Joe Perry’s face lights up when he talks to MusicRadar about The Beatles. “They were together for maybe eight years,” he says, “but God, they turned the world upside down!”
However, it wasn’t only the Fab Four who inspired Perry to pick up a guitar.
“So did the Stones,” he says. “There was a whole bunch of bands that came over to America where if they had an English accent and a catchy song, they were a big star for five minutes. But The Beatles and Stones – we really learned a lot from them.”
When Perry says ‘we’, he of course means Aerosmith, the band he co-founded in Boston in 1970.
By 1978, when Aerosmith were established as one of the biggest bands in America, they appeared in the musical comedy movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, for which they cut a version of The Beatles’ song Come Together.
The movie – starring Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees – was panned by critics and flopped at the box office, but Aerosmith's remake of Come Together was a hit, reaching No.23 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Aerosmith were also famously dubbed ‘America’s Rolling Stones’. And when Perry looks back on the '60s he views The Beatles and the Stones as kindred spirits.
“The Beatles did something, and then the Stones would do something a little while later,” he says. “The Beatles did Sgt. Pepper, and then The Stones did Their Satanic Majesties Request, which was their own psychedelic thing. The albums covers were almost the same, and it’s like they were buddies, too.”
He continues: “When The Beatles stopped touring, they said, ‘Nobody is listening to us. We can’t even hear ourselves play because they’re screaming so loud.’ But if they had stayed together, I think they would have been able to tour the way the Stones did.
“You know, give it a couple of years, let the teenyboppers grow up a little bit, which they did, and let them start listening, and that’s when bands could really play live, and have people listening.
“Of course, it was fucking stunning how good The Beatles were live when you listen to some of the recordings. They had no monitors, but when you listen to the recordings, they’re still doing it, and it’s so damn good!"
Perry sighs: “So The Beatles stopped touring, and so did the Stones for a time. But then the Stones said, ‘Well fuck this, we’re gonna go out and start touring again.’ And that’s when they became what they still are – the greatest rock ‘n’ roll band in the world. They really found their niche.”
Perry has seen and done it all, and gives a knowing smile when he says: “The music business is a bitch, man.”
He recalls an era-defining event of the late ’60s.
“Woodstock was a watershed moment,” he says. “Aside from the whole political thing about the Woodstock Nation and all that, people really started to see that there was real money to be made.
“And when the Woodstock movie came out, you could look at some of the bands that played there and see what happened to them. Some of them became superstars – but you have to sustain that.”
The longevity that Aerosmith have enjoyed was unheard of in the ’60s and ’70s.
“There was the whole thing of if you could make it past 27 years old, and still be alive, that was an event,” Perry says. “I mean, none of us ever thought we were gonna be doing this past 30!”
He thinks back to 1977.
“Elvis died when he was 42,” he says. “Seeing that in the news, man, that was a black day because we loved him. But back then, nobody really made it to 50 years old in rock ‘n’ roll.”
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