Aerosmith 1: Aerosmith

Easily the ugliest band in rock ‘n roll for many years, Aerosmith started out as a ragtag gang of Stones and Yardbirds disciples. They weren’t immediately anything special, as it would be a long time before their actual musical pedigrees would become apparent. Meanwhile, Joe Perry and Brad Whitford’s guitars interwove and complemented each other, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer locked in as a solid rhythm section to deliver the “stank” singer Steve Tyler—already an accomplished drummer and pianist—insisted on.

Tyler’s voice isn’t quite in place on their eponymous debut, when you can hear it. “Make It” is something of a thesis for the band, with lots of chordal riffs and stock cymbal hits, and the guitars echoing the vocals. “Somebody” is more of a boogie, but not an obvious one. “Dream On” was the insistent single that eventually gave them a hit years after the album was first released. Not quite a power ballad, the combination of guitars playing in unison with an electric harpsichord over Mellotron strings laid something of a mystical framework, and eventually Tyler stops trying to croon and just screams. “One Way Street” has a lot of jazzy chords that make it much more than a “Midnight Rambler” cop, even if it does run long at seven minutes, over which the poor guys had to clap.

“Mama Kin” is the sleeper here, beginning with a few killer riffs for a full minute before the vocal comes in, rhyming “see it” with “shee-it”, and a chorus that extols “sleeping late and smoking tea”. The saxophone is mixed low, and doesn’t spoil it. “Write Me A Letter” keeps the party choogling, and Tyler allows himself to loosen up and explore his upper range. However, “Movin’ Out” proves that he’s no blues man; the drums are all over the place, but the song does improve as it proceeds. And they certainly bring the dirt to “Walkin’ The Dog”, which they probably got off the first Stones album. At least he doesn’t bark.

The production is muddy throughout Aerosmith, and not just in the buried vocals. But while they weren’t quite there, it does give the band a place to build on what they started. “Dream On” and “Mama Kin” were enough to get kids to buy the album, after which it was firmly lodged in countless cars’ 8-track players.

Aerosmith Aerosmith (1973)—3

Jimmy Page 4: Live At The Greek

Clearly, without Robert Plant, Jimmy Page was at loose ends. Following their most recent short-lived collaboration, he took Puff Daddy’s money so the “rap genius” could write new words to the “Kashmir” backing track for a movie soundtrack. Then he hooked up with the Black Crowes for a brief and eventually truncated tour wherein they played mostly Zeppelin songs with a few blues standards and some Crowes songs as well. The matchup, while promising, was doomed; Chris Robinson’s ego got in the way of his gratitude, but even stupider, Rich Robinson snubbed Jimmy’s offer of riffs and ideas to collaborate on new songs. (Drummer Steve Gorman left the band soon afterwards, and his account of the Page experience is as astonishing as it is maddening.)

Nonetheless, selections from two of the LA shows were released rather quickly as one of the first “on-demand” Internet offerings, then given wider distribution as a double-CD via the TVT label. Subtitled Excess All Areas in its first incarnation, Live At The Greek is notable in that it focuses more on the deep cuts than greatest hits. There’s no “Stairway” or “Kashmir”, but healthy dollops from Physical Graffiti and unexpected choices like “Hey Hey What Can I Do” and “Your Time Is Gonna Come”. Blues covers include tunes by B.B. King, Jimmy Rogers, Elmore James, the Jeff Beck Group arrangement of “Shapes Of Things”, and most surprisingly, Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well”. For a guy who says he was never really into Robert Plant’s vocals or lyrics, Chris Robinson certainly did his homework. Jimmy was definitely having fun, and with two extra guitarists and a keyboard player onstage, the sound is certainly filled in. (25 years later, the album was expanded to three discs to encompass a complete show or at least its equivalent, now including the Crowes staples that were left off the original album for licensing reasons, three further LZ songs, and five songs from a soundcheck—one of which is mostly them working out the harmonized guitar parts in “Ten Years Gone”, followed by a ten-minute jam.)

We want Jimmy to be happy, of course, so it’s a shame that his talents hadn’t resulted in more than a handful of albums with new music since Zeppelin disbanded. Being stuck playing in his own cover band may have brought in some cash, but what did it do for his creativity?

Jimmy Page & The Black Crowes Live At The Greek (2000)—3
2025 expanded reissue: same as 2000, plus 16 extra tracks