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| Girls just wanna have fun, boys just wanna sulk |
Aerosmith took a lot of flak for being dumb Rolling Stone knock-offs. Two things wrong with this: they don't sound like the Stones, and they're dumb like The Ramones are dumb. If you don't grab your air guitar three seconds into any Aerosmith song, rock n' roll may not be your thing. That's okay. Tedeschi Trucks are there for you.
Their first four albums vary only in the number of hits they contain, from zero (Get Your Wings) to a shitload (Rocks), but they all sound exactly like rock n' roll should sound; deceptively simple. If you lend an ear to the arrangements - yup, these songs are all craftsman built - you'll hear surprises and neat tricks you might not expect from a bunch of dumb Stones wannabes.
Associations with Hair Bands, Metal, Glam, and Hard Rock are off the mark. Aerosmith is 100% proof pure rock music, and at their best as great as it gets. Drums that sound like drums, guitars everywhere, riffing and soloing, bass crunching, and vocals that never degrade into that grunty vein-popping thing.
Deliverables: first four albums. Self-titled first album with really nice extra track, Get Your Wings, Toys In The Attic, and Rocks. An absolute fucking blast, a feast.
StealthLink© embedded into post for community wellness.
This post autoclaved with an alembic donated by Alchemy Al's All-Aluminum Alembics, Alabaster, AL
Say, fellows! Have you bin to Alabaster, Alabamy?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-things-to-do-in-alabaster-al/
Sure looks like a swell location for this year's FoamStock©! Check out the paintball park!
Who'd you like to see on the Foamstock© main stage?
This is what we want. Big dumb-smart dumb-smart rock. I'm a big fan of dumb-smart; Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, The Cult, Motorhead ... though sometimes good dumb-smart is just dumb, even if it remains endearing; da Ramonez were not the sharpest knives in the box, and I don't think Uriah Heep were, either.
ReplyDeleteIt's such a fine line between stupid and clever.
DeleteHats off to Toefat!
DeleteWhere on that scale would Cheap Trick, one of my favorite dumb-smart band, land? Or Blue Öyster Cult (maybe disqualified for being too smart)?
DeleteCheap Trick I never got into. BOC are a good parallel to Aerosmith. Not much of a Glimmer Twins vibe, although criticised by some as decidedly pedestrian. They share the same difficulty of being more neatly categorised than simply "rock music". Not really Heavy Metal, are they? But yes, smart enough to know to look dumb.
DeleteAlabaster looks like a great place, yep book me in for the paintball please.
ReplyDeleteIn 1994 a bunch of ‘hairies’ and I went to see Aerosmith at The Monsters Of Rock Festival, Donington Park. We travelled up the day before via a brewery so we could take gallons of beer in with us - in those days they allowed you to take your own beer into the festival as long as it was in plastic containers - festival beer at big festivals in England was usually awful and very expensive. Anyway after a very boozy Friday night we woke on Saturday and went into the main site and saw a few ok bands, when one called Cry Of Love came on we were all very impressed. The rest of the day is a bit of a blur, Aerosmith were great fun and I’m really glad on got to see them on that one occasion, but I would have really liked to have seen them around the time of these first four albums.
So I’d like to see Cry Of Love reform to headline the Foamstock© main stage, I bought their first album, they made a second and then split-up.
I lost interest in Santana after Havana Moon (1983), but would have loved to see Santana at a festival.
Cry Of Love are very keen to appear at Foamstock©, apparently, if Gobby (drummer) is out of the nick by then.
DeleteI have actually been to Alabaster. There is a small brewery there that makes some nice beers and an outdoor music venue that is really good. My daughter has lived not very far from Alabaster for almost 20 years.
ReplyDeleteBecause you seem eminently qualified, I'm offering you the position of Executive Officer, FoamStock© Waste Disposal Services.
DeleteSorry, my good man. I'm a deep seated marxist and therefore would never belong to a club that would have me as a member. :-)
DeleteI saw Aerosmith in 1971, at The Muddy Charles Pub on M.I.T.'s campus. They were OK for a "bar band" I guess. They didn’t sound like The Stones, but Tyler and Perry were absolutely trying for a "Glimmer Twin" vibe, which came off as low budget. To my ears they’ve always sounded pedestrian and decidedly second tier.
ReplyDeleteI saw them at an all day outdoor summer fest in NO around 1975. The year before I saw the Stones and the one thing I still remember from both shows was that Tyler wore the same stage outfit as Jagger. Not a huge fan, but didn't mind their early stuff. After that, I would change stations if their songs were played.
DeleteAnother band that in the UK were mentioned as being Rolling Stone knock-offs were Green On Red, however GOR and Aerosmith are miles apart, and I don’t think of either band as Stones knock-offs.
DeleteSo how about Chuck Prophet (ex GOR) opening proceedings at Foamstock©?, he always puts on a great live show.
Prophet is amazing. Saw him in concert in a small bar in St Francisville, La (small town about 90 mins nw of Baton Rouge). Was a weird event not just because of how small it was, but there was a manhunt going on for a serial killer and he was apprehended about an hour before the show, 2 blocks from the venue. Prophet wrote a song about it that day and performed it that night (have never seen the song pop up anywhere since).
DeleteAerosmith played EVERYWHERE in the early 70's. We (in Rhode Island) got a bit tired of them - though they always delivered- and figured they wouldn't go anywhere...Saw Chuck Prophet at a house concert last year and man, that guy can do no wrong. Charming like Richard Thomson in person (in Northern California) and one helluva self-accompanist!
DeleteProphet redid one of his albums with a full string section and released it on bandcamp - called Strings in the Temple, and its new versions of the songs from Temple Beautiful. Stunningly beautiful. Been a huge Prophet fan for a long time. His last lp, Cumbia Shoes, is also damn good.
DeleteANON RF: I've never seen them live, but I have a strong memory of visiting a friend Tim (who died in his early 20s) in Sunapee NH in, perhaps, 1968, Christmastime, so I was 15 (?). His older brother came into "our" room full of beans, saying he'd just been to a gig at "The Barn" to see this group "Arrowsmith" who were amayyy-zing! So... 3 degrees from rock history?
DeleteSaw that same show, pmac, and saw the Stones that year and, y e a h, no. I think Babs take on the Glimmer Twins wannabe vibe's right. My little sister, who I trusted, used to swear that "Stevie" Tyler knew exactly what he was doing...fuck if I know.
DeleteBelieve it was at City Park?!? The Glimmer Twins reference by Babs is spot on. Weird the crap that stays in your grey matter, while trying to remember what I ate last night is a mental struggle.
DeleteI don't think Babs is the first to notice the similarity in style to Mick and Keith, is she? It's not exactly a "gotcha" moment. Quite a few rockers modeled themselves after a Rolling Stone. David Johansen and Johnny Thunders? They don't get a kicking for their obvious mimicry - they're celebrated for it. Maybe if Aerosmith was from New York ... anyway. It doesn't matter. They don't sound like the Stones (at least I can tell the difference), and I'm not listening to how they look. How about that bass on Sweet Emotion, eh? How about the lyrics to Adam's Apple? The decidedly unpedestrian Joined At The Hip?
DeleteYou guys. Honestly.
If this thread was about "The Dolls", I'd say the same thing them, too. Same goes for Jack and Rochester…wait what? Let's face it, the panache of "The Glimmer Twins" is often imitated, but never duplicated. That said "The Dolls" are much more fun, and less pedestrian than Aerosmith. Not to mention insanely influential. Johansen and Thunders are just so out of control.
DeleteYebbut. Johansen and Thunders were loved for their Glimmer Twins vibe - at least by New Yorkers - and Aerosmith get dismissed as Stones wannabes for doing it. When was the last time you listened to Rocks, Babs? If it doesn't get you up on your feet and air-guitaring, Mudhole McGee's Decidedly Pedestrian Blues will get your Skechers shufflin'!
DeleteI listen to Rock most days. Earlier today I listened to The Stooges (Fun House). Over the weekend I was spinning Santana (III), The Small Faces (There Are But Four Small Faces), Radio Head (The Bends) and Bob Dylan (Modern Times).
DeleteWho in the wide, wide world of sports is Mudhole McGee????
Air-guitar that's too funny!
My question was, when did you last listen to Rocks? The fourth album? Not "rock" (bless!). It would play very nicely between Iggy and Santana.
Delete(You haven't heard of Mudhole McGee? His "I Gots The Blues Blues" b/w "I'm So Blue Blues" is a Holy Grail for blues collectors!)
Thinking about it, maybe Toys In The Attic would fit better. That would be my recommendation to anyone who thought they were too damn good for Aerosmith. Here's what Roberta Christgau, doyenne of rock critics, has to say between sips of weak tea:
DeleteThese boys are learning a trade in record time--even the sludgy numbers get crazy. Too bad the two real whompers are attached to rockstar lyrics, albeit clever ones, because Steve Tyler has a gift for the dirty line as well as the dirty look--anybody who can hook a song called "Adam's Apple" around the phrase "love at first bite" deserves to rehabilitate a blue blues like "Big Ten Inch Record." B+
Second Tier is Foghat, Fat Mattress, Stray, any number of jobbing bands who never quite made it to the top. Aerosmith are definitely above that league, and First Tier is a broader church than just the Stones and Led Zeppelin. Toys In The Attic is in most lists of Top Albums, even Christgau rates it highly. It's a superb piece of work. Luckily I never saw them live and can rate them on their albums, which have always been more important to me than live gigs, which are fine as they're happening but are quickly just memories. I don't sit around fondly reminiscing about gigs. They're over. I want to hear a record. And these four Aerosmith albums work for me every time. They're far more musicianly, and the songs are better, than usually credited. Because of the stereotype Stones thing, because anything. They're brilliant entertainment, and good for countless replays (which is more than I can say for the much-vaunted Ramones).
ReplyDeleteNo need to be snotty about da brudders and not sure about countless replays, but between these four albums and a few other bits and pieces there's a CD of exactly the kinda music you're talking about. As for "fondly reminiscing about gigs," why not? Explain to the dim bulbs, such as myself, among us...a great gig was a good time.
DeleteOne reason is memory. I saw the Pink Floyd with Jimi Hendrix in London, 1967. I'm sure of that, I went with my sister and her boyfriend. I can't remember anything interesting or useful. No anecdote to bring the event to life. It was noisy. Same with the Beatles three (four?) years earlier, with my Mum. It was noisy. These were epochal, life-changing groups, and I was there, and it was ... noisy. What songs did they play? Haven't a clue. There are many, many gigs I can remember going to, but can't remember in any compelling detail. Elton John, at the height of his pomp. Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green. Roxy Music, pre-first album. So many pub acts, college circuit bands. I'm just not that good at remembering events sixty years back, and I stopped going to gigs when I left Paris, twenty-odd years ago, where I went to a lot of gigs. I had a good to great time at all of them, but I don't have a great time today letting my mind wander back through the fragrant bowers of reminiscence to re-live them. I have a much better time listening to records. That's live to me, the music going directly into my brain and massaging the pleasure centres in real time. And - undistracted by stuff that doesn't matter. Should I give a shit if there was a Glimmer Twins vibe when Aerosmith played live? Or they were frequently so out of it the show stank? Why the hell should this back story spoil the experience of listening to a record? There's a lot of lip service given to "art not the artist", but I think some people still listen with prejudice, and the experience is spoiled. Case in point: these albums.
DeleteMy interest fell off with their Night in the Ruts album (Draw the Line wasn't that hot either). anyhoo my only chance to see them was at the Springfield IL show in 1984 (the Fall off the Saddle tour) where Tyler was wasted. The Rocks album still rocks tho.
ReplyDeleteThe Siluria Brewing Company might be worth a visit!
ReplyDeleteI still enjoy going to live gigs, but only in small venues... Saw Santana 20+ years ago here in Muang Thong Thani (Thailand), but I was disappointed, expensive seats (seats...) near the stage, but he & band were still the size of action figures... Best views were thanks to the massive screens, but I might as well buy a DVD and watch it in comfort at home.
Thanks for Aerosmith!
I’m with Koen on gigs these days, small venues are best. Seeing Steely Dan in Wembley Arena over twenty years ago was so disappointing and now forgotten. Chuck Prophet and band in a small venue, magic every time I see them.
DeleteAt a small gig, you feel part of the band, at a large gig you're part of the audience.
Delete