The one band Steven Tyler called “the shit” to Aerosmith
Time marches on, but the rock and roll world never truly recovered from the 1960s. The era produced some of music’s biggest and most substantial names, with artists like The Who, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, and many more still having a noticeable effect on rock music scenes to this day, decades later. Virtually every rock band that sprang up in the wake of the era of ‘peace and love’ were indebted to these pioneering groups, and some displayed those influences more plainly than others. Enter Aerosmith.
Initially formed in 1970, at the back end of that revolutionary period of rock and roll, Aerosmith took inevitable influence from the music that had dominated proceedings in the years prior. Although their most popular work sits firmly in the realm of pop rock or occasional bursts into hard rock, the group’s early years saw them endlessly indebted to rhythm and blues music and the pioneering British rock that went on to define the era of the 1960s.
Among those groups, an often overlooked yet utterly essential group was The Yardbirds. Hailing from the vibrant streets of England’s capital, the group only ever achieved a modest level of commercial success during their time together, with the hit single ‘Heart Full of Soul’ being a notable highlight. However, the power of The Yardbirds lies predominantly in their lasting legacy. After all, the group managed to launch the careers of such iconic names as Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, and Eric Clapton.
The groundbreaking sounds released by The Yardbirds also went on to form an essential source of inspiration for future styles of punk, alternative rock, and metal. So, it should come as no real surprise that Steven Tyler and Aerosmith were disciples of the London rockers. In fact, Tyler has repeatedly affirmed that The Yardbirds were a colossal influence on the early days of his band, directly inspiring some of their earliest compositions.
For instance, on the 1973 song ‘Somebody’, you do not need a detective or a music historian to tell you that the band had been listening to The Yardbirds before writing that song. Its inherent sound is so closely linked to the 1960s outfit, and Tyler has made no effort to keep this inspiration a secret. Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2004, he shared, “Listen to ‘Somebody,’ a song I wrote for Aerosmith’s first album: It’s all from the Yardbirds.”
“They were the shit to us,” he said of the band, “Out of all the British bands in the ’60s. The Yardbirds were a bit of a mystery. They had an eclecticism – the Gregorian chant-ness of the vocals, the melodic diversity, the way they used guitar feedback. I loved that weirdness.” Although it is difficult to argue that Aerosmith adopted that same “weirdness” throughout their discography, given their move towards pop rock, the influences are certainly present on ‘Somebody’.
What’s more, ‘Somebody’ ended up being released as the B-side to Aerosmith’s debut single ‘Dream On’, which arguably became their defining anthem. Having a Yardbirds-inspired rock track on the flip side of a smash-hit power ballad helped to demonstrate the diversity of Aerosmith’s sound during the early days, drawing more attention to the debut album, which had been released a few months earlier.
Aerosmith were certainly not the only band to draw upon the inspiration of The Yardbirds over the years, with the innovative sounds never really losing relevancy within the world of rock and roll. Nevertheless, the Boston rock outfit is perhaps among the most surprising groups to take tips from Jimmy Page’s pre-Zeppelin group, as the flamboyant excess of their later career never seemed to align itself with the stunning DIY rock of the 1960s group.
