Aerosmith
1969
Chain Reaction with Steve Tyler play occasional high profile gigs, opening for The Byrds (the County Center in White Plains,) The Beach Boys (Iona College,) and the last lineup of Yardbirds with Jimmy Page (Staples High School in Connecticut)
Chain Reaction and the Jam Band wityh Joe Perry both play gigs at Sunapee, NH's "The Barn". Tyler witnesses the Jam Band playing Fleetwood Mac's "Rattlesnake Shake"
Aerosmith's most vital and (often) most overlooked element was synthesized in this union. The Jam Band's wild, unadulterated improv ability was successfully merged with Chain Reaction's tight, disciplined control to produce the furious but steady blast we know as Aerosmith
1970
The newly named Aerosmith play gigs outside of Boston University's Student Union building recognizing that getting close to their fans is the key to success. Sharing an apartment at 1325 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, the band defines itself in the best possible conditions for a young rock n' roll band to do so
"There were six of us in the group, some of us were living in the kitchen, eating brown rice and Cambell's soup. Those days, you know, when a quart of beer was heaven. It was hard times and it was really good. During lunch we would set up all our equipment outside of BU, in the main square and just started wailing. That's basically how we got billed. We never got much publicity in the magazines and newspapers."
Steven Tyler interview Circus Magazine 6/75
1971
Guitarist Ray Tabano leaves the band to return years later as a member of the crew
Tabano is replaced by Brad Whitford who cut his eye-teeth in rock n' roll at age 16, playing with Teapot Dome, Earth, Inc. and Cymbals of Resistance
1972
Steven Tallarico changes his name to Steven Tyler
Aerosmith lands a $125,000 deal with Columbia, following a show an New York's Max's Kansas City, when Clive Davis saw them play. The song "No Suprize" chronicals this event
1973
January The first album, Aerosmith, is released on Columbia Records.
The band begins touring in support of the first album, opening for the likes of Mott the Hoople, The Kinks, Hawkwind and Mahavishnu Orchestra
The first LP sells faster than any other album in Boston at the time and gets an outstanding review from Creem Magazine, while going largely unnoticed by other mainstream media
1974
March The band finish recording Get Your Wings at the Record Plant in New York and release the first single, "Same Old Song And Dance" / "Pandora's Box" is released
September "Train Kept a Rollin'" / "Spaced" (a leftover from their days performing as Chain Reaction) is released as a single
1975
April Toys in the Attic, recorded in NY at the Record Plant, breaks The Top 20
May "Sweet Emotion" / "Uncle Salty" is released, charting into Billboard's Top 40
August "Walk This Way" / "Round And Round" is released
November "You See Me Cryin'" / "Toys In The Attic" is released
Aerosmith becomes a headlining act, and along with ZZ Top and KISS, one of the top concert attractions in the country
1976
May Rocks, the band's fourth album, often heralded as their finest, is released and immediately goes platinum
Cover of Rolling Stone has Steven Tyler lying in bed flashing his "Ma' Kin" tattoo. The issue features a 6 page article: "Aerosmith's Wrench Rock, Music for The New Stone Age."
May '76 "Last Child" / "Combination" is released
August "Home Tonight" / "Pandora's Box" is released
November "Walk This Way" / "Uncle Salty" is released peaking into Billboard's Top 10
November "Dream On" / "Sweet Emotion" is released
"Dream On" reaches #3 in the Billboard Charts
1977
December Draw The Line, released on Columbia Records goes platinum faster than any previous Aerosmith album
The band embarks on "Draw The Line Tour" which lasts through 1978 and early 1979
1978
Summer Aerosmith co-headline "California Jam II" with Ted Nugent, the biggest rock festival of the mid to late 70's, and are featured on the double album release of the concert
October Aerosmith make their Hollywood debut with an appearance in Robert Stigwood's "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" movie as the "Future Villain Band"
Live! Bootleg is released on Columbia Records
1979
Aerosmith finally slow down after seven solid years of pummeling the globe
Aerosmith begin work on their seventh album Night In The Ruts
After some internal turmoil with the band, Joe Perry leaves Aerosmith to further pursue "The Joe Perry Project"
Jimmy Crespo, formerly of Flame replaces Perry on lead guitar
1980
Aerosmith release Greatest Hits on Columbia Records
The Joe Perry Project release their debut Let the Music do the Talking, which earns the band a minor hit with the title cut
Internal strife continues to plague Aerosmith's progress as Brad Whitford leaves the band
1981
Guitarist Brad Whitford teams up with Derek St. Holmes, who had previously played with Ted Nugent, to record Whitford / St. Holmes
Rick Dufay replaces Brad Whitford on guitar
Steven Tyler spends much of the year recovering from a motorcycle accident
1982-83
August Rock In A Hard Place is released on Columbia Records
The band sets off on the "Rock In A Hard Place Tour" with Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay on guitars. The tour continues into early 1984
1984
February Valentine's Day, after a long period of well-publicised estrangement between Perry and Tyler, Perry and Whitford visit their old band backstage following an Aerosmith show at Boston's Orpheum Theater. The wounds start to heal...
April The announcement is made that the original Aerosmith will reunite and tour The band teams up with A&R man, John Kalodner, who then signs them to Geffen. Kalodner continues to be involved to this day
Aerosmith launches their 70-date "Back in the Saddle" tour
1985-86
New Year's Eve Aerosmith culminate their "Back in the Saddle" Tour with a legendary two-night stand at Boston's Orpheum Theater
July Aerosmith enters the studio to record Done With Mirrors with Ted Templeman producing
November Done With Mirrors is released on Columbia Records. Aerosmith set out on a world tour in support of their new album
Aerosmith re-enters the charts for the first time in six years, teaming with Run-DMC for a Rick Rubin-produced re-make of "Walk This Way", a track that the rappers had been burning up the clubs with for some time.
1987
Aerosmith release their ninth studio album Permanent Vacation. Going Triple-Platinum, the album deservedly restores Aerosmith to a dignified position in the music business and, more importantly, in the ears and hearts of the listening public the fans
1988
September Aerosmith win their first MTV Music Awards for:
Best Group Video "Dude Looks Like A Lady" Best Stage Performance in a Video "Dude Looks Like a Lady"
"Rag Doll" and "Angel" land Aerosmith on the Billboard Charts with "Angel" at #3, tying with "Dream On's" 1976 re-released as their highest charting single
1989
September Pump, their 10th studio album reaches # 5 on the charts and goes Multi-Platinum
1990
Aerosmith takes a well-deserved break and begins writing new material for the next album
August Donnington Park, England Aerosmith is joined by longtime hero Jimmy Page to jam with them onstage for "Train Kept a' Rollin'", an old Yardbirds classic which Aerosmith had covered in the Seventies.
1991
Aerosmith inks a new record deal with Sony Music
"Pandora's Box", a 3 CD Box Set, is released
1992
In the fight against censorship, Aerosmith gives $10,000 to the List Visual Arts Center at MIT in Boston, to fund a sexually explicit exhibition of photographs and sculptures for which the National Endowment For The Arts had pulled support
Aerosmith shoots the "Rock The Vote" video for a massive, national TV campaign encouraging America's youth to vote in the Presidential elections
1993
Get A Grip is released, shooting to #1 on the charts and selling over 5 million copies
Sony/Columbia reissues all twelve of the band's Columbia releases in Box of Fire box set
1994
August Aerosmith gives a stunning performance at Woodstock '94 headlining Saturday nights' show, which also featured Metallica, Blind Mellon and Nine Inch Nails, in a torrential downpour that was followed by a spectacular fireworks display.
'Get A Grip' World Tour steamrolls through North America, Canada, Europe, and Japan
Aerosmith tours Latin America for the first time, headlining the Hollywood Rocks Festival in Rio in addition to playing their own stadium shows in Argentina
1995-96
"The thing that really stands out in my mind about Aerosmith is that we're still fucking together. Whatever we've done together and whatever we've become, is second to the fact that we're still doing this. I'm still in love with these guys. I'm not saying it didn't take a lot of work because drugs will take you and pull you apart. But it wasn't anything we shot up or put up our noses that gave us the edgeit was Joe Perry's fuck-all, being as abrasive as that motherfucker is, and Brad Whitford's ear, Tom Hamilton's well-aimed simplicity and Joey Kramer's solid bed of backbeat. Keeping this band together has been the hardest and happiest thing we've done in our lives. It's been a long time coming. So for all the music and all the other stuff that comes from Aerosmith, the most amazing thing is that we're still playing and still having some fucking fun." (Steven Tyler)
Back, back I say
