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