In my car, I have a bootleg of a 1973 Aerosmith show at Paul's Mall in Boston. In has classics like "One Way Street", "Movin' Out" and their version of "Rattlesnake Shake". I put it on whenever I have a drive of 45 minutes or more and I feel like disappearing into the past. Magical
This is more of a general Aerosmith take, but I’ve never been able to compartmentalize my disdain for their work from the mid 80s to the present. Hearing Just Push Play in your formative years really has a way of souring you on the entire discography
Picking Aerosmith albums is more of a surgical procedure than it is “collecting”. There’s a three album run in the late 80s/early 90s that’s really good. Permanent Vacation establishes a reinvigorated and sober band. It’s not a great album, but it’s good. Pump and Get a Grip are excellent as long as you embrace the power ballads. After that, they lose me too.
I hear you, Greg. It's tough to ask the under 40 crowd to forget everything they know about Aerosmith and imagine a quintet of scrappy badasses who churned out rock classics like they were making waffles. But, if you close your eyes and concentrate on those first four albums, you just may be able to do it
Nice takes guys. Those first four albums had some serious grease in the gears. I prefer Rocks but that’s just me. Records were shorter then, so listening to one usually led to another and that’s almost always Toys.
“Thanks for the mammaries”, oh my that’s heavy cheddar.
Nothing wrong with Rocks. Maybe a tad less accessible than Toys, but not much. It's a funny thing with many of the giants that we've covered over the past six months. Artists that have achieved longevity--U2, Aerosmith, Elton John, Mellencamp--have also created music that is universally hated by their fans and detractors alike. (Tom Petty may be the exception that proves the rule.) I guess if you stick around long enough you're bound to do something truly terrible.
Very true. Seems like they all have to compete with their own past and if that past had a multi album hot streak, they are never able to equal it again.
The best thing about Bobo is the mini harp they were giving away with that purchase, that I still have attached to my car keys. What should have been a short walk to the blues ended up being detoured to the land fill. That being said, my journey with Aerosmith all began with their cover of Train kept a rollin’, a jump blues cut from the ‘50’s reworked by the yardbirds, Jeff Beck, and Jimi page with Led Zeplin. Needless to say I put my Elton John and Jackson Browne albums down for awhile after that. By the time Toys came out my senior year, I was a full blown Aerosmith fan. The lead out Joe did on Sweet Emotion is, to this day, one of the best of any from that era in Classic rock. That in itself wAs worth the price of that album to many young aspiring guitarists like myself.
In addition to absolutely destroying Ken with the Elton John and Jackson Browne slights, you and I are on the same trajectory with our discovery of Aerosmith, Roger. Though my high school years were in the 80s and Greatest Hits was probably my first exposure to the band, I went further back to Get Your Wings and Toys instead of what was then the recent past of Draw the Line and Night in the Ruts. So great to hear albums like this that you could enjoy from start to finish.
C.J., I mean no disrespect to Ken, or the two aforementioned singer songwriters, but rather only to take the opportunity to expand my personal music juke box to include the more guitar driven bands like Aerosmith, J. Geils, and Boston, to my play list.
In my car, I have a bootleg of a 1973 Aerosmith show at Paul's Mall in Boston. In has classics like "One Way Street", "Movin' Out" and their version of "Rattlesnake Shake". I put it on whenever I have a drive of 45 minutes or more and I feel like disappearing into the past. Magical
This is more of a general Aerosmith take, but I’ve never been able to compartmentalize my disdain for their work from the mid 80s to the present. Hearing Just Push Play in your formative years really has a way of souring you on the entire discography
Picking Aerosmith albums is more of a surgical procedure than it is “collecting”. There’s a three album run in the late 80s/early 90s that’s really good. Permanent Vacation establishes a reinvigorated and sober band. It’s not a great album, but it’s good. Pump and Get a Grip are excellent as long as you embrace the power ballads. After that, they lose me too.
Get a Grip has more filler than Tyler's lips and cheeks combined.
I hear you, Greg. It's tough to ask the under 40 crowd to forget everything they know about Aerosmith and imagine a quintet of scrappy badasses who churned out rock classics like they were making waffles. But, if you close your eyes and concentrate on those first four albums, you just may be able to do it
Nice takes guys. Those first four albums had some serious grease in the gears. I prefer Rocks but that’s just me. Records were shorter then, so listening to one usually led to another and that’s almost always Toys.
“Thanks for the mammaries”, oh my that’s heavy cheddar.
Nothing wrong with Rocks. Maybe a tad less accessible than Toys, but not much. It's a funny thing with many of the giants that we've covered over the past six months. Artists that have achieved longevity--U2, Aerosmith, Elton John, Mellencamp--have also created music that is universally hated by their fans and detractors alike. (Tom Petty may be the exception that proves the rule.) I guess if you stick around long enough you're bound to do something truly terrible.
Very true. Seems like they all have to compete with their own past and if that past had a multi album hot streak, they are never able to equal it again.
The best thing about Bobo is the mini harp they were giving away with that purchase, that I still have attached to my car keys. What should have been a short walk to the blues ended up being detoured to the land fill. That being said, my journey with Aerosmith all began with their cover of Train kept a rollin’, a jump blues cut from the ‘50’s reworked by the yardbirds, Jeff Beck, and Jimi page with Led Zeplin. Needless to say I put my Elton John and Jackson Browne albums down for awhile after that. By the time Toys came out my senior year, I was a full blown Aerosmith fan. The lead out Joe did on Sweet Emotion is, to this day, one of the best of any from that era in Classic rock. That in itself wAs worth the price of that album to many young aspiring guitarists like myself.
In addition to absolutely destroying Ken with the Elton John and Jackson Browne slights, you and I are on the same trajectory with our discovery of Aerosmith, Roger. Though my high school years were in the 80s and Greatest Hits was probably my first exposure to the band, I went further back to Get Your Wings and Toys instead of what was then the recent past of Draw the Line and Night in the Ruts. So great to hear albums like this that you could enjoy from start to finish.
C.J., I mean no disrespect to Ken, or the two aforementioned singer songwriters, but rather only to take the opportunity to expand my personal music juke box to include the more guitar driven bands like Aerosmith, J. Geils, and Boston, to my play list.
No worries, Roger. That was me busting Ken's chops, not you.
Great album great reviews and comments! Though Get Your Wings has some of their classic songs
You could throw those first four albums into a blender and make four equally great albums with whatever came out of it
So true.