Twitterer Of The Day-Steven Tyler - The Cultute of Pop, DVD, Movie, TV, Pop Culture Review

Twitterer Of The Day-Steven Tyler

Posted: Mon, 28 Feb 2011 23:36:54 PST

With this week being such a huge one for the current crop of American Idol kiddies, I'll be playing blog service in my Twitterer Of The Day column to favorites old and new from the FOX television mainstay, beginning with one of the new kids in the house....

Steven Tyler-The endlessly charismatic front man for the American equivalent of The Rolling Stones known as Aerosmith, the Rock and Roll Hall Of Famer has gained a whole new group of fans since January. Along with musical peer Jennifer Lopez, Steven has charmed television audiences with his eccentric, loopy and charming repartee as one of the new judges on the block on FOX's American Idol.

Steven's musical career began in his stomping grounds of Yonkers, NY as a child, but during the mid 1960's in much the same fashion as many kids his age, his artistic direction got changed by those four guys from England on an Ed Sullivan Show episode: Freddie And The Dreamers (just kidding). After being bit by Beatlemania, Steven honed his craft in many an area band, particularly Chain Reaction, which actually had a semi-local hit single release called When I Needed You, in which he graduated to lead singer after being relegated to the back on drums.

As the 1970's descended, Tyler together with new musical compadre Joe Perry formed a new band in Boston. Thanks to their drummer Joey Kramer, they christened themselves as Aerosmith, and together with bassist Tom Hamilton and additional lead/rhythm guitarist Brad Whitford, they set about to conquer the world...but it didn't happen overnight. Living from paycheck to paycheck with little more than faith and some chemical stimulants to keep them going, it would take the better part of two years before the legendary Clive Davis of CBS/Columbia Records came calling.

A self titled debut came and went in 1973 with very little in the way of sales, but a mid-chart placing of a track named Dream On issued for single release showed the band had potential promise in the cards. Get Your Wings offered a solid follow up that established the Aerosmith sound with now classic tunes (Same Old Song and Dance, SOS, Lord Of The Thighs) and fan faves (Seasons Of Wither, Train Kept A Rollin'). But it was the band's third album that made Aerosmith one of the most popular bands in the country: Toys In The Attic.

Bolstered by a re-release of Dream On which became a top 10 hit, Toys gave the band it's most extensive FM radio airplay to date with two songs crossing over to the pop charts courtesy of Sweet Emotion and the top 10 smash, Walk This Way.

It was also during this first peak of the band that I had an opportunity to hear them in the flesh...Aerosmith became the second musical act I ever caught in concert, following a hell of a introduction to the pleasures of arena magic courtesy of The King himself, Elvis Presley. But the boys from Boston were an entirely different animal. Though the seats I had with my brother and sister in law were in the next county, Tyler's stage presence was such that you felt him even in the upper reaches of the nosebleed seats...and that's not an easy feat to pull off.

Steven and the boys looked set to take their claim alongside giants like Zeppelin and the Stones...but drugs started to take precedence over the music...and to make a long story that you can read in many a net bio, or even better, the official Walk This Way autobiography of the band, Aerosmith pretty much called it a day around the mid 1980's following unsuccessful attempts to replace both Joe Perry and Brad Whitford who had departed.

It took a combination of new management and Geffen Records to give Steven and company a second act, and following a not great, but not band comeback long player (Done With Mirrors), the boys teamed with renowned Canadian record producer Bruce Fairbairn to record what would be the band's most successful album in over a decade: Permanent Vacation brought Aerosmith back to Top 20 chart land via hit singles Dude Looks Like A Lady, Rag Doll and Angel, which became the band's biggest hit to date, peaking at number 3.

But Vacation was just a warm up...Pump and Get A Grip followed taking the band into the 1990's with a bit more commercial sheen than the old fan base would have preferred, but it didn't make the band any less gritty. A string of hits followed: What It Takes, The Other Side, Living On The Edge, Love In An Elevator, Crazy and Amazing, amongst them.

Returning to Columbia Records in the late 1990's, the Top 40 hits dried up somewhat, but not the high album chart placings with Nine Lives, Just Push Play and Honkin' On Bobo. Though it's been several years since the band has done a follow up to the latter, Aerosmith has remained a huge concert draw and continues to sell thousands of albums/downloads a year with new generations of listeners being drawn to their back catalog, a feat that should continue to grow even stronger into 2011 courtesy of Tyler's new high profile gig on American Idol. 

Just recently, Steven joined the Twitterville family, so give the Demon Of Screamin' a howdy do at IamStevenT...and tell him Jeffrey aka marquee_man sent ya....

Also: Steven Tyler's Official Web Site: www.steventyler.com

-J.R.

Jeffrey Rosado is a writer, performer, pop culture historian and all around nice guy, unless the ultra fine woman he's hitting on turns out to be a dude...

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