Aerosmith

Formation (1964–1970)

In 1964, Steven Tyler, then a drummer, formed his own band, the Strangeurs—later renamed Chain Reaction—in Yonkers, New York. Meanwhile, Perry and Hamilton formed the Jam Band (commonly known as "Joe Perry's Jam Band"), which was based on free-form and blues. Hamilton and Perry moved to Boston, Massachusetts, in September 1969, where they met Joey Kramer, a drummer from Yonkers, New York, who was a student at the Berklee College of Music prior to going full-time with the Jam Band. Kramer also knew Tyler and had always hoped to play in a band with him.

Legacy

Influenced by bands such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, Led Zeppelin, and the New York Dolls, Aerosmith proved to be a major influence themselves on subsequently massively successful bands and musicians; according to Perry, Eddie Van Halen once told him that his band Van Halen "started out on the suburban L.A. club circuit, playing Aerosmith songs". Aerosmith's influence was evident on the next generation of hard rock and heavy metal bands, namely Mötley Crüe, Ratt, Guns N' Roses, Tesla, L.A. Guns, Cinderella, Faster Pussycat, Skid Row, Extreme, Warrant, Inglorious, the Black Crowes, and the Quireboys, as well as Metallica, Metal Church, and Testament. The BulletBoys wrote a song for their first album called "Owed to...

Sweet Emotion

"Sweet Emotion" is a song by the American rock band Aerosmith, released in 1975 on their third studio album Toys in the Attic by Columbia Records. It was released as a single on May 19, 1975.

The song began a string of pop hits and large-scale success for the band that would continue for the remainder of the 1970s. The song was written by lead singer Steven Tyler and bassist Tom Hamilton, produced by Jack Douglas and recorded at Record Plant studio.

Legacy

The song has been included on almost every Aerosmith compilation and live album, including Aerosmith's Greatest Hits, Pandora's Box, Pandora's Toys, O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits, Devil's Got a New Disguise, Live! Bootleg, Classics Live I, A Little South of Sanity, Greatest Hits 1973–1988 and Rockin' the Joint.

Re-release

The original recording was remixed by David Thoener and released as a single in 1991 in coordination with the release of the band's box set Pandora's Box, although the remixed version was not in the box set. The difference from the original is that the drums are mixed louder with more reverb, the instrumental segue between verses is twice as long and the same as the segue between the 2nd and 4th verses and their subsequent choruses, and a guitar harmony has been added at the fade-out. A new music video was filmed and released in support of the single. The re-released version reached No. 36 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and No. 74 in the United Kingdom. The single version (4:38) of the remixed version was later issued on the bonus...

Music video

The video for the re-released version is based on a phone sex conversation. The video, directed by Marty Callner, shows a young man under his covers with a magazine which is advertising a phone sex line. The young man, who says he is a 26-year-old attorney, and the phone sex operator talk about each other for a while, until it goes into a shot of the band performing in a basement (this portion of the video was actually recorded in an old warehouse in the Charlestown Navy Yard, which substituted as the band's old apartment on 1325 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston). It switches back-and-forth between Aerosmith performing "Sweet Emotion" and the phone conversation. At the very end, both the phone sex operator and the young man are shown to be...

Cryin'

"Cryin'" is a song by American rock band Aerosmith. A power ballad, it was written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Taylor Rhodes, and released by Geffen Records on June 29, 1993, as the third single from their 11th studio album, Get a Grip (1993).

Tyler described the song by saying, "It was country – we just Aerosmith'd it."

Critical reception

Alan Jones from Music Week gave the song three out of five, describing it as "a high-octane performance" and named it the best song from the Get A Grip album. He also declared it as "anthemic and compelling. Expect a brief but glittering chart life." Another Music Week editor, Andy Martin, also gave it three out of five, adding that "it is hard to see the single having any more than a brief but glittering run."

Music video

The accompanying music video for "Cryin'", directed by American director Marty Callner, features the first of three successive appearances by Alicia Silverstone in the band's videos, the next two being "Amazing" (1993) and "Crazy" (1994). Silverstone was 16 years old when "Cryin'" was filmed. In the video, the band performs in the Central Congregational Church in Fall River, Massachusetts. The video flashes back and forth between the band and Silverstone, who plays a teen who has a falling out with her boyfriend (played by Stephen Dorff) after catching him cheating. She feigns an attempt to kiss him, but instead leans away, annoying him. She then punches him and shoves him out of the car, leaving him in the dust. She begins a phase of...

Dream On

"Dream On" is a song by the American rock band Aerosmith, from their 1973 eponymous debut album. A power ballad written by lead singer Steven Tyler, this song was their first major hit and became a classic rock radio staple.

Released in June 1973, it peaked at number 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 but hit big in the band's native Boston, where it was the number one single of the year on WBZ-FM, number five for the year on WRKO and number 16 on WMEX (AM). The song also received immediate heavy airplay on the former WVBF (FM), often showing up in the #1 position on "The Top Five at Five" in June 1973.

Background

In a 2011 interview, Tyler reminisced about his father, a Juilliard-trained musician. He recalled lying beneath his dad's piano as a three-year-old listening to him play classical music. "That's where I got that Dream On chordage", he said. Lyrical composition was completed when Tyler was 14 years old. The song is also famous for its building climax to showcase Tyler's trademark screams.

Reception

Record World called it a "beauty which features strange melodic line and tight hard rock accompaniment" in 1973. Then in 1975, Cash Box said that "the hard surface is there but Tyler's plaintive vocals and some economical muscular riffing make 'Dream On' a thinker as well as a mover."

Walk This Way

"Walk This Way" is a song by the American rock band Aerosmith. Written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, the song was originally released as the second single from the album Toys in the Attic (1975).

It peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1977, part of a string of successful hit singles for the band in the 1970s. In addition to being one of the songs that helped break Aerosmith into the mainstream in the 1970s, it also helped revitalize their career in the 1980s when it was covered by hip-hop group Run-D.M.C. on their 1986 album Raising Hell.

Lyrics

When bandmate Steven Tyler heard Perry playing that riff, he "ran out and sat behind the drums and [they] jammed." Tyler scatted "nonsensical words initially to feel where the lyrics should go before adding them later."

Reception

Cash Box said that "Steve Tyler's vocal is aggressive, gritty and right on as he literally spits out a slew of lyrics while never losing clarity" and that "the music itself is hardboiled rock." Record World said that "the pattern that sent 'Dream On' up the charts is again being established." In 2022, it was included in the list "The story of NME in 70 (mostly) seminal songs", at number 26.

Legacy

"Walk This Way" was one of two hit singles by the band to hit the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the 1970s, the other one being a re-release of "Dream On". "Walk This Way" helped Toys in the Attic to be the bestselling Aerosmith album, and one of the most critically acclaimed. Aerosmith's version of "Walk This Way" often competes with "Sweet Emotion" and "Dream On" for the title of Aerosmith's signature song, being one of the band's most important, influential, and recognizable songs. The band rarely omits it from their concert setlist, still performing their classic version of the song to this day. The song has also long been a staple of rock radio, garnering regular airplay on mainstream rock, classic rock, and album-oriented rock...

Music video

The 1986 video for "Walk This Way" symbolically places a rock band and Run-DMC in a musical duel in neighbouring studios before Steven Tyler literally breaks through the wall that separates them. The video segues to the bands' joint performance on stage. Guitarist Perry recalls the experience and the impact on the network: "It was fun going down there and recording with them, and when they said, 'It's gonna go on the record. Do you want to do this video of you guys playing, and then you break down a wall, and we're side by side?' We said, 'Yeah, let's do it,' that was pretty amazing. It was amazing because it really did break down walls. At the time, I don't think that there were any minority acts on MTV, except for Michael Jackson, up to...