powerful playing ever,” according to Johnny Angel, but other critics were skeptical about a sober Aerosmith. A Stereo Review writer admitted that the band’s playing was tighter than ever before, but suggested that the band’s drunken antics had supplied the greater part of their charm. “A mediocre Aerosmith concert was two hours of imitation Stones,” he wrote. “A great Aerosmith concert was a two-minute sound check punctuated by Steve Tyler hurling a bottle of Jack Daniels’ against Perry’s amplifier, followed by ten minutes of pugilism, after which the band would stumble off-stage.” Sales of Done with Mirrors were flat, too, indicating that Aerosmith’s once-loyal audience had come to doubt them.
A shot of much-needed publicity came in 1986, courtesy of rap group Run-D.M.C. They remade Aerosmith’s 1976 hit “Walk This Way” and featured Tyler and Perry in the accompanying video. The cover was a tremendous hit, and a generation of young MTV viewers was suddenly interested in Aerosmith. Their 1987 release, Permanent Vacation, sold more than 2 million copies and spawned a Top-20 hit, “Dude (Looks Like a Lady).” It even drew positive comments from music reviewers. Deborah Frost criticized Permanent Vacation as overproduced, but praised the band in Rolling Stone: “[Aerosmith] has never worked with people so determined to turn it into Bon Jovi, Heart, or Starship. The good news is that it can’t be done… .The raw, dirty edges of the Aerosmith of old slash through the power schmaltz… . The band has never sounded better or more charged.”
Aerosmith continued to build up their newfound audience by touring with many of the groups they’d inspired, such as Dokken, Guns n’ Roses, and Poison. According to Johnny Angel, working with younger musicians has revitalized Aerosmith, allowing them to create their best music to date on the album “If the child is partly father to the man, then Guns n’ Roses are partly the sire of Aerosmith’s new Pump.The band sounds reborn, though definitely not born again, on this album. It’s as if last year’s tour with Axle Rose and Company had reminded Aerosmith that folks want the raunch again… .[Pump] accomplishes what Aerosmith’s many imitators, from Ratt to Motley Crue to Dangerous Toys and Tora-Tora, could never do: swing rather than hammer. This is what has made Aerosmith so enduring.”
Selected discography
Aerosmith, Columbia, 1973.
Get Your Wings, Columbia, 1974.
Toys in the Attic, Columbia, 1975.
Rocks, Columbia, 1976.
Pure Gold, Columbia, 1976.
Draw the Line, Columbia, 1977.
Live Bootleg, Columbia, 1978.
A Night in the Ruts, Columbia, 1979.
Greatest Hits, Columbia, 1980.
Rock in a Hard Place, Columbia, 1982.
Done with Mirrors, Geffen, 1986.
Classics Live, Columbia, 1986.
Permanent Vacation, Geffen, 1987.
Gems, Columbia, 1989.
Pump, Geffen, 1989.
Sources
Books
Hardy, Phil and Dave Laing, Encyclopedia of Rock, Macdonald, 1987.
Periodicals
Audio, April, 1980.
People, January 21, 1980, October 19, 1987, February 22, 1988.
Phoenix (Boston), September, 1989.
Rolling Stone, October 22, 1987.
Stereo Review, April, 1986.
—Joan Goldsworthy
Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Rock group
Although many critics of the 1970s dismissed the band as merely a vulgar imitation of the Rolling Stones and other British blues/rock acts, Aerosmith has become one of the most popular acts in rock ‘n’ roll history. Originally labeled rock’s “toxic twins,” founding members Steven Tyler and Joe Perry defeated alcoholism and drug use in the 1980s while retaining their characteristic anti-establishment charm and attitude. Chris Norris commented in Spin: “Aerosmith is as close to Hollywood as rock-n-roll gets…. The Boston crew of Tyler, Perry, guitarist Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton, and drummer Joey Kramer have gone from being the definitive 1970s hard-rock band to a textbook on economy, surliness, and soul to the ultimate comeback band brought back almost literally from the dead in the mid-1980s to the most bankable act in popular music.”
Aerosmith began on the East Coast. Tyler was born Steven Tallarico, son of a second-generation Italian classical musician who played and taught music in Yonkers, New York. The Tallarico family also ran a resort in the Catskills in Lake Sunapee, New Hamp-shire, where Tyler and Perry, whose family had a summer house there, first met. Tyler formed his first band and named it The Strangeurs, later changing the band’s name to Chain Reaction. In 1966, Tyler
For the Record…
Members include Jimmy Crespo (group member, 1979-84), guitar; Rick Dufay (group member, 1982-84), guitar; Tom Hamilton (born on December 31, 1951, in Colorado Springs, CO), bass; Joey Kramer (born on June 21, 1950, in New York, NY), drums; Joe Perry (born on September 10, 1950, in Boston, MA), lead guitar; Steven Tyler (born Steven Victor Tallarico on March 26, 1948, in Yonkers, NY), lead vocals; Brad Whitford (born on February 23, 1952, in Massachusetts), rhythm guitar.
Group formed in Boston, MA, 1970; signed with Columbia Records executive Clive Davis, recorded self-titled debut LP Aerosmith in two weeks, which included their first hit single, “Dream On,” 1972; released first platinum record, Toys in the Attic, 1976; became the undisputed topvenue rock act, 1979; replaced Perry with guitarist Jimmy Crespo and Whitford with Rick Dufay, 1979-80; band reformed, 1984; achieved widespread success with such singles as “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “Angel,” “Janie’s Got a Gun,” and “Crazy,” 1980s-1990s; released Just Push Play, 2001.
Awards: MTV Music Awards, Best Group Video and Best Stage Performance in a Video for “Dude Looks Like a Lady,” 1988; MTV Music Awards, Best Metal/Hard Rock Video and Viewers’ Choice Award, 1990; Grammy Award for “Janie’s Got A Gun,” 1990; MTV Music Award, Best Metal/Hard Rock Video for “The Other Side,” 1991; MTV Music Viewers’ Choice Award for “Livin’ on the Edge” and Grammy Award, Best Performance by a Duo or Group for “Love in an Elevator” 1993; MTV Music Awards for All Time Favorite Video as voted by MTV viewers, Best Video, Best Group Video, and Viewers’ Choice Award for “Cryin’,” 1994; Grammy Award, Best Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for “Crazy,” 1994; Grammy Award, Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for “Pink,” 1998; Billboard magazine, Artist Achievement Award, 1999; induction, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2001.
Addresses: Record company —Columbia Records, 550 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10622. Website—Aerosmith Official Website: http://www.aerosmith.com.
recorded two singles with Chain Reaction. Meanwhile, Perry and future Aerosmith bass guitarist Hamilton formed a combo, Pipe Dream (later Jam Band), also in Sunapee.
In 1970, Perry, Tyler, and Hamilton (whose family also vacationed in Sunapee), formed Aerosmith, with Perry on guitar, Tyler on vocals, and Hamilton on bass guitar. Tyler commented of Perry’s hard-edged guitar playing in a 1975 interview with Circus: “I loved Joe’s style. He always played out of tune and real sloppy and I just loved it.” In 1971, the trio recruited rhythm guitar player Brad Whitford and drummer Joey Kramer and began playing in the Boston area. The band cultivated a young audience following their first successful appearance at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts.
Recorded Debut Album
Aerosmith signed with Columbia Records in 1972. The same year the band entered Intermedia Sound Studios to record their debut album, Aerosmith, which was recorded in only two weeks. Although the album garnered little notice and achieved only modest financial success, Aerosmith got a generally positive critical response and introduced the band to the American public with their classic single, “Dream On.” “We weren’t too ambitious when we started out,” Tyler said in comments at the Aerosmith Unwired website. “We just wanted to be the biggest thing that ever walked the planet, the greatest rock band that ever was. We just wanted everything. We just wanted it all.”
Aerosmith’s second album, Get Your Wings, further cemented the group’s growing reputation, but received mixed reviews. The album, like its predecessor, fell short of achieving blockbuster status and provoked sarcastic comparisons to the Rolling Stones. Charley Walters of Rolling Stone, however, asserted that Aerosmith’s second album “surges with pent-up fury yet avoids the excesses to which many peers succumb.” Get Your Wings remained on the charts for a total of 86 weeks. Between 1974-76, Aerosmith released many of their biggest classic hit singles, including “Same Old Song and Dance,” “Sweet Emotion,” and “Walk This Way.” The band toured heavily as their venues became larger and press coverage correspondingly increased. According to Phil Hardy and Dave Laing in the Encyclopedia of Rock, the band’s third album, Toys in the Attic, “represented a milestone in the band’s career and became their first album to represent the perfect distillation of the Aerosmith sound, a muscular but surprisingly agile rhythm section with the twin guitars howling and snapping around Tyler’s vocal lines.” Toys in the Attic stayed on the charts for almost two years.
Rocks, the band’s next album, followed the formula of Toys in the Attic, also achieving widespread critical and financial success. “Back in the Saddle,” “Sick as a Dog,” and “Last Child” remained prominent requests on classic rock stations well into the 1990s. “We were doing a lot of… drugs by then, but you can hear that whatever we were doing, it was still working for us,” Perry told Aerosmith Unwired. Draw the Line, released on Columbia Records in 1977, went platinum faster than any previous Aerosmith album. The band’s Draw the Line tour lasted through 1978 and early 1979, and their previously hectic recording schedule slowed for the first time. In 1978, Aerosmith released one live album, Live Bootleg, and made their Hollywood debut with an appearance in Robert Stigwood’s ill-received film Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, in which they covered the Beatles’ “Come Together.”
During the two-year tour that followed Draw the Line, Aerosmith developed a reputation for drug abuse of legendary proportions, and deep personal animosities developed between the primary band members. Tensions between Perry and Tyler escalated, and during the making of 1979’s A Night in the Ruts, Perry bowed out to pursue a solo career with his own group, the Joe Perry Project. The band’s 1980 debut, Let the Music Do the Talking, garnered Perry a minor hit with its title cut. Guitarist Jimmy Crespo replaced Perry and the band continued recording, keeping several tracks that Perry had recorded. However, shortly after A Night in the Ruts was completed, Brad Whitford left the band as well. In 1981, Aerosmith replaced Whitford with Rick Dufay.
Regrouped and Got Clean
In late 1981, Tyler was injured in a motorcycle accident, one in which his alcohol consumption was a factor. The accident took off his heel and put him in a hospital for over six months. By the time Aerosmith’s next album, Rock in a Hard Place, appeared in 1982, Tyler found that the band’s popularity had been eclipsed by a wide range of second-generation heavy metal bands. But in April of 1984, Aerosmith announced to the press that the original band would reunite and tour. The band’s members also took their first steps toward defeating their various drug and alcohol addictions. After auditioning for Geffen Records, the band won a new contract.
For their 1986 comeback album, Done with Mirrors, Aerosmith recruited heavyweight producer Ted Templeman, who had worked with Van Halen on its first six albums. Recorded at the Power Station, the album was recorded quickly when, according to Perry, the band went in with some riffs and winged it. Some critics were skeptical about a sober Aerosmith, including a Stereo Review writer who suggested: “A mediocre Aerosmith concert was two hours of imitation Stones. A great Aerosmith concert was a two-minute sound check punctuated by Steve Tyler hurling a bottle of Jack Daniels against Perry’s amplifier, followed by ten minutes of pugilism, after which the band would stumble off-stage.” Although the album’s sales were flat, possibly indicating that Aerosmith’s once-loyal audience had lost faith, Aerosmith re-entered the charts for the first time in six years and successfully teamed with Run-D.M.C. for a Rick Rubin-produced remake of “Walk this Way.” The cover was a hit and a new generation of young MTV viewers suddenly became interested in Aerosmith. Robert Christgau of Village Voice asserted, “Against all odds the old farts light one up: if you can stand the crunch, you’ll find more get-up-and-go on the first side [of Done with Mirrors] than on any dozen random neogarage EPs.”
In 1987, Aerosmith achieved undeniable success following the release of the album Permanent Vacation. The recording went multiplatinum and featured several blockbuster hits, including “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “Rag Doll,” and “Angel.” The album also signaled Aerosmith’s introduction to the video medium, initiating a tradition of releasing some of the most popular videos MTV has aired.
Aerosmith continued to build upon their new, younger audience by touring with many of the groups they had helped to inspire, including Dokken, Guns n’ Roses, and Poison. From 1987-88 the band produced two live albums, Classics Live! and Classics Live II, as well as a greatest hits compilation, Gems. In 1989, Aerosmith released their second chartbuster of the 1980s, Pump, which went multiplatinum and garnered several MTV Awards, as well as their first Grammy Award for “Janie’s Got a Gun.”
Continued to Win Awards
Over the next seven years, Aerosmith received two more Grammys and many MTV Awards as they achieved increasing respectability for their ability to deliver high-charged rock while avoiding drugs during an era in which many rock stars succumbed to drug-related tragedies. In late 1991, Sony signed Aerosmith away from Geffen, investing an estimated $30 million in the band despite the fact that their contract would not begin until 1997. In 1993, the band released Get a Grip, which sold more than five million copies and scored Billboard His with such singles as “Livin’ on the Edge,” “Cryin5,” “Crazy,” and “Amazing.”
Nine Lives, Aerosmith’s 1997 release for Sony, appeared amidst public allegations of drug relapse and a flurry of personnel changes. The trouble first started when the band fired their producer, John Kalodner, and replaced him with Glen Ballard, who had initially been hired as a songwriter. Next, drummer Joey Kramer temporarily left following his father’s death. Kramer was replaced by studio drummer Steve Ferrone. Well into the recording process, Sony communicated its dissatisfaction with the rough cuts of Nine Lives. “I think they were right,” commented Whitford. “I was listening to them and I just thought, Huey Lewis.” Aerosmith replaced Ballard with producer Kevin Shirley of Silver-chair and Journey fame. Tyler commented of Ballard’s release from the band: “the general consensus of the band and the corporation was that, mixed with the fact Joey wasn’t down there when we did it, it might be to our advantage to re-record it with someone who has a little more of a rock head and is into the Aerosmith that we all know and love.”
In 1998, Entertainment Weekly featured a “centered,” “sober, happily married” Tyler, who boasted of an equally sober band. He said of the restraint, “I miss the insanity sometimes. The guy you’re talking to who spent 23 years on the dark side of the moon, ripping people off and shooting cocaine with Penthouse models, kind of misses that side, yet I’ve gained so much more,” quoted Sinclair. “Now I’ve got a couple mill[ion] in the bank, and my children love me, and I’m working on a successful marriage, and I’ve got my health.” In 1998, Stephen Davis wrote a biography of the group titled Walk This Way, based on more than 200 hours of interviews with the band members. Reportedly, Aerosmith held back few details about their wild past. “My sister read it,” said Joe Perry to People’s Joseph V. Tirella, “and she told me, ‘I knew you guys were bad, but I didn’t know you were that bad.’”
To release their thirteenth studio album, Just Push Play, Aerosmith decided to produce the album themselves. They built a studio in which to mix the album—in the farmhouse beside one of the band member’s houses, which held the studio where they recorded. “We locked ourselves down there with the idea we were gonna write the best album that’s ever been written,” Rolling Stone.com quoted Tyler. Columbia released the hard, edgy album in 2001.
Finally Hit Number One
Despite Aerosmith’s popularity, it took nearly three decades for them to get a song to number one on the Billboard charts. In 1998, the group recorded the Diane Warren-written “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” for the Armageddon film soundtrack. The new song won tons of airplay, and took its place among Aerosmith’s legendary power ballads. The single stayed at number one for four weeks.
In 2001, Aerosmith joined ’N Sync, Britney Spears, and Mary J. Blige onstage for the Super Bowl halftime show. Aerosmith’s performance was “stunning,” and pushed the band into the limelight once again. The performance also helped make “Jaded”—a single from Just Push Play—a success. Years of just such success earned the group induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.
Into the 2000s, Aerosmith is “exploring just how deep into the middle ages grown men can play rock music without looking like total jacka**es,” Entertainment Weekly’s Tony Sinclair quipped. Three decades after forming, at the average age of 50, and in the words of Sinclair, “the band’s train just keeps a-rollin.’”
Selected discography
Aerosmith, Columbia, 1973.
Get Your Wings, Columbia, 1974.
Toys in the Attic, Columbia, 1975.
Rocks, Columbia, 1976.
Pure Gold, Columbia, 1976.
Draw the Line, Columbia, 1977.
Live Bootleg, Columbia, 1978.
A Night in the Ruts, Columbia, 1979.
Greatest Hits, Columbia, 1980.
Rock in a Hard Place, Columbia, 1982.
Done with Mirrors, Geffen, 1986.
Classics Live, Columbia, 1986.
Permanent Vacation, Geffen, 1987.
Classics! II, Columbia, 1987.
Gems, Columbia (compilation), 1989.
Pump, Geffen, 1989.
Pandora’s Box, Columbia, 1991.
Get a Grip, Geffen, 1993.
Big Ones (compilation), Geffen, 1994.
Box of Fire, Geffen, 1994.
Nine Lives, Columbia/Sony, 1997.
(Contributor) Armageddon (soundtrack), Sony, 1998.
A Little South of Sanity (live), Geffen, 1998.
Just Push Play, Columbia, 2001.
Sources
Books
Clarke, Donald, editor, The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Viking Press, 1989.
Graff, Gary, and Daniel Durchholz, MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide, Visible Ink Press, 1999.
Hardy, Phil, and Dave Laing, Encyclopedia of Rock, Macdonald, 1987.
Hitchcock, H. Wiley and Sadie, Stanley, editors, The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, Macmillan Press, 1986.
Morehead, Philip D., and Anne MacNeil, The New American Dictionary of Music, Dutton, 1991.
Pareles, Jon and Romanowski, Patricia, editors, The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press/Summit Books, 1983.
Stambler, Irwin, The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock & Soul (revised edition), St. Martin’s Press, 1989.
Periodicals
Audio, April 1980.
Billboard, December 4, 1999, p. 21.
Boston Phoenix, September 1989.
Circus Magazine, June 1975.
Entertainment Weekly, November 6, 1998, p. 86.
Maclean’s, July 21, 1997.
Music Wire, August 1996.
Newsweek, March 22, 1999, p. 83.
People, January 21, 1980; October 19, 1987; February 22, 1988; March 31, 1997; January 12, 1998; August 3, 1998.
Rolling Stone, October 22, 1987; May 13, 1993; October 3, 1996.
Saturday Night, March 1997.
Spin, October 1993; October 1996; May 1997.
Stereo Review, April 1986.
Teen People, May 15, 2001, p. 68+.
Online
Aerosmith Unwired, http://www.geocitJes.com/SunsetStrip/Club/4385/frameaero.html (April 1, 2002).
All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (April 1, 2002).
Grammy.com, http://www.grammy.com (April 1, 2002).
MTV.com, http://www.mtv.com (April 1, 2002).
Recording Industry Association of America, http://www.riaa.org (April 1, 2002).
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, http://www.rockhall.com (April 1, 2002).
Rocknworld, http://www.rocknworld.com (April 3, 2002).
RollingStone.com, http://www.rollingstone.com (April 3, 2002).
Yesterdayland, http://www.yesterdayland.com (April 1, 2002).
—Sean Pollock
Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Rock band
Drug Abuse of Legendary Proportions
Reformed in More Ways than One
Although many critics of the 1970s dismissed the band as merely a vulgar imitation of the Rolling Stones and other British blues/rock acts, Aerosmith proved one of the most popular acts of the decade and succeeded in conveying their hard-rock style and attitude to a new generation of fans and musicians into the 1980s. Originally labeled rock’s “toxic Twins’” founding members Steven Tyler and Joe Perry defeated alcoholism and drug use in the 1980s while retaining their characteristic anti-establishment charm and attitude. Chris Norris commented in Spin: “Aerosmith is as close to Hollywood as rock-n-roll gets. In their 25 years, the Boston crew of Tyler, Perry, guitarist Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton, and drummer Joey Kramer have gone from being the definitive 1970s hard-rock band to a textbook on economy, surliness, and soul to the ultimate comeback band brought back almost literally from the dead in the mid 1980s to the most bankable act in popular music.”
Aerosmith began on the east coast. Tyler was born Steven Tallarico, son of a second-generation Italian
For the Record…
Band formed in 1970 in Boston; original members included Tom Hamilton (born December 31, 1951, in Colorado Springs, CO) bass; Joey Kramer (born June 21, 1950, in New York, NY), drums; Joe Perry (born September 10, 1950, in Boston, MA), lead guitar; Steven Tyler (real name, Tallarico; born March 26, 1948, in Yonkers, NY), lead vocals; and Brad Whit-ford (born February 23, 1952, in MA), rhythm guitar. Signed with Columbia Records executive Clive Davis and recorded self-titled debut LP Aerosmith in two weeks, which included their first hit single, “Dream On,” 1972; released first platinum record, Toys in the Attic, 1976; became the undisputed top-venue rock act, 1979; replaced Perry with guitarist Jimmy Crespo and Whitford with Rick Dufay, 1979–80; band reformed, 1984; achieved widespread success in the 1980s with such singles as “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “Angel,” “Janie Got a Gun,” and “Crazy.”
Awards: MTV Music Awards for Best Group Video and Best Stage Performance in a Video, for “Dude Looks Like a Lady,” 1988; MTV Music Awards for Best Metal/Hard Rock Video and Viewers Choice Award for “Janie’s Got A Gun,” Grammy Award for “Janie’s Got A Gun” 1990; MTV Music Award for Best Metal/Hard Rock Video for “The Other Side,” 1991; MTV Music Viewer’s Choice Award for “Livin’ On The Edge,” Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Duo or a Group for “Love in an Elevator” 1993; MTV Music Awards fornumber one All Time Favorite Video as voted by MTV viewers, Best Video, Best Group Video, and Viewer’s Choice Award, for “Cryin” ’ 1994; Grammy Award for Best Performance By A Duo or Group with Vocal for “Crazy,” 1996.
Addresses: Managemeni co.—Collins/Barasso Mgmt., 215 1st St., Cambridge, Mass., 02142.
classical musician who played and taught music in Yonkers, New York. The Tallarico family also ran a resort in the Catskills in Lake Sunapee, New Hampshire where Tyler and Perry, whose family had a summer house there, first met. Tyler formed his first band, The Strangeurs, later changing the band’s name to Chain Reaction. In 1966, Tyler recorded two singles with Chain Reaction. Meanwhile, Perry and future Aerosmith bass guitarist Hamilton formed a combo, Pipe Dream (later Jam Band), also in Sunapee.
In 1970, Perry, Tyler, and Hamilton (whose family also vacationed in Sunapee), formed Aerosmith, with Perry on guitar, Tyler on vocals, and Hamilton on bass guitar. Tyler commented of Perry’s hard-edged guitar playing in a 1975 interview with Circus Magazine: “I loved Joe’s style. He always played out of tune and real sloppy and I just loved it.” In 1971, the trio recruited rhythm guitar player Brad Whitford and drummer Joey Kramer and began playing in the Boston area. The band cultivated a young audience following their first successful appearance at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts.
Just Wanted It All
Aerosmith signed with Columbia Records in 1972. The same year the band entered Intermedia Sound Studios to record their debut album, Aerosmith, which was recorded in only two weeks. Although the album garnered little notice and achieved only modest financial success, Aerosmith garnered a generally positive critical response and introduced the band to the American public with their classic single “Dream On.” “We weren’t too ambitious when we started out,” commented Tyler in Aerosmith Unwired. “We just wanted to be the biggest thing that ever walked the planet, the greatest rock band that ever was. We just wanted everything. We just wanted it all.”
Aerosmith’s second album, Get Your Wings, further cemented their growing reputation but received mixed reviews. The album, like its predecessor, fell short of achieving blockbuster status and provoked sarcastic comparisons to the Rolling Stones. Charley Walters of Rolling Stone, however, asserted that Aerosmith’s second album “surges with pent-up fury yet avoids the excesses to which many peers succumb [the album] contains the vital elements of economy and ill-advised solo extravaganzas.” Get Your Wings remained on the charts for a total of 86 weeks.
Between 1974 and 1976, Aerosmith released many of their biggest classic hit singles, including “Same Old Song and Dance,” “Sweet Emotion,” and “Walk This Way.” The band toured heavily as their venues became larger and press coverage correspondingly increased. According to Phil Hardy and Dave Laing in their Encyclopedia of Rock, the band’s third album, Toys in the Attic, “represented a milestone in the band’s career and became their first album to represent the perfect distillation of the Aerosmith sound, a muscular but surprisingly agile rhythm section with the twin guitars howling and snapping around Tyler’s vocal lines.” Toys in the Attic stayed on the charts for almost two years.
“Coming after a brief era when rock-n-roll fans in their adolescence were bombarded with the exaggerated sexual ambiguity of Alice [Cooper], [David] Bowie, and [Lou] Reed, it must be reassuring to have a band that knows everything we’ve wanted to know about sex all along: that it’s dirty,” commented Wayne Robins of Toys in the Attic, in Creem. Toys became the band’s first platinum record and spawned several underground classics, including “No More,” and the title cut “Toys in the Attic”. Tyler reminisced about the album’s sweeping success in all media quarters in Aerosmith Unwired: “I remember reading in a newspaper, in like 1976, about how disgusting rock lyrics are, and they used “Walk This Way” as an example of how lyrics should be nice and wholesome. I couldn’t believe it. Obviously, they didn’t get the meaning of you ain’t seen nothin’ til you’re down on your muffin.”
Rocks followed the formula of Toys in the Attic, also achieving widespread critical and financial success. “Back in the Saddle,” “Sick as a Dog,” and “Last Child” remained prominent requests on classic rock stations well into the 1990s. “We were doing a lot of … drugs by then, but you can hear that whatever we were doing, it was still working for us,” Perry mentioned in Aerosmith Unwired. Draw the Line, released on Columbia Records in 19787, went platinum faster than any previous Aerosmith album. The band’s Draw The Line Tour lasted through 1978 and early 1979, and their previously hectic recording schedule slowed for the first time in their career. In 1978, Aerosmith released one live album, Live Bootleg, and made their Hollywood debut with an appearance in Robert Stigwood’s ill-received film Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, in which they covered the Beatles’ “Come Together.”
Drug Abuse of Legendary Proportions
During the two-year tour that followed Draw the Line, Aerosmith developed a reputation for drug abuse of legendary proportions, and deep personal animosities developed between the primary band members. Tensions between Perry and Tyler escalated, and during the making of 1979’s A Night in the Ruts, Perry bowed out to pursue a solo career with his own group, The Joe Perry Project. The band’s 1980 debut Let the Music Do the Talking, garnered Perry a minor hitwith its title cut, and Perry did not return. Guitarist Jimmy Crespo replaced Perry and the band continued recording, keeping several tracks that Perry had recorded. However, shortly after A Night in the Ruts, was completed, Brad Whitford left the band as well. In 1981, Aerosmith replaced Whitford with Rick Dufay.
In late 1981, Tyler was injured in a motorcycle accident in which he had been drinking. The accident took off his heel and put him in a hospital for over six months. By the time Aerosmith’s next album, Rock in a Hard Place, appeared in 1982, Tyler found that the band’s popularity had been eclipsed by a wide range of second-generation heavy metal bands.
Reformed in More Ways than One
In April of 1984, Aerosmith announced to the press that the original band would reunite and tour. “You should have felt the buzz the moment all five of us got together in the same room for the first time again,” said Tyler. “We all started laughin, it was like the five years had never passed. We knew we’d made the right move.” The band’s members took their first steps toward defeating their various drug and alcohol addictions. After auditioning for Geffen Records, the band won a new contract.
For their 1986 comeback album, Done with Mirrors, Aerosmith recruited heavyweight producer Ted Temple-man, who had worked with Van Halen on its first six albums. Recorded at the Power Station, the album was recorded quickly when, according to Perry, the band went in with some riffs and winged it. Some critics were skeptical about a sober Aerosmith, including a Stereo Review writer who suggested: A mediocre Aerosmith concert was two hours of imitation Stones. A great Aerosmith concert was a two-minute sound check punctuated by Steve Tyler hurling a bottle of Jack Daniels against Perry’s amplifier, followed by ten minutes of pugilism, after which the band would stumble offstage.” Although the album’s sales were flat, possibly indicating that Aerosmith’s once-loyal audience had lost faith, Aerosmith re-entered the charts for the first time in six years and successfully teamed with Run-DMC for a Rick Rubin-produced re-make of “Walk this Way.” The cover was a hit and a new generation of young MTV viewers suddenly became interested in Aerosmith. Robert Christgau of the Village Voice asserted. Against all odds the old farts light one up: if you can stand the crunch, you’ll find more get-up-and-go on the first side [of Done with Mirrors] than on any dozen random neogarage EP’s.”
In 1987, Aerosmith achieved undeniable success following the release of their album Permanent Vacation. The recording went triple platinum and sold more than two million copies, featuring several blockbuster hits, including “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “Rag Doll,” and “Angel. “The album also signaled Aerosmith’s introduction to the video medium, initiating a tradition of releasing some of the most popular videos MTV ever aired. Permanent Vacation drew largely positive comments from music reviewers. Deborah Frost commented in Rolling Stone: “[Aerosmith] has never worked with people so determined to turn it into Bon Jovi, Heart, or Starship. The good news is that it can’t be done…. The raw, dirty edges of the Aerosmith of old slash through the power schmaltz…. The band has never sounded better or more charged.”
Aerosmith continued to build upon their new, younger audience by touring with many of the groups they had helped to inspire, including Dokken, Guns-n-roses, and Poison. From 1987–88 the band produced two live albums, Classics Live! And Classics Live II, as well as a greatest hits compilation, Gems. In 1989, Aerosmith released their second chart-buster of the 1980s Pump, which went multi-platinum and garnered several MTV Awards as well as their first Grammy for “Janie’s got a Gun,” an uncharacteristically moral (at least in the traditional sense) song about child abuse.
Over the next seven years, Aerosmith garnered two more Grammys and many MTV Awards as they achieved increasing respectability for their ability to deliver high-charge rock while avoiding drugs during an era in which many rock stars succumbed to drug-related tragedies.
In late 1991, Sony signed Aerosmith away from Geffen, investing an estimated #30 million dollars in the band despite the fact that their contract would not begin until 1997. In 1993, the band released Get a Grip, which sold over five million copies and scored Billboard hits with such singles as “Livin on the Edge,” “Cryin,” “Crazy,” and “Amazing.” The video “Crazy” especially dominated the MTV airwaves. Produced by Bruce Fairburn, Get a Grip featured several songs written with outside collaborators and featured the mixing talents of Atlanta-based producer, Brendan O’Brien, who had formerly worked with the Black Crowes.
Nine Lives, Aerosmith’s 1997 release for Sony, appeared amidst public allegations of drug relapse and a flurry of personnel changes. The trouble first started when the band fired their producer, John Kalodner, and replaced him with Glen Ballard, who had initially been hired as a songwriter. Next, drummer Joey Kramer temporarily leftfollowing his father’s death. Kramer was replaced by studio drummer Steve Ferrone.
Well into the recording process, Sony communicated it’s dissatisfaction with the rough cuts of Nine Lives. “I think they were right,” commented Whitford. “I was listening to them and I just thought, Huey Lewis.” Aerosmith replaced Ballard with producer Kevin Shirley of Silverchair and Journey fame. Tyler commented of Ballard’s release from the band: “the general consensus of the band and the corporation was that, mixed with the fact Joey wasn’t down there when we did it, it might be to our advantage to re-record it with someone who has a little more of a rock head and is into the Aerosmith that we all know and love.”
Norris characterized Nine Lives, as “a rawly produced assertion of hard-rock supremacy, and attempt to fuse Aerosmith’s 70s ragged glory with its 90s pop craft.” The album failed to achieve the notoriety of previous major releases, but attracted some airplay with several cuts, including “Kiss Your Past Goodbye” and “Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees).” “The group certainly hasn’t lost any of its bite on Nine Lives,” Gary Graff said in his Mr. Show Biz interview. “From the eastern touches of “Taste of India” to the industrial clangor of “Something’s GottaGive,” and the flick-your-Bic power balladry of “Ain’t That a Bitch” and “Fallen Angels,” Nine Lives is a consistently strong effort and a message that those who wonder if the band is losing its edge can, well, dream on.”
Selected discography
Aerosmith, Columbia, 1973.
Get Your Wings, Columbia, 1974.
Toys in the Attic, Columbia, 1975.
Rocks, Columbia, 1976.
Pure Gold, Columbia, 1976.
Draw the Line, Columbia, 1977.
Live Bootleg, Columbia, 1978.
A Night in the Ruts, Columbia, 1979.
Greatest Hits, Columbia, 1980.
Rock in a Hard Place, Columbia, 1982.
Done with Mirrors, Geffen, 1986.
Classics Live, Columbia, 1986.
Permanent Vacation, Geffen, 1987.
Classics! II, Columbia, 1987.
Gems, Columbia, 1989.
Pump, Geffen, 1989.
Pandora’s Box, Columbia, 1991.
Get a Grip, Geffen, 1993.
Big Ones, Geffen, 1994.
Box of Fire, Geffen, 1994.
Nine Lives, Columbia/Sony, 1997.
Sources
Books
Clarke, Donald, editor, The Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Viking Press, New York, 1989.
Hardy, Phil, and Dave Laing, editors, Encyclopedia of Rock, Macdonald, 1987.
Morehead, Philip D., and Anne MacNeil, The New American Dictionary of Music, New York, Dutton, 1991.
Hitchcock, H. Wiley and Sadie, Stanley, eds., The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, London: Macmillan Press, 1986.
Pareles, Jon and Romanowski, Patricia, eds., The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll, Rolling Stone Press/summit Books, 1983.
Stambler, Irwin, The Encyclopedia of Pop, Rock & Soul (revised edition), St. Martin’s Press, Nerw York, 1989.
Periodicals
Audio, April, 1980.
Boston Phoenix, September, 1989.
Circus Magazine, June, 1975.
Maclean’s, July 21, 1997.
Music Wire, August, 1996.
People, January 21, 1980; October 19, 1987; February 22, 1988; March 31, 1997.
Rolling Stone, October 22, 1987; May 13, 1993; October 3, 1996.
Saturday Night, March 1997.
Spin, October, 1993; October, 1996; May, 1997.
Stereo Review, April, 1986.
Online
AeroSmith Unwired, http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Club/4385/frameaero.html)
http://web3/starwave.com/features/interviews/plus/aerosmith/html
—Sean Pollock
Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith, the Boston-based band that became America's version of the Rolling Stones, has been making music for nearly 40 years. The band essentially has had two careers: one before they kicked drugs and alcohol and an even bigger one after rehabilitation.
One of the longest-running, top 10 best-selling bands in American hard rock history, Aerosmith was formed in late 1969 in Sunapee, New Hampshire. Two bands, Chain Reaction, led by Steven Tallarico, and the Jam Band, featuring Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton, had often played at a local club called The Barn. At a Jam Band gig at The Barn, Tallarico decided that he should front this sloppy, blues-based band, and that they needed another guitarist and a new drummer.
The new band formed, and Aerosmith played its first gig at Nipmuc Regional High School in Mendon, Massachusetts, in autumn 1970. The lineup: Steven Tallarico (born March 26, 1948) on vocals, Joe Perry (born September 10, 1950) on lead guitar, Ray Tabano on rhythm guitar, Tom Hamilton (born December 31, 1951) on bass, and Joey Kramer (born June 21, 1950) on drums.
The group moved into a three-bedroom apartment together on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston. The band played at high school and fraternity parties and began writing their own material. Kramer had come up with the band's name back in high school and insists it had nothing to do with Sinclair Lewis' novel, Arrowsmith.
Tabano was replaced by Brad Whitford (born February 23, 1952) in 1971 after some artistic differences. Tabano later came back to work on Aerosmith's road crew and then as the band's marketing director.
First Record Contract
In 1972, Steven Tallarico changed his name to Steven Tyler. Big things were about to happen for the band. At a summer gig at Max's Kansas City in New York that year, record industry mogul Clive Davis saw the band perform. Aerosmith, managed by David Krebs and Steve Leber, was offered a $125,000 contract with Columbia Records.
"We weren't too ambitious when we started out," Tyler said in their autobiography, Walk This Way. "We just wanted to be the biggest thing that ever walked the planet, the greatest rock band that ever was. We just wanted everything. We wanted it all."
Moving quickly, the band's self-titled debut album was released in January 1973. Aerosmith went on tour in support of the album, opening for big acts like Mott the Hoople and The Kinks. Stardom would be a relatively short climb for the band from this point.
The following year, a second album, Get Your Wings, was released. A single, "Same Old Song And Dance"/"Pandora's Box" made a small splash and the album went gold. In April 1975, Toys In The Attic was released and hit the Billboard Top 20 Album Chart. "Sweet Emotion" was released on a single and became the band's first Top 40 hit.
On June 12, 1976, Aerosmith headlined their first stadium show at the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Michigan, to a crowd of 80,000. The show had sold out within 12 hours. It was only the first in a series of successful stadium tours to follow.
Tyler later reflected, "The stage was so high and so far from the audience, you couldn't even see any kids, just lines of bullet-head security guys with their backs to us. The whole thing was too abstract. We were in, like, surrealism shock."
An Army of Fans
The band started calling their fans "The Blue Army" for the blue jeans that they all wore. In Walk This Way, "We were America's band," Joe Perry said. "We were the guys you could actually see. Back then in the Seventies, it wasn't like Led Zeppelin was out there on the road in America all of the time. The Stones weren't always coming to your town. We were. You could count on us to come by."
In 1976, the band released the platinum-selling Rocks album. Earlier songs, "Walk This Way" and "Dream On"/"Sweet Emotion" were re-released and garnered the band Top 40 hits. "Dream On," re-released from their first album, peaked at number three on the charts. In March 1977, "Back In The Saddle"/"Nobody's Fault" was released as a single. In October of that year, "Draw the Line" was released on a single, previewing tracks from their fifth album of the same name, to be released in December of that year. The album went platinum.
In October 1978, the band made a movie appearance in Robert Stigwood's flop, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, as the Future Villain Band. (Stigwood had produced '70s movie hits Grease and Saturday Night Fever.) The band recorded a cover of The Beatles' "Come Together" for the film, and the song made it to the top 30 on the charts. Kramer later remarked, "It was a disaster. A real debacle. The Stones refused to do the part that was offered to us. Now we know why. It was just a pretty silly movie." That same month, Live Bootleg, featuring live versions of the band's hits was released.
The End of Aerosmith
Disagreements between band members and ego clashes tore at the lineup in 1979 as their seventh album, Night in the Ruts, was recorded. Perry left, and Jimmy Crespo replaced him as lead guitarist. Aerosmith toured briefly with new lineup, but fans yelled for Perry.
Perry had formed the Joe Perry Project, rounding up a band of relatively unknown musicians. They released an album of covers and Perry originals called Let the Music Do the Talking. The group released three albums between 1980 and 1983, doing small tours, as well.
By 1980, the year Aerosmith's Greatest Hits was released, Whitford left the band as well. Rick Dufay replaced Whitford in the Aerosmith lineup. Whitford joined forces with Derek St. Holmes, from Ted Nugent's band, on an album, Whitford/St. Holmes. That summer, Tyler took a forced sabbatical after a motorcycle accident. Drugs and alcohol were involved, and the singer spent six months in a hospital.
Rock In A Hard Place, recorded with the new lineup, was released in August 1982. The follow-up tour was hit and miss. In the meantime, Whitford was on tour with The Joe Perry Project.
Aerosmith Reformed
On Valentine's Day in 1984, after a long and publicly infamous estrangement between Tyler and Perry, the two, along with Whitford, were reunited backstage after an Aerosmith show at The Orpheum Theater in Boston. Conversations continued between Tyler and Perry, and by April of that year, the original band was back together. They began this new phase with the aptly titled "Back In The Saddle Tour" and a new manager, Tim Collins.
In November 1985, the band released Done With Mirrors on a new label, Geffen. The album, produced by Ted Templeman, who had produced the early Van Halen albums, was not a platinum-selling comeback.
In 1986, up-and-coming rappers Run DMC gave Aerosmith the push back into the spotlight they needed with their cover of "Walk This Way" on their album, Raising Hell. The song hit the charts, and the video, featuring Tyler and Perry dueling with the rappers through a thin wall, played frequently on MTV.
Over the years, the band had become infamous for their alcohol and drug abuse. The press dubbed Tyler and Perry "The Toxic Twins." In September 1986, Collins called a 6 a.m. band meeting and included New York psychiatrist Dr. Lou Cox. It was an intervention for Tyler, but the whole band needed help.
In the band's 1997 autobiography, Walk This Way, Collins recounted that he had told the band, "You guys need to change your lives and get sober and I'll promise you this: We will turn this group around and make it the biggest band in the world by 1990." Tyler and Perry went through rehab. The band worked together to become—and to stay—sober.
Aerosmith released Permanent Vacation in August 1987. For the first time, the band had songwriting help. Desmond Child, who had written hit songs for Bon Jovi, was called in and helped finish "Dude Looks Like A Lady" and "Angel." The songs garnered the band their first hits in years. In September 1988, Aerosmith received their first MTV Music Award for "Best Group Video" for "Dude Looks Like a Lady." Single "Angel" peaked at number three on the Billboard charts.
Tyler's Famous Children
Tyler's former girlfriend, Bebe Buell, and her daughter, Liv, went to see Aerosmith in August 1988. "She was eleven years old," Buell said. "We were the only ones allowed in Steven's dressing room, and Steven took her around and introduced her to everybody. She met her sister Mia for the first time.… This was when everything finally clicked for her."
Liv Tyler, to that point, had been brought up believing that her father was performer/producer Todd Rundgren. Rundgren had been involved in her life and contributed support. Her younger sister, Mia, was born to Tyler and his first wife, Cyrinda Foxe. Tyler's two daughters made names for themselves in acting and modeling, respectively.
Hit the Charts, Won Grammys
Pump was released in September 1989 and produced multi-platinum album sales and numerous awards. In 1990, Aerosmith won MTV's Best Metal/Hard Rock Video and Viewers' Choice Awards, as well as their first Grammy Award, for "Janie's Got A Gun," a song about child abuse.
Their success continued in 1993 with Get A Grip, which shot up the charts to number one. Four tracks from the album, "Livin' On the Edge," "Cryin,'" "Crazy" and "Amazing" hit the charts. "Livin' On the Edge" won the 1993 Grammy for "Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal." "Crazy" also won a Grammy in 1994.
Nine Lives debuted at number one on the album charts in 1997 and spawned the hit single, "Falling In Love (Is Hard On The Knees)." The following year, the band contributed a track for the movie Armageddon, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" (written by Diane Warren). It was the band's first number one hit. Aerosmith continued recording for film in 2003, with a track called "Lizard Love," on the sound-track of the movie Rugrats Go Wild! Perry wrote score music for the 2003 Small Planet Pictures film, This Thing of Ours, as well.
In March 2001, Just Push Play was released, debuting at number two on the charts. "Jaded," the single from the album, hit number seven on the charts that year. The album was unusual in that it was recorded without the band being in the same room together. Joe Perry told The Tennessean, "We were making the record on ProTools and massaging everything, polishing everything up.… I couldn't make another record like that and call it an Aerosmith record."
The new century saw Aerosmith gaining awards and recognition. On March 19, 2001, Aerosmith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Boston's Berklee College of Music awarded Steven Tyler an honorary doctoral degree in music in May 2003. The band also has an "Aerosmith Endowment Award" recognizing outstanding musical and academic achievement, at Berklee.
Aerosmith was one of the few bands in rock history to come back as strong as they had started. One reviewer from The Times of London summed up the Aerosmith concert experience: "Tyler, a glamorous stick insect, brought the band out dancing through a two-hour set which took in all the best tunes of their career.… They saved "Walk This Way" for the last encore as the sunset grew to a distant purple glow. Tyler strutted and pouted until a giant fireworks display signaled the end. The shimmering brilliance belonged, however, to Aerosmith alone, a band who retain the power to astound."
In August 2003 Aerosmith once again, 30 years later, joined forces with Kiss to launch a summer tour called the Rocksimus Maximus Tour. This nation-wide tour was a huge success producing a gross of approximately $50 million. With some time on their hands before the tour with Kiss took off, Aerosmith decided to produce an all-blues album. "Honkin' on Bobo," the album's title, was released March 30, 2004. This album got back to Aerosmith's earlier sound of the 1970's making it appeal to past fans as well as new. According to Jim Farber from the Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service the new album "treats blues as slamming party music rather than as the soul-searching stuff of legend."
Books
Aerosmith and Stephen Davis, Walk This Way, Avon Books, 1997.
Huxley, Martin, Aerosmith: The Fall and the Rise of Rock's Greatest Band, St. Martin's Press, 1995.
Periodicals
Associated Press Newswires, May 10, 2003.
Billboard, August 16, 2003; April 4, 2004.
Billboard Bulletin, January 20, 2004.
Business Wire, September 8, 2003.
Finance Wire, October 8, 2003.
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service, March 30, 2004.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 22, 2003.
Plain Dealer, September 6, 2002.
Press-Enterprise, November 1, 2002.
Reuters News, September 4, 2003.
Rocky Mountain News, December 6, 2002.
San Antonio Express-News, October 4, 2003.
State Journal-Register, October 19, 2003.
Tennessean, September 19, 2003.
Times Union, November 27, 2003.
Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, September 6, 2002.
Online
"Aerosmith" 46th Grammy Awards,http://www.grammy.com (January 19, 2004).
"Aerosmith: Bio," MTV.com,http://www.mtv.com (January 12, 2004).
"Aerosmith: History," Aerosmith.com,http://www.aerosmith.com (January 12, 2004).
Aerosmith
AEROSMITH
Formed: 1970, Sunapee, New Hampshire
Members: Tom Hamilton, bass (born Colorado Springs, Colorado, 31 December 1951); Joey Kramer, drums (born Bronx, New York, 21 June 1950); Joe Perry, lead guitar (born Lawrence, Massachusetts, 10 September 1950); Steven Tyler, lead vocals (born Steven Victor Tallarico, Yonkers, New York, 26 March 1948); Brad Whitford, rhythm guitar (born Winchester, Massachusetts, 23 February 1952). Former members: Jimmy Crespo, lead guitar (born, Brooklyn, New York, 5 July 1952); Rick Dufay, guitar (born Richard Marc Dufay, Paris, France, 19 February 1952).
Genre: Rock
Best-selling album since 1990: Get a Grip (1993)
Hit songs since 1990: "Cryin," "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," "Jaded"
Since the early 1970s Aerosmith has been one of the most popular bands in rock music and synonymous with a lusty, bad-boy persona. Buoyed by a remarkable comeback in the late 1980s, a cleaner, sober version of the band went on to even greater success. Ironically, the rock titans owe a portion of their rebound to rap music.
From Unknowns to Superstars
Singer Steve Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry formed Aerosmith in 1970 in the resort town of Sunapee, New Hampshire, where their families both owned summer homes. Tyler was already a veteran of the band Chain Reaction, which had recorded with Verve Records and was an opening act for the Yardbirds and the Beach Boys. Tyler had admired Perry's playing in a rock group called Jam Band and they decided to form Aerosmith. They added guitarist Brad Whitford, bass player Tom Hamilton, and drummer Joey Kramer, moved to Boston, and began competing for gigs in the local area. Aerosmith's reputation as an exciting club band spread fast across the northeast and in 1972 they managed to secure a record deal with Columbia Records.
Their debut album, Aerosmith (1973), was a success in the Boston area but nationwide sales were only lukewarm, despite the band's hitting the charts with their ballad "Dream On." In pursuit of more exposure, they began to extensively tour, taking time off to record a second album, Get Your Wings (1974). This album sold better as the band's audience had expanded and Aerosmith was hitting full stride, with critics hailing them as an American version of the Rolling Stones. Their flamboyant concerts featured a swaggeringly raw, muscular rock. Perry's guitar hung low off his pelvis like an afterthought, an extra appendage that chunked chords and seared blistering solos while Tyler strutted from one side of the stage to the other. Pouting his oversized lips to the crowd, whipping them into frenzy with his lurid strut, Tyler was quickly gaining a reputation as one of hard rock's greatest lead singers. Furthermore, Tyler's voice could hop two octaves into a melodic scream. His vocal work on "Dream On" is an example. Whitford, Hamilton, and Kramer provided a fierce rhythm usually based around Perry's pulsating guitar riff with Tyler's rapid-fire lyrics spewing rhyming chronicles of sexual conquests and related misbehavior.
Aerosmith was turning into America's rock and roll icon and their next album, the mega-selling Toys in the Attic (1975), cemented that image. It contains the sassy "Sweet Emotion" and rock anthem "Walk This Way." Toys in the Attic remained a top seller for years and dramatically increased the sales of the first two releases, leading the way to Aerosmith's superstardom. They began headlining stadium-sized venues all over the world and subsequent albums, especially Rocks (1976), sold extremely well.
However, just like their indulgent image onstage, the members of Aerosmith were also indulging offstage in every excess that rock superstardom offers. Particularly rowdy were Tyler and Perry, who digested such a variety of drugs that they were labeled "The Toxic Twins." By 1979 fatigue and craziness from seven straight years of touring and recording caused tremendous turmoil within the band. Perry finally left to go solo and journeyman guitarist Jimmy Crespo replaced him. Two years later disgruntled rhythm guitarist Whitford departed to start a band with Ted Nugent's disgruntled rhythm guitarist Derek St. Holmes. Rick Dufay took Whitford's place. Their subsequent recordings sold poorly and in 1981 Tyler suffered a serious motorcycle accident that required more than six months of recovery. He returned and Aerosmith continued, but many wrote them off as finished.
The Comeback
In 1984 Perry and Whitford, unsuccessful in their ventures, rejoined the other members, putting Aerosmith back in its original form—but by no means was the band reformed. Drug and alcohol consumption was even more prevalent as they stumbled through two tours and one album, Done with Mirrors (1985). Finally, each member surrendered to rehabilitation for substance abuse and a sober Aerosmith emerged. Their first post-rehab effort was in collaboration with the rap group Run-D.M.C. on a rap version of "Walk This Way." The single was an enormous seller, went high on the charts, and was just the push that Aerosmith needed. Their next album, Permanent Vacation (1987), continued in a commercial vein and produced three chart hits, most notably "Dude Looks Like a Lady," which was featured in the hit movie Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). The album went triple platinum and Aerosmith was once again riding high, albeit sober.
After roaring out of the 1980s in a storm of success, Aerosmith began the 1990s on hiatus in preparation for the recording of their next album, Get a Grip (1993). The album lacked some of the rawness that older fans had come to expect, but Aerosmith was sensing that music tastes were changing from a harder rock/blues sound to what would later be called alternative rock and they understood firsthand from their work with Run-D.M.C. how a change in style could pay off. In contrast to the plunder of their previous work, the newer songs made note of what all that plunder really meant. While still carrying their trademark swagger, several of the songs, such as "Get a Grip," "Living on the Edge," and "Fever," speak of the depths of drug misery and a newfound peace in sobriety. The lyrics "Now I'm feeling low down, even slow seems way too fast, and now the booze don't work and the drugs ran out of gas" sung in "Fever" reveal some of this. Get a Grip contains three power ballads, "Amazing," "Crazy," and "Cryin," all of which landed high on the charts, and the album was a giant, selling 12 million copies. An MTV video of "Crazy" introduced the world to Tyler's then sixteen-year-old daughter, Liv Tyler, as she and actress Alicia Silverstone played the video's main characters. Ms. Tyler later became a major movie star and the video represented Tyler's return to responsible fatherhood. "Crazy" won a 1995 Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Group, as did "Living on the Edge" in 1994.
Aerosmith spent much of the mid-1990s on another world tour, during which the band silenced skeptics who did not think they could still deliver the snarling rock of their past. After the tour, they recorded Nine Lives (1997), which scored a Grammy nomination in 1998 for Best Rock Album. Nine Lives was recorded amidst unfounded rumors that the band was doing drugs again and the ensuing chaos within the group resulted in them firing their manager. The hard-rocking album is a hearkening back to the band's early days with heavy riffs driving a frolicking spirit. A rock ballad in the style for which Aerosmith is reknown, the sweeping "Hole in My Soul" is one of the album's highlights. A European printing of Nine Lives features two extra songs. One of them, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," written by Dianne Warren, is among the four songs that Aerosmith contributed to the movie soundtrack Armageddon (1998). The film stars Liv Tyler and the song became Aerosmith's first number one hit. By 1999 Nine Lives reached 6 million in sales and scored the band another Grammy for "Pink."
Many felt that Aerosmith would slow down in the new millennium as the band members had reached or were close to reaching their fifties, but they came blasting back. Intermittently that year Aerosmith sequestered itself in an old farmhouse creating material for their next record, Just Push Play (2001), which they would also produce. In January 2001 they pre-released a ballad off the album, "Jaded," and promoted it with a memorable appearance at halftime of the 2001 Super Bowl, billed with pop sensations *NSYNC and Britney Spears. They appeared shortly after in Los Angeles at the American Music Awards and followed that with their fourth appearance on the television show Saturday Night Live. Just Push Play was released on March 19, 2001, the same day that the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The artist Kid Rock introduced them at the Hall of Fame ceremonies and joined them in a performance of "Sweet Emotion." Aerosmith then teased the crowd with their gentle "Jaded" before segueing into the powerhouse classic, "Train Kept a Rollin." The crowd, mostly music industry insiders, was electrified. By April, Just Push Play had gone platinum in sales and Aerosmith was at the start of a sold-out worldwide tour. The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, interrupted the tour, but only for six days. Tyler strongly advocated the healing powers of rock music and the importance of the United States resuming its normal activities. In October they performed a Washington, D.C., concert to benefit victims of the tragedy.
Aerosmith released another successful compilation album, O' Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits (2002) and moved to Hawaii in 2003 to record their next studio release. In August they kicked off a world tour with KISS, another band of surviving rock legends. On February 7, 2003, Aerosmith performed with myriad top artists to celebrate and benefit the Blues Music Foundation at New York's Radio City Music Hall in what was billed as the music event of the year.
Aerosmith set out in the 1970s with the goal to become the greatest rock band in the world. In some assessments, they achieved that goal and then surpassed it with massive staying power in the pop rock scene later on. Aerosmith was first identified by their boisterous rock sound, but may be remembered longer for their powerful rock ballads.
SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:
Aerosmith (Columbia, 1973); Get Your Wings (Columbia, 1974); Toys in the Attic (Columbia, 1975); Rocks (Columbia, 1976); Draw the Line (Columbia, 1977); Live Bootleg (Columbia, 1978); A Night in the Ruts (Columbia, 1979); Aerosmith's Greatest Hits (Columbia, 1980); Rock in a Hard Place (Columbia, 1982); Done with Mirrors (Geffen, 1985); Permanent Vacation (Geffen, 1987); Gems (Columbia, 1988); Pump (Geffen, 1989); Pandora's Box (Geffen, 1991); Get a Grip (Geffen, 1993); Box of Fire (Geffen, 1994); Nine Lives (Columbia/Sony, 1997); A Little South of Sanity (Geffen, 1998); Just Push Play (Columbia/Sony, 2001). Soundtrack: Armageddon (Sony, 1998).
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
M. Huxly, Aerosmith: The Fall and Rise of Rock's Greatest Band (New York, 1995); C. Foxe-Tyler and D. Fields, Dream On: Living on the Edge with Steven Tyler and Aerosmith (New York, 2000); E. Anjou, Aerosmith (Broomall, PA, 2002).
donald lowe
Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith, one of America’s most tenacious, iconic rock groups, originally formed in 1970, in Sunapee, N.H. Membership: Steve Tyler, lead voc. (b. Steve Tallarico, Yonkers, N.Y., March 26, 1948); Joe Perry, lead gtr. (b. Lawrence, Mass., Sept. 10, 1950); Brad Whitford, rhythm gtr. (b. Winchester, Mass., Feb. 23, 1952); Tom Hamilton, bs. (b. Colorado Springs, Colo., Dec. 31, 1951); Joey Kramer, drms. (b. June 21, 1950, N.Y.).
By the age of 19, Steve Tallarico had already worked with various bands and recorded for Verve Records with his own band, Chain Reaction. The group had toured as an opening act for The Byrds, The Beach Boys, and the Jimmy Page Yardbirds. He met guitarist Joe Perry in the summer of 1970 while working at the Tallarico family resort in Sunapee, N.H. Together with the bassist in Perry’s Jam Band, Tom Hamilton, they formed the nucleus of the band that would become Aerosmith. They recruited drummer Joey Kramer and guitarist Brad Whitford and started playing anywhere they could, including high schools and in front of the student union at Boston Univ. They all shared an apartment in Boston, practiced at the Fenway Theater, and played when they could, where they could, up and down the East Coast. About this time, Tallarico changed his last name to Tyler.
Columbia Records president Clive Davis caught their act at N.Y.’s Max’s Kansas City and gave them a $125, 000 deal. They recorded their debut album in just two weeks. It came out early in 1973, and did very well in Boston, but the rest of the country didn’t know Aerosmith yet. The group set out to change that, hitting the road, opening for bands ranging from The Kinks to The Mahavishnu Orch. The single “Dream On” topped Mass, radio, but only rose as high as #59 on the national charts.
Aerosmith went into the Record Plant in N.Y. with producer Jack Douglas to make Get Your Wings. The album garnered them some attention, especially from Circus magazine. A cover of “Train Kept A-Rollin’” got enough play on rock radio to merit release as a single. Because of this and non- stop touring, by 1975 the album went gold.
The combination of rock radio play and incessant touring powered the band’s next record, Toys in the Attic, to #11. The single “Sweet Emotion” rose as high as #36. “Walk This Way,” “Big Ten Inch Record” and “You See Me Cryin’” also got significant play on rock radio. The venues and press coverage started to grow, and the band became headliners playing for 80, 000 at Pontiac Stadium outside of Detroit in 1976.
When the group released Rocks in 1976 it quickly went platinum and rose to #3. It eventually sold more than 3, 000, 000 copies. Creem readers voted it the #1 album and Aerosmith the #1 band. While Rocks didn’t generate any pop hits, Columbia re-released some earlier singles that they felt had not received a fair shake. The double-A-sided single of “Dream On”/”Sweet Emotion” hit #3, while “Walk This Way” reached #10. Once again, the band hit the road in a big way, touring 58 cities through America, then moving on to the Far East.
Aerosmith’s next album, Draw the Line, went platinum even faster, though it peaked at #11. The group did a cameo performance in the unsuccessful film version of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; their version of “Come Together” nonetheless hit #23. The band undertook another two-year tour, recording dates for the Live! Bootleg album, released in 1978. That hit #13 just before Christmas.
The endless togetherness and the grind of the road took its toll on the band. Tyler and Perry’s propensity to party earned them the nickname the Toxic Twins. Heroin, cocaine, alcohol, and whatever else might be circulating backstage also circulated through their bloodstream. “I was a garbage head,” Tyler once commented.
Joe Perry left the band to form his Joe Perry Project shortly after Night in the Ruts was released. The album did relatively poorly, though it went gold and hit #14. Columbia, sensing that this might mark the end of the Aerosmith era, released a greatest hits record. This impression was further exacerbated when Brad Whitford left the band to record with Ted Nugent guitarist Derek St. Holmes. Then, Tyler had to take a year off to recover from a motorcycle accident.
Aerosmith’s next album, Rock in a Hard Place, with replacement guitarists Rick Dufay and Jimmy Crespo, faired poorly on the charts, topping out at #32. Joe Perry’s two follow-up records and the Whitford/St. Holmes record also turned out to be commercial failures. On Valentine’s Day 1984, Aerosmith reunited backstage at a gig in Boston. Within two months, they signed with newly formed Geffen Records and hit the road. In the interim, however, their substance-abuse problems only got worse. At one show in Springfield, Tyler passed out and fell off the stage about 30 minutes into the set. Their Geffen debut, Done with Mirrors, continued their losing streak, topping out at #36. Pop music seemed to have left them behind.
But it wouldn’t be long before Aerosmith was back with a vengeance. After the tour, the entire band went into rehab. As they collectively kicked their abuse problems, a remarkable thing happened. One of the new sounds of pop, rap music, which had used hard-rock riffs since its beginning, would now fuel a full- fledged Aersosmith comeback. One of the most successful rap groups, Run-DMC, asked Perry and Tyler to record a rap version of “Walk This Way” with them. The single burned up the charts, going gold and rising to #4. Capitalizing on this success, Aerosmith put out Permanent Vacation, which went triple-platinum and topped out at #11, spawning three hit singles: “Rag Doll,” which rose to #17; “Dude Looks Like a Lady,” which won two MTV Music Awards and charted to #14; and the #3 single “Angel.” Aerosmith was back with a vengeance.
Their next album was even more successful. Pump rose to #5 and eventually sold seven million copies with the hits “Love in an Elevator” (#5), “Janie’s Got a Gun” (#4, a Grammy and two MTV Awards), “The Other Side” (#22 and an MTV Award), and “What It Takes” (#9).
Get a Grip solidified their standing. The album topped the charts and produced the singles “Livin’ on the Edge” (#18, an MTV Award and a Grammy for Best Performance by a Duo or Group), “Cryin’” (#12, voted the all-time favorite video on MTV, and the following year’s Grammy winner for Best Performance by a Duo or Group), “Amazing” (#24), and “Crazy” (#17).
In the meantime, their old label, Columbia, actively pursued the group and signed them to a massive contract. They immediately released a three-record, best-of compilation called Pandora’s Box, and packaged all 12 of the group’s releases for Columbia as Box of Fire. Their first new album for Columbia, Nine Lives, entered the charts at #1, and won the 1998 Grammy for Best Rock Album. Trying to cash-in on the band’s resurgence, Geffen put out A Little South of Sanity, a two-disc live retrospective of the band’s years of resurrection on that label.
Taking advantage of Aerosmith’s popularity, the makers of the film Armageddon (which starred Tyler’s daughter, Liv) got them off the road just long enough to record the Dianne Warren-penned lead track for the film, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing/’ The song topped the charts, as did the soundtrack album, which featured three other Aerosmith tunes. Once again they hit the road, taking time off to return a favor by recording a tune for Run-DMC’s comeback album.
Discography
AEROSMITH: Aerosmith (1973); Get Your Wings (1974); Toys in the Attic (1975); Rocks (1976); Draw the Line (1977); Live Bootleg (1978); Night in the Ruts (1979); Greatest Hits (1980); Rock in a Hard Place (1982); Done with Mirrors (1985); Classics Live (1986); Permanent Vacation (1987); Classics Live 2 (1988); Gems (1988); Pump (1989); Pandora’s Box (1991); Get a Grip (1993); Big Ones (1994); Nine Lives (1997); A Little South of Sanity (1998). JOE PERRY PROJECT: Let the Music Do the Talking (1980); I’ve Got the Rock ’n’ Rolls Again (1981); Once a Rocker, Always a Rocker (1984). WHITFORD/ST. HOLMES: Whitford/St. Holmes (1981).
Writings
Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith (1997).
Bibliography
M. Putterford, Aerosmith: The Fall and Rise of Aerosmith (1991); The Complete Guide to the Music of Aerosmith (1997); M. Dome, Aerosmith: Life in the Fast Lane; D. Bowler and B. Dray, Aerosmith: What It Takes.
—Hank Bordowitz
Aerosmith
Aerosmith
Aerosmith's 1975 single "Sweet Emotion" cracked the Billboard Top 40 and effectively launched them from Boston phenomenons into the heart of a growing national hard rock scene. They would have significant impact on rock 'n' roll lifestyles and sounds for the next quarter of a century.
Vocalist Steven Tyler's leering bad-boy moves and androgynous charisma proved the perfect visual complement to lead guitarist Joe Perry's unstructured riffs and the band's bawdy subject matter. The band's most enduring single, "Walk this Way," chronicles the sexual awakening of an adolescent male.
In 1985, just when it seemed Aerosmith had faded into the same obscurity as most 1970s bands, a drug-free Tyler and Perry engineered a reunion. They collaborated in 1986 with rappers Run DMC on a hugely successful remake of "Walk this Way," won the Grammy in 1991 for "Jamie's Got a Gun," and showed no signs of slowing down approaching the turn of the century.
—Colby Vargas
Further Reading:
Aerosmith with Stephen Davis. Walk this Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith. New York, Avon Books, 1997.
Huxley, Stephen. Aerosmith: The Fall and Rise of Rock's Greatest Band. New York, St. Martin's Press, 1995.