Steven Tyler fell again. This time, in a hotel room shower in Paraguay. It is not a relapse, he claims, just dehydration. He felt sick and BAM!
It's not pretty, whatever it was.
I've been a fan of Aerosmith for as long as I can remember. But huge, sober, late-eighties, hit-laden, arena-filling comeback aside, this is one band that I wish would just ride off quietly into the sunset. It's been 15 years since "Nine Lives," which was only a half good release. Since then it's been bad records (one of original material, two live compilations and one horrible record of heavy metal blues covers), worse live dates, American Idol, crappy solo projects, a cringe-making book, and drug relapses. Makes it easy to forget that they are responsible for some of the great rock albums of the 70s, and one of the greatest hard rock albums of all-time, 1976's "Rocks." (That comeback run from "Permanent Vacation" through "Get A Grip" is nothing to shake a stick at either.)
They are also responsible for one of my very favorite live performances. This common bootleg recorded at Pall's Mall in Boston, from 1973, is so early in Aerosmith's career, they haven't had the time to get loud and stupid. The short set list is almost half-filled with cover versions, including a nasty version of James Brown's "Mother Popcorn," here in its entirety. (The commercially released, edited version can be found on "Live Bootleg," the band's mostly crappy live record from 1978.)
Fan or not, don't deny yourself some gritty rock, rhythm & blues, because you think you just don't like this band. Give it a spin before you start lobbing the snarkballs. This cooks.
TRACKLIST
One Way Street
Somebody
Write Me
I Ain't Got You
Mother Popcorn
Movin' Out
Walkin' The Dog
Train Kept A' Rollin'
Mama Kin
aeroZIP
14 comments:
Steven Tyler looks like he went 10 rounds with Muhammad Ali, and also, he looks like he's startin' to show his age, that gray streak in his hair is pretty convincing
Hey Sal,
I've been having Internet problems so I certainly blame my ISP but just incase ...
I can't get the download -- what usually takes a couple of minutes the computer is telling me will be an hour.
I'm dealing with my Internet guys but I'd feel stupid if others were having the same problem downloading Steven Tyler and friends.
Thanks,
Hey Jayessemm,
Download sez 3 minutes on my end. Seems to be ok.
Good luck. Don't give up.
Jay-zuz! Is that photo real? If so, did he fall into a trash compactor?
Looking forward to the Weekend Mix (when I can stop laughing long enough to listen to it).
No snarkbombs here. "Rocks" does what it says, and "Sick As A Dog" made me pick up the guitar.
Nice mix Sal. Yes it is good to hear them before they got loud and crazy. Before they made it really big, tight sounding too.
God, one wishes they had the money they made, or spent on drugs, twice! The picture is sad but funny. Now he really looks like the Crypt Keeper.
Amazing that he's so desperate for publicity that he'd be willing to let a photo like this be taken. I agree, it's time they packed it in, it's sad to see them hanging on like this with nothing to contribute except their tired, lame rock 'n roll attitude. The only justification I can think of is that they were ripped off badly early on, and they need the money.
"Rocks" is fantastic, yes, but man was it a long time ago - high school for me. What gets me is Joe Perry - such a tasty player early on, but his style just devolved into sludge riffing. Bah.
Ooh -- this is a good one. I used to have it on cassette; thanks for the re-up.
Cool, thanks. I haven't really cared about Aerosmith since 1983 when I went all new wave, but 70s Aerosmith is always fun.
This seems like a good place to embarrass myself, so here goes. Walk This Way came out and got major AM airplay when I was 8 years old, maybe 9 when I wanted to request the song on a certain radio station. But I didn't really know what the title of the song was, and I was notorious for not understanding what the singer was saying (I didn't try very hard - I just sort of heard the whole rock and roll sound of a song, but hey, 9 years old...). So imagine the reaction of the woman answering the request hotline when this kid asks to hear Honky Slave.
In my defense, both words were common in rock at the time. I mean, slave is a classic word in songs, and honky, well, there was Honky Tonk Woman, and Elton John's album Honky Chateau, which my older sister had. I didn't really know what either word meant, but especially when put together that way :-)
I was also too young to get the quite obvious double meaning of Big Ten Inch Record.
So right about this massive,gutteral,kick-ass fun band...pressed all the right buttons for the first 17 years or so..then splat....just wouldn't pack it in gracefully..and yeah... '73 live...holy crap....one historical note that some might not know already...wasn't even Joe playing on much of Get Your Wings...Hunter/Wagner...go figure...
Can't argue with a word you say Sal.
In the UK, sadly they were never taken that seriously in their heyday, just looked upon as The Stones lite.
Part 2 came out and everyone seemed to get them. Rock enough for the Bon Jovi Crowd, heavy enough for the Metal Festival brigade plus enough gossip for the tittle tattlers, then there was Liv.
I love Seventies Aerosmith and have to admit to thinking Living On The Edge was a great single.
Inspired version of Dream On for MTV 10 too, but the Noughties have not been kind.
Did they do anything after "Rocks"?
I like their cover of "Come Together".
Keep up the amazing work! You rock.
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