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IF the members of Aerosmith were professional athletes, they'd have been both all-stars and comeback players of the year. During the first decade of its career, Aerosmith was one of the most popular hard-rock bands in America, striking a flamboyant middle ground between the cool, bluesy swagger of the Rolling Stones and the more campy, glam-metal approach of the New York Dolls and Mott the Hoople. Later, after a period of drug- and alcohol-induced decline, they made a triumphant return to form in the late eighties and early nineties, winning back their fans as well as the heart×and checkbook×of Columbia Records, the label where the story of Aerosmith began.
Actually, the band's tale starts a few years before signing to Columbia, when drummer Steven Tyler met guitarist Joe Perry at the Anchorage, a Sunapee, New Hampshire, ice cream parlor where Perry worked in 1970. They formed a power trio with Tom Hamilton on bass, and before long, they'd added drummer Joey Kramer and guitarist Brad Whitford, leaving Tyler to fulfill the role he was born for: lead singer. The name Aerosmith, by the way, means nothing in particular; it simply was the only name that no one in the band hated.
By the end of 1970, they'd moved to Boston, and they spent the next couple of years playing bars, clubs, and college parties in Massachusetts and New York. In 1972, they were signed to a record deal by Clive Davis, then president of Columbia Records, and their self-titled debut album came out in the fall of 1973. Although the disc included the ambitious (and now classic) power ballad "Dream On," it created only a ripple on the charts. But the band toured ceaselessly to support their sophomore effort, Get Your Wings, building up a loyal fan base that would soon catapult them to stardom.
With 1975's Toys in the Attic, considered by most to be Aerosmith's best album, the group achieved a new level of success, both artistically and commercially. The first single, "Sweet Emotion," was a terrific pop/hard-rock crossover that led the album up to No. 11 on the Billboard charts (it eventually sold six million copies). As a result of this newfound success, "Dream On" was re-released, becoming a Top 40 hit the second time around. The super-funky "Walk This Way" followed it up the charts early in 1976.
Rocks, the band's solid fourth album, came out in May of 1976, and it also quickly went platinum. The band was on top of the world×touring, partying, boozing it up, and taking drugs like they were going out of style. Well drugs weren't×not right then, anyway×but the toll they took sent the band on a long downward spiral. Draw the Line (1977) and Live! Bootleg (1978) both sold respectably, but the group was clearly losing steam. They did manage a hit later in 1978 with a cover of the Beatles' "Come Together," off the soundtrack to the Bee Gees' and Peter Frampton's disastrous film, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. After the release of Night in the Ruts in 1979, Perry left the band to form the Joe Perry Project; Brad Whitford left soon after to form the Whitford-St. Holmes Band.
Operating with two replacement guitarists, Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay, the band released its least successful album ever, Rock in a Hard Place, in 1982. Meanwhile, Perry's and Whitford's solo projects weren't exactly lighting up the charts. Something had to be done. On Valentine's Day of 1984, Perry and Whitford visited their old bandmates backstage after a show at Boston's Orpheum Theatre. Now reconciled, they reunited for the Back in the Saddle tour, and in 1985, having signed to Geffen Records, they put out Done With Mirrors. Though it didn't sell well, it showed that the band was on the comeback trail. After its release, Tyler and Perry completed a drug-rehabilitation program, and then, in an extremely smart publicity move, they joined old-school rappers Run-DMC in the video for their cover of "Walk This Way."
In 1987, with producer Bruce Fairbairn at the helm, they recorded the album that would put them back on top, Permanent Vacation. Aerosmith's best and biggest-selling non-greatest hits album since Rocks featured the hits "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)," "Rag Doll," and "Angel," and ultimately sold five million copies. Pump, released in 1989, did it one better, selling six million, driven by the Top 10 hits "Love in an Elevator" and "Janie's Got a Gun." 1993's Get a Grip broke new ground for the band: the album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart. Like its predecessors, Grip spawned several hits and was eventually certified sextuple-platinum. An undeniable key to the band's phenomenal run of success with these three albums was the music videos that accompanied each single. MTV put Aerosmith's rock-fantasy clips into heavy rotation, and the story lines of most of them involved young lovers less than half the age of the band members themselves. Notable among the pretty teenage faces was Alicia Silverstone, who made a name for herse |
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