Rocks

Rocks is the fourth studio album by American rock band Aerosmith, released on May 13, 1976, through Columbia.

AllMusic described Rocks as having "captured Aerosmith at their most raw and rocking." Rocks was ranked number 366 on the updated Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2020. It has influenced many hard rock and heavy metal artists, including Guns N' Roses, Metallica, and Nirvana.

The album 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.

Background

Previously, Aerosmith had recorded three albums: Aerosmith (1973), Get Your Wings (1974), and their breakthrough Toys in the Attic (1975), which produced the hits "Walk This Way" and "Sweet Emotion".

Although often derided by critics, the band had amassed a loyal fanbase from relentless touring and their ferocious live shows. Producer Douglas explains, "The only thing we were talking about a few months before Rocks was that it was going to be a real hard-rock album. And we might go back to the format of the first album, which was to rock out on every tune. And again, keep it real raw. And make it as live sounding as we possibly could."

By the time of the album's sessions, the group had already begun living the rock-and-roll lifestyle to the hilt, indulging their already considerable appetite for drugs. However, their hedonistic lifestyle did not appear to hamper them creatively; Rocks was considered by many fans, critics, and fellow musicians to be one of the highlights of their career. Guitarist Joe Perry later recalled, "There's no doubt we were doing a lot of drugs by then, but whatever we were doing, it was still working for us."

Writing

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.

The album's opening track, "Back in the Saddle" was written by Perry on six-string bass.

Recording

Unlike their previous two records, which were recorded at the Record Plant studios in Manhattan, for Rocks, the group rented a rehearsal space in suburban Massachusetts, the Wherehouse and employed a mobile studio to cut the record. Backing tracks for six of the songs were completed at the Wherehouse.

Douglas explains: "It's the one record, of all the records that I've done, where every element is right and in its place. Every lyric, every key, every sound. Everything is right about that record, for what it is. Because it was written and conceived and recorded in the same place, in A. Wherehouse in Waltham, Mass. So we had the place where they used to rehearse. It was done in the dead of winter, and they would come in to record with nothing but a few licks...and we would develop these tunes."

He continues, "we cut all the basics at their rehearsal space, the Wherehouse, in Boston's suburbs. A big, metal, roaring, huge room. I used stage monitors in with them to blow the sound right back at them. And that's when they started to stretch out. Joe would ask what he ought to be listening to and I'd hip him to John Coltrane for solo ideas - and he'd try to get that! Even in pre-production, I knew it was great. I have cassettes of the evolution of every song on that record, and you should hear "Back In The Saddle" as it evolved from Joe's basic lick to the monster it became. Wanna know what the secret to Rocks was? Distortion. Everything is totally over-loaded. When I brought it to the record company, they panicked at first, but not for long."

At the end of February 1976, the band resumed sessions at the Record Plant to complete the remaining backing tracks and record vocals for the album.

Reception and legacy

Contemporary reviews were mixed. John Milward of Rolling Stone wrote that "the material is Rocks’ major flaw, mostly pale remakes of their earlier hits"; concluding that the return to the "ear-boxing sound" of Get Your Wings and Tyler's vocal performance cannot save the album from mediocrity.

In The Village Voice, Robert Christgau wrote that Aerosmith were doing a good job of imitating Led Zeppelin, and that after this album the band began to lose steam.

Modern reviews are very positive. Greg Prato of AllMusic describes Rocks as "a superb follow-up to their masterwork Toys in the Attic" that captures "Aerosmith at their most raw and rocking". He writes that "Back in the Saddle and Last Child are among their most renowned songs, but all the tracks prove essential to the makeup of the album".

Ben Mitchell of Blender said that the members' drug use actually helped Rocks. He also called the album "raw."