The Aerosmith album Steven Tyler felt was immortal
Feb 1, 2024 13:33:01 GMT -5
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Post by AeroCooper on Feb 1, 2024 13:33:01 GMT -5
The Aerosmith album Steven Tyler felt was immortal: “[It’ll] be played long after you’re dead”
Tim Coffman
Thu 1 February 2024
All any musician can ask is to make something that will outlive them. Even though time might pass and trends may come and go, these records are usually the standouts that will become immortal later down the line, never ageing and continuing to influence generations of musicians to come. Although Aerosmith can claim to have a handful of bulletproof records in their back catalogue, Steven Tyler claims that one of their 1970s albums will continue to resonate long after he has passed.
When working on the band’s first handful of records, it looked like Aerosmith would be looked at as a footnote of rock history. As much as the group could play lowdown and dirty blues rock on their first handful of albums, most of their promotion was usually brushed off to the side, with Columbia Records focusing on working with a local upstart out of New Jersey named Bruce Springsteen.
Once the band did get the attention they thought they deserved, it wasn’t always in a positive light, either. When putting out records like Get Your Wings, most of the group’s critics would typically have the same complaints every time they put a new record out, thinking that they were too similar to outfits like Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones from around the same time.
Instead of trying to dodge any detractors, Tyler doubled down on the band’s strengths, working with Joe Perry to create amazing licks like ‘Same Old Song and Dance’ and the world’s first power ballad, ‘Dream On’. Although no one expected anything revolutionary from the group, their road dog mentality led to them gaining massive success off the back of their third album, Toys in the Attic.
Produced by future Cheap Trick and John Lennon producer Jack Douglas, the band staked their claim as one of the biggest rock outfits in the world, taking the sound of blues and combining it with hard rock bombast on pieces like the title track and ‘Sweet Emotion’. Outside of their usual rock and roll credentials, songs like ‘Walk This Way’ saw them channelling a funkier groove, while the final track ‘You See Me Crying’ displayed their penchant for writing heartbreaking ballads.
Out of all the phenomenal songs that the band have created since then, Tyler thought that Toys in the Attic was the one Aerosmith record where everything clicked, telling Louder, “I was the kid who put my initials in the rock ’cos I wanted the aliens to know I was there. It’s a statement of longevity; the record will be played long after you’re dead. Our records would be up there in the attic, too, with the things that you loved and never wanted to forget. And to me, Aerosmith was becoming that.”
Aerosmith wouldn’t be stopping after making their first significant masterpiece. Going into the studio a few years later, the album Rocks would see them getting even heavier, playing songs that flirted with that Led Zeppelin bombast even more on tracks like ‘Nobody’s Fault’ and ‘Rats in the Cellar’.
Tyler wasn’t wrong in terms of them influencing generations to come, either, with artists like Slash learning most of his best licks by copying the sounds of Toys in the Attic. Aerosmith may have gotten criticised for not being innovative enough in their early days, but their unique blend of heartache and the blues will most likely never date any time soon.