Post by anaix3l on Jul 9, 2020 13:44:20 GMT -5
I'm really loving this thread.
There were a few levels of getting into them for me.
It was first that one time hearing Jaded on the radio while doing my 11th grade Calculus homework. I was 16 at the time, it was right before JPP came out. Funny enough, I was aware of the music video on MTV, but had never watched it, even though it was played a lot... MTV sure loved them. But I'd change the channel as soon as it began because I just found the beginning disturbing? creepy? I had decided I hated the song even though I never went 20 seconds into it. Then I heard it on the radio. I didn't even know what it was I was listening to, I just knew I loved it. I knocked down the chair, it got me that excited... Then at the end they said "that was Aerosmith with Jaded" - whaaat? It was only then that I learned it was the same song and band I had been avoiding on MTV
Then... as mentioned before, MTV really loved them! So I got to see quite a bit of them. There was an Aerosmith week, and then they played on some TV show. That was really impressive, to see them play live for the very first time. Joe while playing... he didn't even seem sane and that was so impressive. And I swear, when I got to meet him 15 years later, I really felt like I had reverted to being that wide-eyed teenager once again. Maybe this is really weird, but sometimes I really feel like he gave me permission to be crazy and that has had such a huge impact over my life.
MTV was also how I got familiar with their better known stuff, as I got to see pretty much every video they've ever made. Janie's Got a Gun in particular made me even crazier than I already was.
And then one night after going to uni and getting something to play music on, I wanted to listen to something short, of about half an hour before I went to sleep. That something happened to be Rocks. I never went to sleep that night. Still just as mad after that album and especially Sick As a Dog as I was on that first listen. That's why it was such a big deal to get to hear Combination at the Vampires shows in 2018. I never got to hear it at an Aerosmith show, but I got to hear it then and Joe was there and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I could have been dead and it would have brought me back to life.
And then there's also the fact that they opened the magic door and allowed me to discover a whole new world of music. I didn't grow into a rock friendly environment. When we started 9th grade, we got rounded up and taken to the Physics lab where we were shown a documentary about satanism and evil in rock music. All I remember about it was they picked on Queen. Yup, so evil! And I guess this is what made me so aware of the importance of bands like Aerosmith becoming so big. They were able to get on the radio and get to me. There's so much music that I love and I may have never discovered otherwise. There are so many amazing moments I've lived over the past two decades that may have never happened. My entire life would have been completely different. Pretty sure it would have been sadder, though I would have never known what I was missing.
Wanting to get to see them so badly, even though financially, I'm not really in the target public has made me tougher, more determined, more resourceful. And I'll always be grateful for that.
---
Today, at about this hour... I should have been anxiously waiting for their show in Vienna to start.
There were a few levels of getting into them for me.
It was first that one time hearing Jaded on the radio while doing my 11th grade Calculus homework. I was 16 at the time, it was right before JPP came out. Funny enough, I was aware of the music video on MTV, but had never watched it, even though it was played a lot... MTV sure loved them. But I'd change the channel as soon as it began because I just found the beginning disturbing? creepy? I had decided I hated the song even though I never went 20 seconds into it. Then I heard it on the radio. I didn't even know what it was I was listening to, I just knew I loved it. I knocked down the chair, it got me that excited... Then at the end they said "that was Aerosmith with Jaded" - whaaat? It was only then that I learned it was the same song and band I had been avoiding on MTV
Then... as mentioned before, MTV really loved them! So I got to see quite a bit of them. There was an Aerosmith week, and then they played on some TV show. That was really impressive, to see them play live for the very first time. Joe while playing... he didn't even seem sane and that was so impressive. And I swear, when I got to meet him 15 years later, I really felt like I had reverted to being that wide-eyed teenager once again. Maybe this is really weird, but sometimes I really feel like he gave me permission to be crazy and that has had such a huge impact over my life.
MTV was also how I got familiar with their better known stuff, as I got to see pretty much every video they've ever made. Janie's Got a Gun in particular made me even crazier than I already was.
And then one night after going to uni and getting something to play music on, I wanted to listen to something short, of about half an hour before I went to sleep. That something happened to be Rocks. I never went to sleep that night. Still just as mad after that album and especially Sick As a Dog as I was on that first listen. That's why it was such a big deal to get to hear Combination at the Vampires shows in 2018. I never got to hear it at an Aerosmith show, but I got to hear it then and Joe was there and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I could have been dead and it would have brought me back to life.
And then there's also the fact that they opened the magic door and allowed me to discover a whole new world of music. I didn't grow into a rock friendly environment. When we started 9th grade, we got rounded up and taken to the Physics lab where we were shown a documentary about satanism and evil in rock music. All I remember about it was they picked on Queen. Yup, so evil! And I guess this is what made me so aware of the importance of bands like Aerosmith becoming so big. They were able to get on the radio and get to me. There's so much music that I love and I may have never discovered otherwise. There are so many amazing moments I've lived over the past two decades that may have never happened. My entire life would have been completely different. Pretty sure it would have been sadder, though I would have never known what I was missing.
Wanting to get to see them so badly, even though financially, I'm not really in the target public has made me tougher, more determined, more resourceful. And I'll always be grateful for that.
---
Today, at about this hour... I should have been anxiously waiting for their show in Vienna to start.