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(In the Journey Through The Past series, Rob Cee gives you his two cents on some of the greatest rock albums of all time.)

The story goes something like this: One day in the late 70’s/early 80’s, a teenage guy went to the house of a female acquaintance after school anticipating possible action. While in the girl’s bedroom, she put on a copy of Aerosmith’s 1976 LP Rocks. As the record spun, the story goes that the young man steadily grew less interested in the girl and more interested in the album. She was, understandably, perturbed and kicked him out. This story may be one of the best endorsements for Rocks as one of the finest rock albums of all time: It’s better than sex to a teenage boy. (Oh, and by the way, the young man in the story was not actually me, but future Guns N’ Roses/Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash.)

By 1976, Aerosmith was hot shit. They had hit the big time with the previous year’s Toys In The Attic (which, on first listen, might distract a young man from his missionary work as well) and pressure was on for a follow-up to hold their mantle as the dirtier, younger American cousin of The Rolling Stones. Perry, Whitford, Kramer, Hamilton, and Tyler responded with Rocks and exceeded all expectations. Heavier, darker, and generally more badass than Toys, Rocks rocked like a mutha and fortified Aerosmith’s position in the arena rock market. From the opening notes of “Back In The Saddle” (supposedly written by a higher-than-Jesus Joe Perry whilst laying on his back playing a six-string bass) to the tender promise of “Home Tonight” (second in a long line of soft-touch album closers that the ‘Smith would roll out over the years) this was a rock album that was lean, perfectly sequenced, and potent. High points await at every turn: the hard-charging “Lick And A Promise”, the apocalyptic “Nobody’s Fault”, the frantic “Rats In The Cellar”, etc. But even on an album this good, some songs stand out above the rest. “Combination” is one of the coolest Aerosmith songs of all time- a paralyzing portrait of stoned paranoia and loss of identity. “Back In The Saddle” features Perry’s aforementioned riff, equestrian sound effects, and Steven Tyler envisioning himself as some kind of rock and roll cowboy a full ten years before Bon Jovi was wanted (…wanted!) dead or alive. Almost squarely in the middle of the record, “Sick As A Dog” has a killer breakdown that sounds like the band is taking a breather due to the exhausting work of being, like, so awesome for the first fifteen minutes. According to legend, it’s during this break that Joe Perry, who had switched places with bassist Tom Hamilton on the song, put down the bass and went to pick up his usual guitar, perhaps assuming that they could just go back later and punch in a bassline for the rest of the song. What he didn’t count on was Tyler (and his lips) running over, grabbing the four-stringer and picking up his only bass-playing credit on any Aerosmith album. Is it true? Who cares! That’s the kind of tale that rock fans want to believe… or at least rock critics do, anyway.

So what happened to the band that recorded this album? They’re barely recognizable as the freakishly plastic-looking, j-j-j-jaded old farts that played the Super Bowl halftime show a few years ago. Well, they stopped working with producer Jack Douglas, for one thing, who got them a gritty-yet-warm and wonderful sound on all of their best records. They also helped to bridge the gap between rock and rap with Run-DMC and eventually said no to drugs. Their 80’s and 90’s output sold well, but failed to satisfy on the same gut level that Rocks, Toys In The Attic, and Get Your Wings did. It just goes to show you, kids: Sometimes, heroin helps.

Posted on February 17th, 2008 by Rob
Filed under: Reviews