AEROSMITH

Known for an aggressively rhythmic style as rooted in James Brown funk as in more traditional blues, Aerosmith were the top American hard-rock band of the mid-Seventies; if you set foot in a high school parking lot back then, the verbose back-alley numbers on 1975’s Toys In The Attic and 1976’s Rocks were inescapable. But the members' growing drug problems and internal dissension contributed to a commercial decline that accelerated through the late Seventies and early Eighties. Two crucial lineup changes and a few poorly received albums preceded a 1984 reunion of the original lineup and the multiplatinum Permanent Vacation, which signaled one of the most spectacular comebacks in rock history. Though by this time they were presenting themselves as vociferous adherents to the sober lifestyle, Aerosmith retained much of their bad-boy image. And despite a considerably more commercially slick and power-ballad oriented sound than they’d first emerged with, frequently drawing on outside songwriters, they managed to became even more popular the second time around.

Aerosmith was formed in 1970 by Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton and Steven Tyler, who was then a drummer. The group was completed with drummer Joey Kramer and Brad Whitford; Tyler, with his trademark high shriek, became lead singer. For the next two years all five members shared a small apartment in Boston and played almost nightly throughout the area, occasionally venturing to New York City. Clive Davis saw the band perform at Max's Kansas City in New York and signed them to Columbia. A minor hit and future FM-radio staple from their debut, "Dream On," strengthened their regional following.

Meanwhile, Aerosmith began to tour widely. In 1976 "Dream On" recharted, rising to Number Six. And by the time of "Walk This Way" (Number 10, 1977), the band had become headliners. Its phenomenal success was short-lived, however. A series of sold-out tours and platinum albums hit its peak in 1976.

By 1977, the group's constant touring and its members' heavy drug use (Perry and Tyler were nicknamed "the Toxic Twins" for their substance abuse) had begun to take their toll. After months of rest, Aerosmith recorded Draw the Line and appeared as the villains in Robert Stigwood's movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Their version of Lennon and McCartney's "Come Together" from the soundtrack was a minor hit. But Aerosmith was unraveling: In 1979, admitting to long-standing personality and musical conflicts with songwriting partner Tyler, Perry quit and started a band called the Joe Perry Project. Jim Crespo took his place. The next year Whitford departed to form the Whitford/St. Holmes band with ex—Ted Nugent sidekick Derek St. Holmes and was replaced by Rick Dufay. Neither Perry's nor Whitford's records sold particularly well.

Rock in a Hard Place, Aerosmith's first new recording in almost three years and the first without Perry, peaked at Number 32 in 1982. But in early 1984 the five original members met backstage at an Aerosmith concert and decided to re-form. Done With Mirrors, their first "comeback" LP, sold moderately. But the group's re-ascendance began in earnest when Aerosmith collaborated with Run-D.M.C. on the duo's hip-hop version of the 1975 Aerosmith warhorse "Walk This Way." That fall, just as "Walk This Way" was peaking at Number Four on the pop chart, Permanent Vacation (Number 11, 1987) was released. The album wound up spawning three hit singles, while the songs’ videos introduced Aerosmith to the MTV generation. Aerosmith further consolidated its success with the critically acclaimed, quadruple-platinum Pump (Number Five, 1989), which boasted three Top 10 hits. "Janie's Got a Gun" (Number Four, 1989), about a teenage girl getting revenge for molestation by her father, won 1990's Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal.

In 1991, the group signed a record deal with Sony worth a reported $30 million for four albums. Three years later, in summer 1994, Aerosmith landed a seven-figure deal from G.P. Putnam's Sons for their group autobiography. With the hit ballads "Living on the Edge" (Number 18, 1993), "Cryin" (Number 12, 1993) and "Crazy" (Number Seven, 1993) ubiquitous on MTV, Get a Grip hit Number One, followed by 1994's double-platinum Number Six greatest-hits package, Big Ones.

But Aerosmith soon re-entered rougher waters. The band started working on the follow-up to Get a Grip, but didn't get along with producer Glen Ballard, who left in the middle of the sessions and was replaced by Kevin Shirley. Meanwhile, Joey Kramer's father had died, sending the drummer into such a depression that he had to be replaced by session drummer Steve Ferrone on some tracks. In the midst of it all, the band fired its longtime manager, Tim Collins, who had helped the musicians through sobriety and helmed their Eighties comeback. Collins retaliated by suggesting that some of the band members had fallen off the wagon; Tyler was then accused of "not being part of the team" in a letter sent to him by his four bandmates. Tyler denied taking drugs, insisting, "I've had no mood-altering substances in 10 years."

When Nine Lives finally came out in 1997, it entered the chart at Number One. And though the album didn’t yield a major hit single, "Pink" (Number 27, 1998) earned Aerosmith another Grammy, for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group With Vocal. In 1998, "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," Aerosmith’s contribution to the soundtrack of Armageddon (which starred Tyler's daughter Liv), became a Number One pop hit, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In early 2001, Aerosmith was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, just as the band's new album, Just Push Play (Number Two, 2001) scored with the powerpoppish hit single "Jaded" (Number Seven, 2001).

O, Yeah! The Ultimate Aerosmith Hits (Number Four, 2002) was the first best-of collection to combine music from the band's Columbia and Geffen tenures. Tours with the likes of Kiss and Kid Rock followed, as did Honkin' on Bobo (Number Five, 2004), an album of blues covers that was certified gold in the U.S, despite its ill-advised title. In 2006, though, two members of the band fell ill: Tyler announced that he had ruptured blood vessels in his larynx, while Hamilton disclosed that he was being treated for throat cancer. Both recovered, though Hamilton missed much of the band's 2006 tour. Nonetheless, in 2007, the band performed one of its most geographically extensive tours ever, traveling to countries like Russia and Latvia for the first time in their career

When the band hit the road again in 2009, the tour hit a number of snags, due to Whitford and Hamilton recovering from surgery and a Tyler leg injury. In August 2009 in South Dakota, Tyler fell off the stage, damaging his back and neck; he was taken to the hospital, and the show was cancelled. Within a few days, the rest of the tour was cancelled as well, though select concerts were performed later in the year. Rumors circulated in November 2009 about Tyler leaving the band, but speculation was scuttled when he joined Perry for a performance of "Walk This Way" in New York. More recently, though, Tyler reportedly entered rehab to deal with a painkiller addiction brought on by numerous stage injuries, and Joe Perry told interviewers that the band was auditioning well-known singers to fill in for Tyler — at least on a temporary basis, since Tyler might be out of commission for longer than a year. Since late 2007, the band has been said to be working on a new studio album, but the record has yet to materialize.

Album Guide

Aerosmith (Columbia, 1973)
Get Your Wings (Columbia, 1974)
Toys in the Attic (Columbia, 1975)
Rocks (Columbia, 1976)
Draw the Line (Columbia, 1977)
Live Bootleg (Columbia, 1978)
Night in the Ruts (Columbia, 1979)
Rock in a Hard Place (Columbia, 1982)
Done With Mirrors (Geffen, 1985)
Classics Live (Columbia, 1986)
Classics Live II (Columbia, 1987)
Permanent Vacation (Geffen, 1987)
Pump (Geffen, 1989)
Get a Grip (Geffen Universal, 1993)
Box of Fire (Columbia, 1994)
Nine Lives (Columbia, 1997)
A Little South of Sanity (Geffen, 1998)
Just Push Play (Columbia, 2001)
O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits (Columbia, 2002)
Honkin’ on Bobo (Columbia, 2004)

In the days when drugs and alcohol were required substances on the road to rock & roll nirvana, Aerosmith blazed the path of excess, American-style. Though the Boston quintet’s glam-rock swagger and lip-smacking arena-rock dramatics paved the way for Guns n’ Roses, Mötley Crüe, and countless others, their hip-shake rhythms were steeped in old R&B and blues. The band’s affinity for the groove provided a logical bridge for the first rock-rap crossover, Run-D.M.C.’s inner-city reincarnation of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”

Aerosmith establishes the formula that would carry the so-called Toxic Twins -singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry - through three decades in which they’d swing wildly between hits and hokum, shotgun-blues raunch and purple balladry. Perry brought riffs by way of the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds, and Tyler the bawdiness, while second guitarist Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton, and drummer Joey Kramer applied the lubrication. “Dream On” is the debut’s signature piece, a “Stairway to Heaven”–style ballad that suggested these hard-rock bad boys had arena aspirations from the get-go.

That goal became reality after the twin triumphs of Toys in the Attic and Rocks, hard-rock landmarks that bring the melody without stinting on the toughness. But the band’s excesses soon swallowed them up, as evidenced by a bankrupt series of studio albums from Draw the Line through Done With Mirrors. Things got so bad during this period that Perry and later Whitford briefly quit.

Ignited by the Run-D.M.C. collaboration, the reunited and newly cleaned-up Aerosmith began marshalling a comeback. An audacious single, “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” perked up the otherwise thin Permanent Vacation, but Pump made their return to hard-rock glory official: It was the first wall-to-wall classic since Rocks. It revealed a previously well-concealed social consciousness on “Janie’s Got a Gun” and still managed to snarl through the slick production. Its success ushered in a new era of studio puffery, with ballads and gimmicks competing for space with the rockers on Get a Grip. As a live act, the new Aerosmith came across like multimillionaire craftsmen; their hook-filled but disconcertingly sanitized bombast is documented on the live disc A Little South of Sanity.

On Nine Lives the band repeated itself and others, with “Hole in My Soul” revising “Dream On,” while Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” is the template for “Taste of India.” Just Push Play continued to press the same buttons that recharged the band’s career: power ballads so overblown they might make Mariah Carey blush, the occasional contemporary production touch (turntable scratching, drum loops), plus the time-tested arsenal of dirty guitar licks and lip-smacking, jive-rapping sexual innuendo. The blues covers that dominate Honkin’ on Bobo allow Aerosmith to play it looser and raunchier, and this time there’re no gratuitous pop concessions to muck up the low-rent thrills.

Among a truckload of compilations and retrospectives, the best is O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits, which combines the classic Seventies material with “Janie’s Got a Gun”–era hits for Geffen, and the priciest is Box of Fire, which repackages the 12 albums from the band’s first Columbia Records era with a marginal five-song bonus disc.

As of early 2010, Aerosmith’s future was in doubt. After a disastrous tour, Tyler said he was working on a solo album and cut off contact with his bandmates, and the remaining members began searching for a replacement singer.