Aerosmith (album)
Aerosmith | ||||
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Boston | ||||
Genre | ||||
Length | 35:48 | |||
Label | Columbia | |||
Producer | Adrian Barber | |||
Aerosmith chronology | ||||
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Singles from Aerosmith | ||||
Alternative cover | ||||
Aerosmith is the debut studio album by the American rock band Aerosmith, released on January 5, 1973, by Columbia Records.[5] "Dream On", originally released as a single in 1973, became an American top ten hit when re-released on 27 December 1975.[6] The album peaked at number 21 on the US Billboard 200 album chart in 1976.[7]
Background
After entering a partnership with Frank Connelly, David Krebs and Steve Leber invited members of two record labels – Atlantic Records and Columbia Records – to view an Aerosmith concert at Max's Kansas City. Clive Davis, the president of Columbia, was impressed with the band and Aerosmith signed with Columbia in the summer of 1972.
Although lead singer
Composition
The album's songs were largely written by Tyler, in contrast to later albums where other band members also contributed songs. The album's songs represent an early success in songwriting, a skill he had recently developed. He explains in a 1998 interview:
"The other guys really weren't into writing. Joe and I had written "Movin' Out," and I remember, the other guys lived in the living room, and I would wake them up in the morning and start playing the piano, because I had this thought from the night before. I wrote "One Way Street," "Make It," then "Write Me A Letter" and "Mama Kin." And I brought a song called "Dream On," which I had written three or four years before that. So, at the end of this album, I realized that something that I was trying to do for years and was not successful at I finally could do, which was write songs."[8]
"Make It" leads off the album and also served as the band's opening song during their first tours. Tyler wrote the song on the back of a Kleenex box in the back seat of the car as the group drove down from New Hampshire to Boston to move in together to start the band. Tyler was inspired both by the sudden view of the city through the windshield and the possibilities that starting the new band presented.[9] He explains to biographer Stephen Davis, "I wrote 'Make It' in a car driving from New Hampshire to Boston. There's that hill you come to and see the skyline of Boston, and I was sitting in the backseat thinking, What would be the greatest thing to sing for an audience if we were opening up for the ... Stones? What would the lyrics say?"[10] Drummer Kramer elaborates on the song's sentiment in a 1998 interview: "You could search the ends of the earth, and I don't think you could find five more different guys. The one thing that we all had in common was that we all wanted to make it. And making it back then had nothing to do with being rich and famous. It had to do with being recognized, by your peers and people, for being a great band and being able to play concerts where a lot of people would come."[11]
"Somebody" dates from Tyler's previous band,
Tyler wrote "Dream On" in stages over several years, finalizing the lyrics during the album's sessions.
"One Way Street" was inspired by one of Tyler's relationships at the time. He explains, "'One Way Street' was written on piano at 1325 [the street number of the house where the band lived], with rhythm and the harp coming from 'Midnight Rambler.'"[10][17]
"Mama Kin" was written on the same guitar found in the trash that Tyler later used to write "Seasons of Wither". He explains, "One day I grabbed this old guitar Joey Kramer found in the garbage on Beacon Street, an acoustic with no strings. It had snow on it and was so warped you could shoot arrows with it. I wedged it between the door and let it dry for a week. I looked at it for about two days, put four strings on it, which was all it would take because it was so warped ... I stole the opening lick from an old Blodwyn Pig song,"[10] "See My Way." In a 2001 interview, Tyler explains the song's lyrics: "People always ask, 'What's "mama kin"?' It's the mother of everything. It's the desire to write music, the desire to get laid, to go through the relationship with a girl, or whatever it is. Keeping in touch with mama kin means keeping in touch with the old spirits that got you there to begin with."[18]
Tyler explains that "'Write Me' was originally 'Bite Me,' something we'd been working on for five or six months starting in the Bruins' dressing room at the Boston Garden, but it just didn't make it. Then one day I said, 'Fuck this,' said something to Joey, who started playing like a can-can rhythm thing, and suddenly there it was."[10] The intro was inspired by "Got to Get You into My Life" by the Beatles.[19]
Tyler considers "Movin' Out" to be the "first song of Aerosmith."[20] He explains, "'Movin' Out' was the first song I wrote with Joe, the first experience of coming up with something and saying, 'See? I can do it.'"[10] In his memoir, Tyler remembers writing the song with Perry sitting on a waterbed at their apartment: "One day at the very beginning of 1971 I wrote the basic track and lyrics for "Movin' Out" on a water bed with Joe Perry in our living room at 1325 Com. Ave. Joe's sitting on the water bed and I hear him strumming this thing and I go, 'Hold on...whoa, what's that?' and a minute later, Joe's riffing and I'm scribbling. I leaped up and shouted, 'Guys! Do you realize what we just did?' Their enthusiasm was curbed. 'Yeah, what is it, man?' 'It's our firstborn!' I proclaimed. 'The first Aerosmithed song! How great is that?'"[21]
The album concludes with a cover of Rufus Thomas' "Walkin' the Dog", a concert staple of the band which they learned from the Rolling Stones cover. It was used in place of an original psychedelic pop song, "Major Barbara".[22]
Recording
The group recorded their debut album at Intermedia Studios in 331 Newbury Street, Boston, Massachusetts with
The band recalls the production of the album and their working relationship with producer Adrian Barber with mixed sentiment. Tyler suggests that producer Barber was "good for his time" but it was like "being with a retarded child in there, and I'm not sure if it was because he was so high, or because we all were."[26] In his autobiography Rocks, Joe Perry is more critical of Barber:
Our producer was practically useless. He had little input. When I heard the playback, I kept thinking, "We're better than this. We should sound better than this. We're being recorded wrong. We sound fuckin' flat." But because I lacked the studio chops to prescribe a remedy, I kept quiet. It pained me, though, that my guitar was not cutting through ... There's magic on it, but just not the magic that I had envisioned.[27]
Bassist Tom Hamilton later confessed, "The album was done so fast I barely remember anything but overdubbing some tracks and running to the bathroom for a hit of blow".[25] Perry reflected, "We were uptight, afraid to make mistakes ... We were total novices with no idea what to go for."[26]
Album cover
On the original cover, the song "Walkin' the Dog" was misprinted as "Walkin' the Dig". When a second pressing of the album was released, this error was corrected. Sometime after June 1973, but before January 1975, a third cover was printed. This has a modified version of the original, made up entirely of the photo of the band members, adding the 'Featuring "Dream On"' text and removing the biography information on the back. This third pressing is the more commonly available version of the LP. Cash Box magazine lists an Aerosmith II (Columbia KC 32045) release in the February 1, 1975 issue.[28] As this catalog number is consistent with a June 1973 date, it is possible Columbia used this number to identify the 'Featuring "Dream On"' cover, but stayed with the original KC 32005 catalog number on the actual release. In January 1975 Aerosmith was re-issued with the "PC" prefix, so there may have been some confusion as to the correct number. When reissued on CD in 1993 as a remastered version, the original artwork was used.
Recalling the album art, Perry commented in 2014, "Unfortunately the packaging was lame. We didn't even see the cover until the first printing. It was something that Columbia just threw together ... The whole thing was sloppy. It marked the start of our education in dealing with labels."[29]
Promotion
"Dream On" was released as a single and became Aerosmith's first major hit and a classic rock radio staple. The single peaked at number 59 nationally but hit big in the band's native Boston,[30] where it was the number 1 single of the year on the less commercial top 40 station, WVBZ-FM,[31] number 5 for the year on highly rated Top 40 WRKO-AM, and number 16 on heritage Top 40 WMEX-AM.[31]
The album version of "Dream On" (4:28, as opposed to the 3:25 1973
In 1973, Aerosmith toured extensively behind the album, playing clubs in New England as well as larger venues throughout the eastern United States, opening for other groups including Mott the Hoople, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and The Kinks.[33] The jazz fusion, almost classical style of Mahavishnu Orchestra proved to be an idiosyncratic fit. Joe Perry explains, "After us, John McLaughlin would ask for a moment of silence. I guess he figured they needed it."[34] The band's managers would book the band to open for groups that were waning in popularity, so that Aerosmith would have a chance to steal their audience. Manager David Krebs explains, "We learned to play our market so that Aerosmith opened for acts that were slightly on the downslide – bands whose audience we could cop. Even if we didn't blow them off the stage every time, we could at least count on some to buy an Aerosmith album."[35] Tom Hamilton explains, "I think what we wanted to do, without ever really saying it, was to be the American equivalent of all the great British bands like Cream, the Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin. They were all so classy and powerful sounding. We couldn't think of an American band like that. We wanted to be the first one." Steven Tyler continues, "We were the guys you could actually see. It wasn't like Zeppelin was out there on the road in America all the time, the Stones weren't always coming to your town. We were America's band — the garage band that made it real big, the ultimate party band."[36]
During the year, the group played sets featuring the new album for two different radio broadcasts and made their first television appearance. Both radio performances were professionally recorded. In March, WBCN Boston DJ Maxanne Sartori, who would promote the group through frequent playing of "Dream On",[37] invited the group to broadcast their set from Paul's Mall in Boston. Two tracks from the performance would later be released on 1978's Live! Bootleg. In September, the group would perform a set at Counterpart Studios in the Cheviot neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio for WKRQ. Two tracks from this performance would see release in 1991 on Pandora's Box. In December, the group appeared on American Bandstand to perform "Dream On".[38]
Reception
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [39] |
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 7/10[40] |
The Daily Vault | A−[41] |
The Rolling Stone Album Guide | [42] |
The album was not a success when it was released on January 5, 1973. "We put it out, and a lot of the reports from radio around the country were coming back. I remember reading this sheet with a lot of quotes on it: 'Can't really use this at this time.' 'Doesn't really work with our playlist.' 'Sucks.' It was shocking, because we knew it was a good album. A lot of people took a look at us and said, 'They're like a Kmart version of the Stones.' So, basically, our manager came back and said, 'Look, you know, I just talked to the record company and they said, 'Unless your next album is really, really good, you're not going to be recording artists anymore.'"[46]
In a modern review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Aerosmith as "truly an American band, sounding as though they were the best bar band in your local town, cranking out nasty hard-edged rock"; he considered "Dream On" "the blueprint for all power ballads" and the album a worthy debut where the band's "sleazoid blues-rock" sound is fully present but not yet perfected as in the next album.[39] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff described the album as "raw, dirty and steeped with squalid integrity", but observed that "every successive release sounds light years ahead in terms of production, songcraft, maturity, everything".[40]
In an interview to Classic Rock magazine, Guns N' Roses guitarist Izzy Stradlin recalled: "Growing up in Indiana, I loved fucking Aerosmith, man ... Smoke a joint, listen to the first record."[47] Aerosmith was considered a big influence on Guns N' Roses and helped shape their sound.[48]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Steven Tyler, except where noted
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|
1. | "Make It" | 3:41 | |
2. | "Somebody" | Tyler, Steven Emspak | 3:45 |
3. | "Dream On" | 4:28 | |
4. | "One Way Street" | 7:00 | |
5. | "Mama Kin" | 4:25 | |
6. | "Write Me a Letter" | 4:11 | |
7. | "Movin' Out" | Tyler, Joe Perry | 5:03 |
8. | "Walkin' the Dog" | Rufus Thomas | 3:12 |
Total length: | 35:48 |
Personnel
Aerosmith
- Steven Tyler – lead vocals, piano, harmonica; electric harpsichord and mellotron on "Dream On", flute on "Walkin' the Dog", percussion
- Joe Perry – guitars, backing vocals, second guitar solo on "One Way Street"
- Brad Whitford – guitars, first guitar solo on "One Way Street"
- Tom Hamilton – bass guitar
- Joey Kramer – drums
Additional musicians
- David Woodford – saxophone on "Mama Kin" and "Write Me a Letter"
Charts
Chart (1976) | Peak position |
---|---|
Canada Top Albums/CDs (RPM)[49] | 58 |
US Billboard 200[50] | 21 |
Certification
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada (Music Canada)[51] | Platinum | 100,000^ |
United States (RIAA)[52] | 2× Platinum | 2,000,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
References
- ^ LTD, BubbleUp (January 5, 2022). "AeroHistory: Aerosmith releases debut album in 1973". www.aerosmith.com. Retrieved June 23, 2022.
- ^ "Aerosmith by Aerosmith". genius.com. January 5, 1973. Retrieved September 7, 2022.
- ^ Aerosmith's Greatest Hits (CD booklet). Aerosmith. New York City: Columbia Records. 1993. CK 57367.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link) - ^ Hung, Steffen (June 27, 1973). "Aerosmith - Dream On". hitparade.ch. Retrieved September 7, 2022.
- ^ a b c Wild, David (1991). Pandora's Box (CD booklet). Aerosmith. New York City: Columbia Records. pp. 17, 18. C3K 86567.
- ^ Cash Box: December 27, 1975, page 122
- Billboard.com. Retrieved July 26, 2018.
- ^ Newman, Melinda, and Jenny Land. 1998. “Aerosmith.” Billboard 110 (33): A-3. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=945073&site=eds-live&scope=site.
- ^ Tyler, Steven, and David Dalton. 2011. Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? : A Rock “N” Roll Memoir. New York: Ecco Press.
- ^ a b c d e f g Davis & Aerosmith 1997, pp. 171–173.
- ^ Newman, Melinda, and Jenny Land. 1998. “Aerosmith.” Billboard 110 (33): A-3. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=945073&site=eds-live&scope=site.
- ^ Talk this way. Fricke, David, Rolling Stone, 0035791X, 11/3/94, Issue 694
- ^ Tyler, Steven, and David Dalton. 2011. Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? : A Rock “N” Roll Memoir. New York: Ecco Press.
- ^ Tyler, Steven, and David Dalton. 2011. Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? : A Rock “N” Roll Memoir. New York: Ecco Press.
- ^ Pollock, Bruce. Walk This Way. April 1984. Guitar for the Practicing Musician.
- ^ Di Perna, Alan (March 1997). "Aerosmith". Guitar World. Vol. 17, no. 3.
- ^ Tyler, Steven, and David Dalton. 2011. Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? : A Rock “N” Roll Memoir. New York: Ecco Press.
- ^ Sheffield, Rob. 2001. “Aerosmith. (Cover Story).” Rolling Stone, no. 867 (April): 40. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=4371874&site=eds-live&scope=site.
- ^ Tyler, Steven, and David Dalton. 2011. Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? : A Rock “N” Roll Memoir. New York: Ecco Press.
- ^ Steven Tyler song introduction, Classics Live II
- ^ Tyler, Steven, and David Dalton. 2011. Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? : A Rock “N” Roll Memoir. New York: Ecco Press.
- ^ Tyler, Steven, and David Dalton. 2011. Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? : A Rock “N” Roll Memoir. New York: Ecco Press.
- ^ Tyler & Dalton 2011, p. 93.
- ^ Newman, Melinda, and Jenny Land. 1998. “Aerosmith.” Billboard 110 (33): A-3. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=945073&site=eds-live&scope=site.
- ^ a b Davis & Aerosmith 1997, p. 175.
- ^ a b Davis & Aerosmith 1997, p. 174.
- ^ Perry & Ritz 2014, pp. 117–118.
- ^ Cash Box: February 1, 1975, page 50
- ^ Perry & Ritz 2014, p. 118.
- ^ "500 Greatest Songs of All Time: Aerosmith, 'Dream On'". Rolling Stone. April 7, 2011. Retrieved July 30, 2018.
- ^ a b Davis & Aerosmith 1997, p. 195.
- ^ "Aerosmith Chart History: Hot 100". Billboard.com. Billboard. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
- ^ Tyler, Steven, and David Dalton. 2011. Does the Noise in My Head Bother You? : A Rock “N” Roll Memoir. New York: Ecco Press.
- ^ Aerosmith Bares Its Battle Scars. February 22, 1979. Rolling Stone.
- ^ McCormack, Ed. Aerosmith: Hard Rock's down and Dirty Heroes. Rolling Stone. August 26, 1976. https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/aerosmith-hard-rocks-down-and-dirty-heroes-99418/.
- ^ Lisko, B. J. Talk This Way: The Story of Aerosmith as Told by the Band. August 6, 2015. Canton Repository. Accessed January 13, 2024. https://www.cantonrep.com/story/entertainment/local/2015/08/06/talk-this-way-story-aerosmith/33730354007/.
- ^ Sullivan, Jim. 'WBCN and the American Revolution' Cements the Radio Station's Place in Music History. Www.wbur.org. April 19, 2019. https://www.wbur.org/news/2019/04/19/wbcn-and-the-american-revolution-cements-the-radio-stations-place-in-music-history.
- ^ "Episode #17.14". IMDb.
- ^ All Media Network. Retrieved July 28, 2018.
- ^ ISBN 978-1894959025.
- ^ Thelen, Christopher (2019). "The Daily Vault Music Reviews : Aerosmith". dailyvault.com. Retrieved February 16, 2019.
- ^ "Aerosmith Album Guide". Rolling Stone. 2004. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
- ^ Davis & Aerosmith 1997, p. 181.
- ^ Davis & Aerosmith 1997, p. 192.
- ^ Davis & Aerosmith 1997, p. 204.
- ^ Newman, Melinda, and Jenny Land. 1998. “Aerosmith.” Billboard 110 (33): A-3. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f6h&AN=945073&site=eds-live&scope=site.
- ^ Wall, Mick (June 2001). "In too deep". Classic Rock. No. 28. p. 39.
- ISBN 978-1-84240-314-3.
"Our basic root is hard rock, a bit heavier than the Stones, more in a vein like Aerosmith
- ^ "Top RPM Albums: Issue 4153b". RPM. Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
- ^ "Aerosmith Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
- ^ "Canadian album certifications – Aerosmith – Aerosmith". Music Canada. Retrieved July 14, 2022.
- ^ "American album certifications – Aerosmith – Aerosmith". Recording Industry Association of America.
Bibliography
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