Chart entered : 17 October 1987
Chart peak : 45
Number of hits : 17
It took the UK over a decade and a half to appreciate this lot, with the help of a hip hop trio. The Official Charts Company errs in listing "Walk This Way" as their first UK hit as they were not credited on the single and only Steve Tyler and Joe Perry contributed to it.
Aerosmith began to form in 1969 when guitarist Joe Perry ( born Anthony Pereira 1950 ) and bassist Tom Hamilton ( born 1951 ) formed The Jam Band to play the blues. After basing themselves in Boston they acquired a new drummer in Joey Kramer ( born 1950 ) who had been playing in R & B bands. In 1970, they were on the same bill as a band called Chain Reaction with a singing drummer Stephen Tyler ( born Steven Tallarico 1948 ) . Steve loved them and suggested merging the band with him vacating the drum school to Joey and concentrating on the vocals. The latter came up with the name Aerosmith. They recruited a rhythm guitarist called Ray Tabano but he was soon replaced by Bradley Whitford ( born 1952 ).
Steve and Joe were big Stones fans and bore a passing resemblance to Jagger and Richards respectively. The band soon developed a following in Boston and signed a deal with Columbia in 1972. Their eponymous debut album was released at the beginning of 1973. It's derivative and unexceptional but decent enough for a debut. The lead single "Mama Kin " is a no nonsense boogie tune about keeping in touch with your roots. At this point Steve was reluctant to display his full vocal range and sounds more like Ian Astbury than Robert Plant. It wasn't a hit. The album does have Stones influences but owes just as much to Free and Led Zeppelin. The follow-up single "Dream On" is clearly in thrall to Stairway To Heaven but was a US hit nevertheless reaching number 59 ( 6 on reissue in 1976 ) . The album wouldn't make the chart until 1976 when it reached number 21.
The next album, "Get Your Wings ", in 1974 trod much the same ground although Steve is in much more confident form as a singer and the album marked the beginning of a long partnership with producer Jack Douglas. Although none of the three singles were U.S. hits , the album itself got to number 74.
Their real breakthrough came with "Toys In The Attic" in 1975. The band had found a confidence and swagger ( as well as a prodigious intake of hard drugs ) that actually makes it less appealing to me than its predecessors but I can understand its force in a year that's become a byword for musical torpor. The album came out in April. The lead single "Sweet Emotion" came out in May and reached number 36. The follow-up the original version of "Walk This Way" a tale of lost virginity set to a Faces -style bar-room boogie cracked the Top 10 and helped the LP to number 11. A third single pairing the energetic title track ( later covered by REM ) with a shortened version of the impressive piano ballad that closes the LP , "You See Me Crying" didn't chart.
The band followed it up with "Rocks" in 1976 which has a rawer, more metallic sound. It spawned three US hit singles, "Last Child " ( number 21 ), "Home Tonight ( number 71 ) and "Back In The Saddle ( number 38 ) which helped raise it to number 3 in the US. The UK remained resolutely uninterested in the band.
Having just established themselves as a top drawer act the band proceeded to lose the plot through heavy drug use and the sessions for 1977's "Draw The Line" were difficult and protracted. Although second single "Kings and Queens" is a refreshing break from their cock rock with some dense keyboard work, the other songs sound both over-worked and under-nourished at the same time. It peaked at number 11 and the first two singles were hits but the third, "Get It Up" failed to , ahem, rise to the occasion and didn't chart.
Their problems mounted as wives and girlfriends became enmeshed in the intra-band feuding and drug use escalated. Joe quit the band halfway through the sessions for 1979's "Night In The Ruts" and the band also fell out with Douglas, the final mix being supervised by Gary Lyons. There's an air of "will this do ?" throughout the album with the three covers only highlighting how uninspired the other songs are. Mary Weiss contributed some backing vocals to the poor cover of "Remember ( Walking In The Sand ) ", the only single taken from the album and a number 67 hit. The album reached number 14 but quickly dropped out of sight.
Joe was replaced by Jimmy Crespo but things got worse for the band. Steve collapsed on stage in Portland, Maine and couldn't complete the set then he fell off his motorbike and was hospitalised for two months. A "Greatest Hits" album was released as a stopgap but, with the band unable to promote it, only got as far as number 53.
It was midway through 1981 before Steve was fit to go into the studio to record 1982's "Rock In A Hard Place" though you wouldn't think it. His voice sounds ragged throughout and you don't think it's going to make it to the final track. To make matters worse Bradley quit the band with only one track in the can. The end result was awful; only the cover of "Cry Me A River" stands out for its sheer wretchedness. Some desultory synthesiser work on a couple of tracks doesn't mask the sheer lack of ideas as one vapid, tuneless track follows another. None of them were fit for single release and neither of those chosen ( "Lightning Strikes" and "Bitch's Brew" made the charts. Before the album was released, Rick Dufay joined in place of Bradley but he didn't play on it. It peaked at number 32 emphasising their commercial decline. Columbia decided they were finished and let them go.
Fortunately Joe and Bradley's solo efforts were not successful and after they attended an Aerosmith gig in Boston in February 1984 negotiations led to them returning to the band with Crespo and Dufay being unceremoniously dumped. Later they year they embarked on the Back In The Saddle Tour to announce their return. It did well enough to get them a new contract from Geffen and in 1985 they released the album "Done With Mirrors". It's an improvement on its immediate predecessors with Steve's voice back in form and second single "Shela" is a decent song but it was short at 32 minutes and peaked at number 36. Neither single made the charts.
1986 was the pivotal year for the band. Rick Rubin had introduced Run - D.M.C. to his albums collection and suggested they cover "Walk This Way". They'd never heard of Aerosmith and two-thirds of the trio didn't fancy the idea but Rubin prevailed. It was an apt choice since Steve's verses already had a percussive element through his origins as a drummer. Joe and Steve were then invited to participate in the recording. The genre-busting single reached number 4 in the US and number 8 in the UK and is regarded as a major milestone in hip hop's crossover to a white audience. It also revived interest in a band hitherto regarded as washed-up renegades from the previous decade.
Aerosmith's manager Tim Collins then impressed upon the band that they would have to clean up if they were to take advantage of this new interest. He started with Steve who was packed off to a drug rehabilitation program at the Caron Foundation, Pennsylvania. When that proved successful the other band members followed suit. Collins also persuaded them that they needed some outside help with the songwriting on their next LP.
Hence the promotional single from the forthcoming LP "Permanent Vacation " saw Joe and Steve collaborating with Bryan Adams's songwriting partner Jim Vallance. It's a rather strange choice, a re-working of an old blues song about a man awaiting punishment for shooting his wife which Steve wrongly assumed was in the public domain.
The first real single from the album was this one. Joe and Steve this time collaborated with Bon Jovi associate Desmond Child. "Dude ( Looks Like A Lady ) " derived from an incident when Steve and young pretender Vince Neil of Motley Crue were served by transvestite staff in a New York bar. It's basically a bawdy re-telling of the story in Lola. Producer Bruce Fairbairn polishes it up till they sound like Bon Jovi with bass and rhythm guitar meshed into a melodic growl and Joe's solo-ing kept in check. I had assumed the brass interjections were courtesy of a Fairlight but Tom Keenlyside used actual players for the arrangement. It did its job in getting the album off to a flyer by reaching number 14 in the US and finally getting them off the mark here but one could wish for a stronger chorus.
Phew, I feel like we've turned a corner here. I can't think of anyone else to come who has such a lengthy back catalogue to track, certainly not one going back into the pre-punk era.
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