Rocks turns 50!

Celebrating the album’s 50th Anniversary

This memorable hard rockin’ album was released on May 3, 1976.

This is an image of the cover art for the album Rocks by Aerosmith. Copyright Columbia Records.

AllMusic described Rocks as having "captured Aerosmith at their most raw and rocking." The album has influenced many Hard Rock and Heavy Metal artists, including Guns N' Roses, Metallica, and Nirvana. Rocks was a commercial success, charting three singles on the Billboard Hot 100, two of which reached the Top 40 ("Back in the Saddle" and "Last Child"). The album was one of the first to ship platinum when it was released and has since gone quadruple platinum. 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. "Sick as a Dog" is credited to Tyler and bassist Tom Hamilton. The bassist explains, "I think I came up with the verse part first. And then I did the parts for the intro, the B to E part, and then came up with this little, jangling arpeggio thing... I'm such a Byrds fan; it comes from that." As Hamilton later remembered, it was “Mr. Tambourine Man” that was especially influential on him personally when it came to his eventual contributions to the song that became “Sick as a Dog.” "It really embedded in my mind that love of hearing [guitar sounds like that], especially when it was combined with a hard rock beat.”

Source: Wikipedia.org

Rocks is my favorite classic (‘70s-era) Aerosmith album. In retrospect, seeing legendary bands like Aerosmith live and in-person after high school, along with working on construction sites with fellas 12-to-15 years older than me, helped me rediscover some really great music and riffs from days gone by, especially that of the muscle car-driven mid-‘70s.

“Rev on the Red Line”

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash