THE END OF AN ERA: Farewell To The One And Only Aerosmith, The Bad Boys Of Boston And The Greatest American Rock And Roll Band Of All Time, As The Group "Retires From The Touring Stage" Due To Steven Tyler's Vocal Injury
If this is how it all ends, if this is how 54 years of a pioneering New England institution that fused Led Zeppelin's lyrical head-banging with the frontman-fueled swagger and starting line-up perfected by the Rolling Stones to become the standard for American rock and roll bands has to call it a day...well, it certainly sucks that Aerosmith won't be allowed to go out on their own terms. But considering the alternatives at play when discussing a handful of hard-rockin' septuagenarians coming to the end of the line for their band, a throat injury is certainly preferable to the vast majority.
On Friday afternoon, the legendary and iconic "band of brothers" sadly announced that they made the "heartbreaking and difficult, but necessary, decision...to retire from the touring stage" due to "a full recovery from his vocal injury...not possible for lead singer Steven Tyler".
For if this is indeed the end of the formidable and resilient outfit that still miraculously consists of the same five members that churned out their gritty, grimy, and groundbreaking debut album 51 years ago, then shit, lifelong 'smith fans can only kick back, put on their favorite album (one of the first four), be grateful for what they've given us since they used to run shit over on Comm Ave. eons ago, and appreciate that Joey, Steven, Tom, Brad, and Joe are all still with us to receive the 'Holland in April' level of flowers rightfully coming their way.
But, truth be told, after the band flirted with disaster, danced with the devil, and chased the dragon for the latter part of the 1970s and into their fractured early '80s, the last 40 years almost felt like gravy after the monumental impact the quintet left with the four-punch combo of their belatedly-beloved self-titled debut, "Get Your Wings", "Toys In The Attic", and "Rocks". This is the era in which I became enamored with Aerosmith.
With a pair of all-world guitarists, a top-notch rhythm duo, and a horny, flashy frontman with an instantly recognizable maw and voice, the Bad Boys from Boston aped the Stones in design but their sound carried the hard-rock edge that Zep helped shepherd into the mainstream just a few years prior. The result was a band that instantly had a signature sound even if it took a few years for folks to get up to speed.
"Dream On" was merely a local hit after the album "Aerosmith" dropped in 1973 but a radio-friendly edit three years later gave them their first Top 10 hit. But charts be damned, the group was churning out future and permanent staples of classic rock radio over those first four LPs: "Mama Kin", "Same Old Song And Dance", "Train Kept A Rollin'", "Walk This Way", "Sweet Emotion", "Back In The Saddle", and "Last Child"---to say nothing of prime deeper cuts like "One Way Street", "Lord Of The Thighs", "Sick As A Dog", and "Movin' Out" among many others.
But this being the 1970s rock scene, success came at a price. Addiction, fainting mid-show, infighting, diminishing returns. Things went bad and rather quickly. Yet not only did Aerosmith survive a handful of standing-eight counts during an era that saw both guitarists temporarily exit stage right and band creativity at an all time low, they came back and thrived commercially better than they ever had and introduced themselves to new generations of fans. A huge part of their comeback was the wild success born from the unlikely pairing with rap superstars Run D.M.C. on a re-working of their decade-old hit "Walk This Way".
"Permanent Vacation", which Tyler writes was the first album they did sober, ironically represented a return to form and full arenas. It was 1987, Aerosmith was back, and they were just getting (re)started. Two years later, the hit-filled and MTV video-aided "Pump" re-established the boys as titans of rock and roll as the rollicking LP was a critical and commercial smash (and delivered perhaps the best break-up song in the genre with "What It Takes"). This resurgence in popularity also led to one of the all-time great pop culture crossovers when the gents played Moe's Tavern in a 1991 episode of a brilliant animated show that would help define, if not encapsulate, the '90s zeitgeist.
Their next offering, the ballad-heavy "Get A Grip", was hardly every fan's favorite album but none could argue with its commercial success, thanks in no small part to the trio of video appearances by Alicia Silverstone and one from Tyler's daughter Liv.
In 1998, the band achieved its first and only #1 single in the U.S., the Diane Warren-penned power ballad "I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing" that helped make ARMAGEDDON the third highest-selling soundtrack of 1998. Though the cloying tune may have drawn a dividing line between some old-school fans and people who like cheesy, shitty asteroid flicks, the tremendous success of the tune turned yet another generation (or two) of fans onto the Boston rockers and their impressive catalog.
Though their last four studio albums spanning 1997 to 2012 didn't approach the success of previous efforts, Aerosmith continued to bring it where it still mattered most---on the stage. Including the recently-aborted Peace Out: The Farewell Tour, the band toured 19 times since releasing "Nine Lives" in 1997. I was fortunate enough to see Aerosmith a couple of dozen times over the last 35-40 years with the last back in 2012 at North Station and can say unequivocally that every single show was incredible. I also won tickets to the Wang Center mini-concert where they recorded this epic version of "Dream On" for MTV's 10th Anniversary (they performed it a handful of times as well as 5-6 other songs).
Whatever various issues that band members dealt with over the years, they never showed up during their live performances that I attended and I never left a venue feeling like the boys ever gave anything less than 100%. Simply, they always blew the fucking roof off of whatever barn they were laying waste to that night.
Too often, I've written obits and tributes to icons after they've left us. But not now. Not for Aero-fucking-smith, the prototype that generations of U.S. rock bands still, to this day, model their game after and for a good goddamn reason: because they're the best American rockers to ever do it and they've done it, and survived, for 54 years. Now they can read the many accolades from all over, soak them in, and celebrate just how much they mean to the history of rock and roll not only in the U.S. but the entire planet. And they'll know that Aerosmith will go down as immortals in the annals of music.
To Joey Kramer, Brad Whitford, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and Tom Hamilton, thank you for everything. You guys have given tremendous joy to hundreds of millions of people worldwide with your singular artistry for more than a half century. Go kick your feet up and enjoy yourselves cuz you sure as hell earned it.