The genre that brings the best out of Steven Tyler: “I can’t help it”
There isn’t a single voice that epitomises rock and roll the same way that Steven Tyler does.
He definitely wears his influences from people like Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones on his sleeve more than a few times, but you can’t deny that he is one of the greatest examples of what a rock and roll frontman is supposed to be like. There was nothing slowing down that voice whenever he opened his mouth on Aerosmith records, but he did feel his voice was better suited to certain pieces of their catalogue.
Granted, it’s not like Aerosmith were the greatest musical chameleons by any stretch, either. They did have their fair share of moments when they went outside their comfort zone back in the day, but aside from a few great ballads like ‘Home Tonight’ and ‘You See Me Crying’ on their records, it was always much better for Tyler to sing about the virtues of sex, drugs and rock and roll half the time he got on the microphone.
That said, it’s not like he couldn’t shock the world when he wanted to. ‘Kings and Queens’ is a radical departure from what the band was known for when they were working on Draw the Line, and while the debut album is a little bit rough around the edges, hearing him trying and failing to put some gravel into his voice is at least cute for what it is whenever he started to sing tunes like ‘Make It’ and ‘Movin’ Out’.
But around the late 1980s, the band started to lose its way just a little bit. They were still one of the reigning kings of rock and roll, but bringing in a few outside songwriters wasn’t really what the hardcore fans wanted, either. Desmond Child did work his magic on a fair bit of their greatest songs, like ‘Angel’, but once they kept that train a-rolling into the next decade, it was starting to get hard to take them seriously when they had that much gloss behind them on tracks like ‘Pink’.
While Just Push Play is really the apex of that kind of sound, the rest of the band weren’t exactly happy. ‘Girls of Summer’ was practically a glorified Steven Tyler solo track, and when they had an idea for the next record, Joe Perry insisted on getting back to their roots. The blues was always a big part of their sound, and Honkin’ On Bobo was the first time that Tyler was able to inhabit the kind of tunes that he had taken for granted all those years.
The blues wasn’t the most in-demand genre at the time or anything, but singing this record reminded Tyler of the heights that he had back in the day, saying, “This is more homage to where we came from. I sing that the best. Why am I keeping away from it? We still put blues in everything we do. Joe and I can’t help it.” But this is much more authentic to what the blues is supposed to be.
It’s not the same kind of blues worship that The Stones would have done in their prime, but picking the more obscure blues artists is a lot more interesting for them to take on. ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’ might have been a no-brainer, but giving a few songs to Perry to sing is actually a lot more interesting than worrying about what songs had the greatest shot at the radio like they had been doing ever since ‘I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing’.
And despite having some genuinely great pop songs in their arsenal, it does feel a lot more refreshing to see Tyler back in his element doing what he loves to do. He had spent years and had earned some of the highest accolades of any rock and roll star, so what was the problem with him going back to his roots every once in a while?
