Good evening Rawkers. Can we please talk? Can someone please tell me what ever happened to one of the best rocking bands of all time, Aerosmith? What transformed them from a nastily awesome mega rock outfit into a lame turd fest of over-the-hill AM radio mediocrity?Compare Dream On to Janie's Got a Gun. Compare Lord of the Thighs to Love in an Elevator. Compare Toys in the Attic to Ragdoll. Compare Mama Kin to Dude (Looks Like a Lady). Compare Sweet Emotion to Amazing. Makes a fan shake his head and walk THIS way... the opposite direction. What a classic case of observing how far the mighty have fallen.
And while i'll be the first to admit that doing Walk This Way with Run DMC probably earned the band a huge crossover audience, who thought THAT was a good idea?? Talk about leaving your rawk cred at the door and selling out to the lowest common denominator.... In THIS blogger's view, that was complete and total sell out in order to sell albums. Very sad.
That's why fans tend to categorize them into Pre-suck and Post-suck Aerosmith.
Pre-suck is basically anything prior to 1978's Live! Bootleg (which included the fantastic Chip Away at the Stone, famously covered by Salem-based Lamp). 1977's album Draw the Line was the last decent studio Aerosmith album.
I don't think i've ever met someone who didn't LIKE Aerosmith. But i've sure met a lot of people who do not differentiate between Pre and Post suck 'Smith. And that's a big deal to me.
Go in peace....
G.O.T.
Seems a little harsh GOT. Several bands that came about during the same time Aerosmith came about are long gone. Why? Well, overdosing played a role in some of the early exits, but I'd also be willing to bet that much of it is an unwillingness or an inability to evolve with their audience, or to capture a new audience once their original audience were forced to become adults.
ReplyDeleteEither way, you may not like the later Aerosmith stuff, but as somebody who saw them live less than 2 months ago, I can assure you that they still rawk HARD. Granted, Steven Tyler wears Nikes now, he's still an AMAZING frontman, for real.
Besides, if it were for Amazing and Crazy we wouldn't have Alicia Silverstone. What say you to that GOT??
One more thing: Don't forget that at some point in their careers the boys in Aerosmith got clean. Many would probably say the sound went down hill after that. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. Think on that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Layla on this one...yes, there are some definite turds that were planted in the 80s and 90s, but they also pushed the music envelope with their collaboration with Run D.M.C. Sellout? Sure. However, it did expose both rawkers and M.C.s to different types of music. And the post-suck also launched the career of Alicia Silverstone (and Liv Tyler, although the whole thing about Liv writhing around in her father's videos kind of skeeves me out, but I digress....).
ReplyDeleteYes, the pre-suck is much better than the post-suck (overall - "Crazy" is a guilty pleasure song for me). Bummed that they had to cancel their tour, but plan on seeing them when they're back on the road (nevermind the injuries...if they patch up their current squabbles).
P.S. - There's also the fact that Aerosmith was in Wayne's World II, one of the worst rock movies ever. Talk about selling out....
Got to disagree strongly here. I have never heard of or will accept any "pre-suck-post-suck". Aerosmith was, is and always will be one of the top 5 ever. I aree with Layla, it's not selling out to make great music that people want to hear, it's called evolving. Elvis did it, The Beatles did it, ZZ Top definately did it, Metallica did it and many others. It's called growth. Some evolve and grow and some play in 70's cover bands all their life (he he). All of those songs you compared I like some of the early ones better and some of the later one's better. I'll take Dude Looks Like A Lady over Mama Kin especially and Janie Got A Gun is a great song. The Run DMC thing wasn't my favorite but it was entertaining. Steven Tyler WAS, IS and ALWAYS will be the greatest rock vocalist of all time.
ReplyDeleteJust when I thought Thunderfish and The Rawk Show had Jumped The Shark, you go and totally redeem yourself! Nice call 'fish! There is a huge difference between pre-suck 'smith (one of the greatest rock bands of all time!) and the now suck 'smith.
ReplyDeleteFUN FACT: Aerosmith as a band wrote 78% (41/52) of the songs on their first six albums. Aerosmith as a band wrote 18% (13/73, 0 on their last three, one was a cover record) on their last six albums.
That's just plain suckage!
And now........... "A Response - In The Key of Are You Fucking Kidding Me?" - By The Ferguson
Jerry: You'd take Dude Looks Like A Lady over Mama Kin. Really? Did you really say that on the record? Are you also the president of the Wham fan club? Let's go man!
Layla: You do make a very good point about Aerosmith adapting and evolving with their fan base while also reaching out to a larger audience. I love it when artists go in a new direction. I think the following example proves your point.
Eddie Murphy delivered timeless performances on Delirious, Raw, and Saturday Night Live, then evolved and adapted to give us gems like Pluto Nash, Boomerang, The Nutty Professor Series including Nutty 2 The Klumps, and finally Norbit.
'nuff said.
Thunderfish - Epic comeback! Followers - lets go people! This is the goddamn Rawk Show!
I'm with you on this one G.O.T. The Run DMC collaboration was a giant leap forward for both multiculturalism and sucking. 'smith is the poster child for why a band with a limited shelf-life needs to have a good financial planner in their early years. How much crappy music are we to be subjected to because some band snorted all thier profits and couldn't afford to retire?
ReplyDeletePre-suck or post-suck Wham?
ReplyDelete"walk this way" with run dmc is both comeback and death nail for the band. while i didn't "hate" the colab...i do NOW recognize it as the shark. NOTHING the band did after this point (and the point of the colab WAS to reignite the band) has been of even mediocre quality. rebuts?
ReplyDelete