Rocks

Background

Previously, Aerosmith had recorded three albums: Aerosmith (1973), Get Your Wings (1974), and their breakthrough Toys in the Attic (1975), which produced the hits "Walk This Way" and "Sweet Emotion".

Although often derided by critics, the band had amassed a loyal fanbase from relentless touring and their ferocious live shows. Producer Douglas explains, "The only thing we were talking about a few months before Rocks was that it was going to be a real hard-rock album. And we might go back to the format of the first album, which was to rock out on every tune. And again, keep it real raw. And make it as live sounding as we possibly could."

By the time of the album's sessions, the group had already begun living the rock-and-roll lifestyle to the hilt, indulging their already considerable appetite for drugs. However, their hedonistic lifestyle did not appear to hamper them creatively; Rocks was considered by many fans, critics, and fellow musicians to be one of the highlights of their career. Guitarist Joe Perry later recalled, "There's no doubt we were doing a lot of drugs by then, but whatever we were doing, it was still working for us."

Writing

In the 1997 band memoir Walk This Way, guitarist Brad Whitford states that the band began work on the album by backing the Record Plant's mobile recording truck into their rehearsal space, named the Wherehouse, and "let fly ... We were living the high life and not paying attention to anything except making this record. I had the beginnings of "Last Child" and "Nobody's Fault."

Tom had "Uncle Tom's Cabin" that became "Sick as a Dog." We had 'Tit for Tat' ... which turned into 'Rats in the Cellar.' We cut all the basic tracks except two there."

Producer Jack Douglas later insisted: Rocks was the album where Tom and Brad had a lot more input and songs ... This was a big album for Aerosmith. It had to make a big statement about how loud and hard they were, how unapologetic they felt about being who they were – this brash, rude, sexual, hard-core rock band.

The album's opening track, "Back in the Saddle" was written by Perry on six-string bass.

In 1997, Perry explained to Alan Di Perna of Guitar World that he was inspired by Peter Green to write the riff on a Fender Bass VI and admitted that he was "very high on heroin when I wrote 'Back in the Saddle.' That riff just floated right through me." He further describes it as "the kind of riff and instrumentation that falls outside the normal formula of a rock song. I wrote it on a six string bass. It was one of those songs that really opened things up for us."

Tyler explains that the song uses the "saddle image as a way of saying, 'Here's another album, folks, and we're gonna rock out and I've really got my spurs on'." He continues in his memoir, "Back in the Saddle" I hoped would be nostalgic, hearkening to the spirit of every Spaghetti Western I ever saw. The band played like the gods they were. Jack mixed it with Jay in the way you hear it today."

"Last Child" is credited to guitarist Brad Whitford and Tyler. Tyler explains, "Brad wrote, 'Take me back to sweet Tallahassee, home sweet home…'" recalled Tyler. "Whatever he put into 'Last Child', that's his moment. He can take that, and that's his, forever." The song evolved from a riff Whitford titled "Soul Saver", a recording of which was released on Pandora's Box in 1991.

Recording

Unlike their previous two records, which were recorded at the Record Plant studios in Manhattan, for Rocks, the group rented a rehearsal space in suburban Massachusetts, the Wherehouse and employed a mobile studio to cut the record. Backing tracks for six of the songs were completed at the Wherehouse.

Douglas explains: "It's the one record, of all the records that I've done, where every element is right and in its place. Every lyric, every key, every sound. Everything is right about that record, for what it is. Because it was written and conceived and recorded in the same place, in A. Wherehouse in Waltham, Mass. So we had the place where they used to rehearse. It was done in the dead of winter, and they would come in to record with nothing but a few licks...and we would develop these tunes."

He continues, "we cut all the basics at their rehearsal space, the Wherehouse, in Boston's suburbs. A big, metal, roaring, huge room. I used stage monitors in with them to blow the sound right back at them. And that's when they started to stretch out. Joe would ask what he ought to be listening to and I'd hip him to John Coltrane for solo ideas - and he'd try to get that! Even in pre-production, I knew it was great. I have cassettes of the evolution of every song on that record, and you should hear "Back In The Saddle" as it evolved from Joe's basic lick to the monster it became. Wanna know what the secret to Rocks was? Distortion. Everything is totally over-loaded. When I brought it to the record company, they panicked at first, but not for long."

At the end of February 1976, the band resumed sessions at the Record Plant to complete the remaining backing tracks and record vocals for the album.

Writing lyrics for the songs proved to be the most difficult stage in the album's production. Douglas explains, "Steven moves in with me when we're working on an album. In the morning, I wake him up with a cassette and a cup of coffee; most of the melody lines have all been worked out and he's singing phonetically. I'll suggest a thing to him here and there, give him a kick this way and he starts to come around. He's really the main drive of the band"

"Back in the Saddle" features the sound of a whip by whirling a thirty-foot cord in the middle of six Neumann mikes and adding a cap gun for the cracking sound effect. A real bullwhip was intended to be used for the whip effects and hours were spent trying to get it to crack.

Reception and legacy

Contemporary reviews were mixed. John Milward of Rolling Stone wrote that "the material is Rocks’ major flaw, mostly pale remakes of their earlier hits"; concluding that the return to the "ear-boxing sound" of Get Your Wings and Tyler's vocal performance cannot save the album from mediocrity.

In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote that Aerosmith were doing a good job of imitating Led Zeppelin, and that after this album the band began to lose steam.

Modern reviews are very positive. Greg Prato of AllMusic describes Rocks as "a superb follow-up to their masterwork Toys in the Attic" that captures "Aerosmith at their most raw and rocking". He writes that "Back in the Saddle and Last Child are among their most renowned songs, but all the tracks prove essential to the makeup of the album".

Ben Mitchell of Blender said that the members' drug use actually helped Rocks. He also called the album "raw."

On November 24, 1994, Los Angeles Times review of Rocks, Jon Matsumoto opined that the record "arguably is the best heavy metal opus ever concocted".

Canadian journalist Martin Popoff described the album as "a screamin' mercury-shattering rock festival, live, overblown, decadent, and very American", concluding that "on Rocks the band's talent is anything but wasted."

Many musicians have cited Rocks as a favorite:

Rocks was one of Kurt Cobain's favorite albums, as he listed in his Journals.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 176 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, before it was dropped to 366 in a 2020 revised list.

Mötley Crüe songwriter and bassist Nikki Sixx refers to Aerosmith frequently in his book The Heroin Diaries.

Track listing

All credits adapted from the original LP.

Personnel

All credits adapted from the original LP.

Aerosmith

Steven Tyler — vocals, bass guitar on "Sick as a Dog" (outro only), piano on "Home Tonight"

Joe Perry — guitars, vocals, six-string bass on "Back in the Saddle", bass guitar on "Sick as a Dog", co-lead vocals on "Combination", lap steel guitar on "Home Tonight"

Brad Whitford — guitars (except "Sick as a Dog")

Tom Hamilton — bass guitar (except "Sick as a Dog"), guitar on "Sick as a Dog", backing vocals on "Home Tonight"

Joey Kramer — drums, percussion, backing vocals on "Home Tonight"

Additional musician

Paul Prestopino – banjo on "Last Child"

Production

Jack Douglas – producer, arrangements, backing vocals on "Home Tonight"

Aerosmith – production, arrangements

Jay Messina – engineer

David Hewitt – remote truck director

Rod O'Brien – assistant engineer

Sam Ginsburg – assistant engineer

Pacific Eye & Ear – album design

Certifications

Bibliography

Davis, Stephen; Aerosmith (October 1, 1997). Walk This Way: The Autobiography of Aerosmith. New York City: Avon Books. ISBN 978-0-380-97594-5.

Huxley, Martin (2015). Aerosmith: The Fall and the Rise of Rock's Greatest Band. St. Martin's Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1250096531.

Perry, Joe; Ritz, David (October 7, 2014). Rocks: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith. New York City: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-476-71454-7.

Tyler, Steven; Dalton, David (May 3, 2011). Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?: A Rock 'n' Roll Memoir. New York City: Ecco Press. ISBN 978-0-061-76789-0.