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While Aerosmith's self-titled debut was not initially a massive seller, it did feature some of the band's best-known songs, including the bluesy "Mama Kin" and "Make It" and the slow-burning "Dream On," which would be edited and released as the band's first single. A gig at Max's Kansas City in New York was attended by an impressed Clive Davis, who signed the band to Columbia in 1972. (The band's name came from a word Kramer used to write on school notebooks.) Original rhythm guitarist Ray Tabano, a friend of Tyler's, was replaced by Whitford a year later, and the band started to get serious, booking shows outside of Boston.
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When both bands found themselves on the same bill in 1970, they decided to combine, but Tyler, who'd drummed and provided backing vocals for Chain Reaction, wanted to move away from the kit and became the frontman. Tyler initially fronted a band called The Strangeurs - later called Chain Reaction - while Perry, Hamilton and Kramer had been in a free-form blues band aptly named The Jam Band. F0ur of the five classic members of Aerosmith had been playing local shows in the Boston area during the late 1960s. The band's first album was a culmination of chops, hard work and luck. Walk this way toward our first part of the Aerosmith journey, which covers their first stint on Columbia Records.Īerosmith (Columbia, 1973 - repressed 1976, remastered 1993) They're not a band bursting with vault tracks, though they've had their share of remasters, box sets and compilations, as you'll soon see over the next few days. To celebrate Tyler, guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer, we're taking a trip down memory lane through the music of Aerosmith. Frontman Steven Tyler was preposterous in his first televised appearance as a judge on American Idol (though there was some very funny writing about the whole ordeal), and if you're like me, you wish Tyler had stepped away from such ridiculous duties and went on to perform with what many have called America's greatest rock and roll band - even if it sounded more like their recent, pop-oriented rock instead of their bluesy, pre-metal days. Aerosmith isn't dead, but it may as well be.