No Aerosmith member could claim to have been a choirboy during their time in the spotlight. You don’t get the nickname ‘Bad Boys from Boston‘ by accident. Each band member was known to push their excesses to the limit whenever they took the stage. The riffs came easily in the beginning. Steven Tyler attributed the song ‘Sweet Emotion‘ to a night when the band was high.
However, any time in the 1970s when the band wasn’t at least slightly buzzed became increasingly rare. When compared to the greatest excess stories from artists such as Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith was in a completely different league. Even guitarist and noted drug enthusiast Jerry Garcia marveled at how much they indulged in the sex, drugs, and rock and roll creed.
By the time the band released their debut album. However, hits were still eluded them. Any radio station today would delight in playing songs like ‘Dream On.‘ But the track sank like a stone on the group’s debut album. It prompts them to go on tour to promote themselves as much as possible.
That elbow grease helped the band’s sophomore album, Get Your Wings, reach the charts. Toys in the Attic is where they began to hone their craft. Embracing the bluesy boogie that they had begun on their first albums, songs like “Walk This Way” and “Toys in the Attic” added a new level of swagger to their sound that no one had heard before. The record seemed perfect. It was just missing one song.
During the band’s various jam sessions, producer Jack Douglas announced that they were short of one song for the album. And they invited everyone to return to the studio with any ideas they had lying around. Everyone heard Hamilton’s hypnotic bassline. But the band knew they’d need some chemical help to flesh out the rest of it.
Tyler revealed to Classic Rock Stories that he relied on weed to finish the song, resulting in a fight. We blew cocaine all over the place. I said, ‘Just fuckin play a drum fill, and we’ll go into [sings outro riff]’. And we did it. It was such a magic moment”.
The song had been in the key of A for the majority of its duration. It transposed it to the key of E may have been accidental genius on their part. Whereas the rest of the song had a psychedelic edge. Bringing the heavy riff back into the picture transforms it into something straight out of Jimmy Page’s lick library. But with Joe Perry’s wild approach to soloing on top.
The band produced a classic. It was only a matter of time before drugs took them downhill culminating in the harsh sessions used to create their album Draw the Line. It may not have been the healthiest of dealing with problems in the studio. But Tyler’s coke-fuelled frustration may have been just what the band needed at the moment.
