I love reading about how songs are created. The behind-the-scenes stories about them are marvelous. The weirdest, wackiest, most wonderfully happenstance things have gone into the making of some of the greatest songs in rock history. So it was with Aerosmith's "Sweet Emotion," one of the band's most iconic tunes. Something unplanned occurred that elevated the song to magnificence. And it was accidental. How can you not love that! Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, and the gang made a masterpiece they stumbled onto.
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Aerosmith's Album, 'Toys in The Attic,' Was A Huge Hit For The Band, As Was 'Sweet Emotion'
Toys in the Attic dropped almost exactly 50 years ago. It was the equivalent of Aerosmith's coming-out party. The disc sold nine million copies and featured some of their best songs. One of them was the hard-edged track "Sweet Emotion," the album's first single. Bassist Tom Hamilton and Tyler co-wrote it. Per newyorkpost.com, producer Jack Douglas described the funny quirk that ultimately led to its uniqueness.
"'We didn't want every song to sound the same," said Douglas, noting the influence of The Beatles. 'We were big Beatles fans, and the thing about The Beatles with the late albums, every track was different. They all had a different elements to them. And so as we went through the songs, I would set up the studio different. I would tune the drums differently, I would make sure that the keys were different, so that each song had its own character.'"
What Happened With 'Sweet Emotion'?
Douglas detailed what went wrong to make the song go so right. "[Tom Hamilton] started just playing that bass line to jam along with. And when [drummer] Joey Kramer started playing to it, he came in on the wrong side. He came in backward. And Steven and I went, 'Oh my God, that's genius!' He's playing on the other side of the beat, which makes that bass line more prominent. And Jay Messina, who was my engineer, played bass marimba."
It was a gift for Aerosmith fans and a blessing for the band early in their career. Said Douglas, "We wanted to start the album with a barn burner, just kick it off with something that just grabs your attention right away."
