Joe Perry’s favourite bands of all time
In the early days of 1970s rock, Aerosmith was the British Invasion in reverse. After the world was ignited by the likes of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, ‘The Bad Boys From Boston’ brought something a lot more gritty to the table, taking the template from basic blues and making some of the most inspired songs of the early ‘70s about the rock and roll lifestyle. Everyone gets it from somewhere, though, and Joe Perry revealed himself as an old soul when discussing his influences.
When talking about his inspiration as a guitar player, Perry always had kind words to say about Fleetwood Mac, telling Music Radar: “Peter Green is one of my all-time favourite guitarists.. They were a great band, and that’s where I got a lot of my blues education”. Long before the days of Lindsey Buckingham, Green helped turn The Mac into one of the greatest fusions of pop and blues ever created, crafting songs like ‘Oh Well’ around some of the trademark boogie-woogie progressions.
It’s not hard to see where Perry also took notes from, with Green’s distinctive way of making the guitar talk coming through in tunes like ‘Walk This Way’. As far as blues rock is concerned, though, Perry has a special place in his heart for the band that got it all started for British groups: The Rolling Stones.
When talking about their influence, Perry mentioned The Stones being trailblazers for the genre. He said: “They started the whole resurgence of the blues in the sixties. They kicked down the doors for bands like Fleetwood Mac and Them and The Yardbirds, who also helped reinterpret this American music”. Although The Stones may have gotten their start playing the likes of Chuck Berry, their soul was always in the deep roots of music like Muddy Waters, which became a cornerstone of Perry’s playing.
Aerosmith eventually became a bit too enamoured with The Stones, with some rock journalists claiming that they were ripping off Mick Jagger and Keith Richards based on the way Steven Tyler and Joe Perry behaved onstage. Outside of the bluesy foundation, the Aerosmith catalogue borrows from The Stones’ rockers. As much as they might like to boogie, it’s impossible to imagine a song like ‘Sweet Emotion’ coming to life if ‘Satisfaction’ hadn’t come first.
Like all great rock and rollers, Perry’s love always comes back to The Beatles. When he first cut his teeth, Perry remembered the rough and tumble rock band hidden underneath the original moptops, remarking, “The Beatles just changed everything right across the board. They just had that right combination of clean-cut good looks, a cute band. But under that, they had a real rock ‘n’ roll thing going on”.
Outside of songs about holding one’s lover’s hand, the Fab Four had the capacity to keep up with acts like The Stones, offering up scathing hard rock on songs like ‘Day Tripper’ and ‘Helter Skelter’. The Beatles influence also reached across the board, with Aerosmith eventually covering ‘Come Together’ for the Sgt Pepper film and doing their rendition of ‘I’m Down’ on their album Permanent Vacation.
While it’s easy to spot every one of these bands in Perry’s style, there will never be someone who sounds exactly like Joe Perry either. There might be a lick that he borrowed secondhand from Peter Green or a look that he co-opted from Keith Richards, but Perry has carved out his place in rock history as one of the most in-the-pocket lead guitar players in history.
