Aerosmith
Hard Rock |
'We weren't too ambitious when we started out. We just wanted to be the biggest thing that ever walked the planet.' - Steven Tyler
And so began the 33 year (and counting!) career of Boston rock band Aerosmith. With a penis joke.
Three years and three albums after their debut self-titled album bombed the band were one of America's biggest rock bands, both in the studio and on tour. The release of Toys In The Attic in 1975 catapulted the band to arena headliner status. They followed their breakthrough album with their most commercially successful effort ye ...read more
'We weren't too ambitious when we started out. We just wanted to be the biggest thing that ever walked the planet.' - Steven Tyler
And so began the 33 year (and counting!) career of Boston rock band Aerosmith. With a penis joke.
Three years and three albums after their debut self-titled album bombed the band were one of America's biggest rock bands, both in the studio and on tour. The release of Toys In The Attic in 1975 catapulted the band to arena headliner status. They followed their breakthrough album with their most commercially successful effort yet, Rocks, released the following year to rave reviews. The music was sleazy and raw. They were musicians but there was nothing pompous or conceited about them, they were people's musicians. Years of hard work, hard touring and determination had paid off and Aerosmith had delivered the musical money-shot and it was on everybody's face. More importantly, they loved it.
Formed in Boston in 1970 when Bostonians Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton joined with New Yorkers Steven Tallarico (later Tyler) and Joey Kramer in an ice-cream parlour in New Hampshire and moved together to Boston under the name 'Aerosmith', a term Kramer claims to have invented in high school. All 4 musicians shared influences, pure British blues-rock - The Yardbirds, Fleetwood Mac and, though the influence is overstated, The Rolling Stones. As the band matured, adding guitarist Brad Whitford to their ranks in '71, they began to take in wider influences, including the exploding funk scene typified by Sly & The Family Stone. Having toured intensively for another year, the band secured a record deal with CBS Records and began work on their debut album, Aerosmith in October of 1972. The album, released the next year, was a commercial failure and would've resulted in the band's contract being torn up had it not been for the promising performance of the singlea 'Dream On,' considered by many to be the first ever power ballad.
It's perhaps surprising for those of us raised with the image of Aerosmith as the elder statesmen of rock, the group which inadvertently spearheaded the rap-rock crossover craze and starred in Wayne's World 2, that their sound has evolved significantly over the years. As the main inspiration for a raft of '80s hard rock bands, it was only fitting that Aerosmith should churn out some of the most successful albums of the era, even if it meant updating their sound to fit in. So began a string of ballad-heavy albums with scene leaders Geffen Records, including Permanent Vacation, Pump and Get A Grip. The group's popularity dwindled with the onset of grunge (though they maintained far more credibility than most of their peers) and have continued to release successful recordings including 1997's Nine Lives, 2001's Just Push Play and most recently, 2004's blues covers album Honkin' On Bobo. « hide |
