Here we have the debut album from Aerosmith which took the 70’s by storm in the USA.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Aerosmith
ALBUM: Aerosmith
LABEL: Columbia
SERIAL: JC 32005
YEAR: 1973
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Steven Tyler – vocals, acoustic guitar, piano, harmonica, percussion * Joe Perry – guitars, backing vocals * Brad Whitford – guitars * Tom Hamilton – bass * Joey Kramer – drums, percussion, backing vocals
TRACK LISTING: 01 Make It * 02 Somebody * 03 Dream On * 04 One Way Street * 05 Mama Kin * 06 Write Me * 07 Movin’ Out * 08 Walking The Dog
Background
During 1973 I was still in primary school. Didn’t know much about anything other than kicking a rugby or soccer ball, hitting a tennis ball and riding a bike. Despite that, I was still quite a musical kid and I listened to what was on the radio and what my older brother and sister were listening to and playing records at home.
However Aerosmith were not on the dial, and as I researched later on during that decade, they never really made an impact in New Zealand whatsoever. British bands was where it was at during this timeframe, the Kiwis still tied to the apron strings of the mother country Great Britain as they had been for the last 70 years since becoming a Dominion.
Aerosmith formed in 1970 merging ftom two factions: Steve Tallarico (Tyler), Ray Tabano and Joey Kramer vs Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton. Brad Whitford replaced Tabano in 1971 and the nucleus of the band was formed and remains intact at the time of writing.
The band signed to Columbia in the summer of 1972 and eventually the album was recorded toward the back end of that year and released in January 1973 to little fanfare, which was quite surprising considering the work the label took to land these guys in the first place.
The Songs
Afforded not much of a budget, the band still released a good collection of songs despite being low on quantity, just the 8 tracks. Produced by Englishman Adrian Barber, the band stated in later years that there wasn’t much of a synergy between themselves and him, but I don’t think that was the reason for this debut not doing a lot on Billboard. You can hang that one on the record label for not doing its job.
Of course the best known song on the album is ‘Dream On’, funnily enough this didn’t actually become popular until early 1976 some three years after the fact, but still it’s one of Aerosmith’s most popular tracks and for good reason.
‘Walkin’ The Dog’ is the old Rufus Thomas chestnut from 1963 recorded a decade later, a track also recorded by the Rolling Stones in 1964 and Ratt on their 1983 debut EP, amongst others.
Of the remaining tracks, they are all very listenable but they kind of sound like a different band to what they ended up sounding like by the time ‘Toys In The Attic’ and ‘Rocks’ landed. This was due to the fact that they were novices in the studio and were quite nervous about how they would end up sounding on record. Tyler in particular would find his natural voice on later albums rather than this one.
In Summary
As mentioned, the album didn’t do anything in 1973 though its 1976 re-release benefited from the success of the ‘Toys In The Attic’ album from the previous year which helped propel Aerosmith into the limelight, so ‘Aerosmith’ the album got a bit of a piggyback as a result. Better things would come for the band over the next three years of which you can read more about here on Glory Daze ( click the Aerosmith tag below).
Video
Dream On
