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Aerosmith: Eternal Emotion by Bob Lefsetz I got in my car and Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion" was playing on the radio. Boy did it sound FANTASTIC!! I tried to figure out why. My favorite Aerosmith album is the second, the one with "Lord Of The Thighs." But kinda like Stevie Wonder, Aerosmith released three consecutive solid albums that solidified their position as America's premier rockers. Get Your Wings, Toys In The Attic, and Rocks. However, unlike Stevie with Talking Book, Aerosmith didn't go nuclear on the first of this impressive trio. It was a cumulative effect. The band had a hit with "Dream On" long after the first album was released. It was kinda like J. Geils. They were seen as a Boston thing. Local. Took a while for the rest of the country to be convinced. And when they were sold, and purchased the album, they found something not completely formed. Slightly tentative. Not cohesive. Therefore, there was not a ready audience for the second album, Get Your Wings. Get Your Wings was everything the first album was not, minus a hit. It was like a Stones record. Started off with a raucous rocker, then got dark. One could listen to "Seasons Of Wither" FOREVER! "Spaced" and "Woman Of The World," too. Get Your Wings primed the pump. Over the course of a year, most stations added tunes to their playlist. People were realizing this band was here to stay. Then Toys In The Attic was released. Funny how history changes perception. Looking at the track listing of Toys In The Attic today, one would think "Walk This Way" was the big hit. The automatic. The first track. But that wasn't the case at all. "Walk This Way" came later. Once everybody acknowledged Aerosmith ruled. What came first was "Sweet Emotion." Now my favorite track on Toys In The Attic is "No More No More." It's that guitar intro. The descending lick. Joe Perry picking out the notes, with a ton of reverb and another guitar doubling his work. And then, in the middle of the song, the chorus...Tyler singing "Baby I'm a dreamer, found my horse and carriage"...he sings it to this same descending lick! That's rock and roll. A sound that just gets into your gut. It just FEELS right! "No More No More" was never the hit, but it's the one that felt most right. Like the band on stage, on the record, was made up of human beings, with feelings, just like you. You could RELATE! Still...one had to admire "Sweet Emotion." It was the intro. Kind of like "Gimmie Shelter." All spacy. Then, about thirty five seconds in, the the bass riff solidifies. And Tyler starts singing. Driving in my car tonight, I thought this bass part was the key. But really, that's not the case. The killer here, you see, is Joe Perry's guitar playing. How did the guitar die? We used to have guitar heroes. Guitar gods. And Joe Perry wasn't even one of them. He was seen as a journeyman. But what he does on "Sweet Emotion." It's kind of like what Keith Richards does. It's kinda the rhythm. It's not flashy. But it gets your adrenaline pumping. After every verse, Joe just starts to WAIL! There are three guitars. Playing the same riff. Repeating it heavily. And then, they drop out and we're back to just one guitar, but with a sound like a switchblade opening, a slap in the face. And while this guitar sound is throwing its cold water in your face, Tyler is RIPPING OFF some lyrics. "Standin' in front just shakin' your ass. I'll take you backstage you can drink from my glass. I'll talk about something you can sure understand. Cause a month on the road and I'll be eatin' from your hand." The rock and roll business referenced on MTV, VH1, in the press, on the radio. The blueprint was established in the SEVENTIES! The bands could finally play. Sound reinforcement was up to snuff. The old people still didn't understand. Twentysomething males criss-crossed this country making more money in a year than entire neighborhoods could make in a lifetime. So much money, they didn't care about blowing it, throwing it away. Destroying hotel rooms. Buying shit. Whether it be guitars or drugs. They were establishing the LIFESTYLE! Everybody today is just following the map that they drew first. You loaded up with alcohol and drugs, piled into a bus and drove from arena to arena. Slamming your music out to twenty thousand adoring fans for 90 minutes and then having your way with an endless parade of girls. The sexual revolution didn't happen in the sixties, it happened in the SEVENTIES! Oh, the MANIFESTO was written in the sixties, but the public didn't start to act on it, embrace it, until the seventies. Give a roadie head so you could talk to Steven Tyler? NO PROBLEM! It was an endless hedonistic parade. Slowly covered in the mainstream press. And the older generation felt LEFT OUT! All these skinny young things in their halter tops creaming over these drug addicts. How did this HAPPEN?! But their kids weren't interested in analyzing it all, they just wanted to get IN ON IT! America's an uptight country. Inhibited. But the arena would darken, and this massive SOUND would emanate from the speakers. It would force out all your doubts. You would do anything to be a part of it. And it wasn't only at the show. You'd play Toys In The Attic and its follow-up Rocks in your car to pump you up. And when you did get a girlfriend, you didn't play soft jazz, new age, rather you put on "Sweet Emotion" and pumped away. You were a cutting edge explorer. It wasn't a mercenary thing like the Kiss Army, like it is today. Aerosmith wasn't about manipulating you, ripping you off, they were about opening Pandora's box. Leading you somewhere you weren't aware of, might be afraid of, a place so special that once you arrived you never wanted to leave! And it was all built on those amazing guitars. Kinda like the beats in today's hip-hop records. Then again, those beats are stolen from seventies records. Then again, when Joe Perry and Jimmy Page started to wail, that sound...it ECLIPSED the rest of the instruments. It all added up to a freight train running over your head. Just listen, like I did tonight, you'll be reminded. For news, pictures, and songs, visit the Aerosmith Fan Club. |
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