Guitar Riffs - The "I'm In Love With That Song" Podcast - Music Commentary, Song Analysis & Rock History

Aerosmith were at their commercial & creative peak in 1976 when they released Rocks, a high-water mark in their career. The album opens with “Back In The Saddle”, one of their hardest-rocking songs and the perfect way to kick off their heaviest album. There’s lots to uncover in this song, so join us for this episode where we explore this classic track.

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TRANSCRIPT:

It’s time to open up pandora’s box for another edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast. I am your master of ceremonies, Brad Page, and this is the Pantheon Podcast network. Each episode of this show, I pick one of my favorite songs and we explore it together as we continue our quest to understand what makes a song great. As always, no musical skill or expertise is needed here. This show is open to anyone willing and able to listen.

Aerosmith, one of the greatest American bands, was supposed to be on their final tour, going out in style. But singer Steven Tyler suffered a serious vocal injury last year. They had to delay the tour, rescheduling it a couple of times, but sadly, they just announced last month that they have to cancel the entire tour– Steven’s injury was just too severe. And with that, Aerosmith’s career as a live, touring band came to an abrupt end. Unfortunately, the band will not be back in the saddle again. So I thought it would be fitting to revisit this classic track from one of their greatest albums. This is Aerosmith with “Back In The Saddle”.

We’ve featured Aerosmith on this podcast before; we covered “Seasons Of Wither” back on episode 23, and “Kings and Queens” on episode 97. So, I’m not going to rehash the whole Aerosmith history here, but let’s just set the stage for this particular track.

In 1976, Aerosmith were riding high on the success of their third album, “Toys in the Attic”. They had just finished a lengthy tour supporting that album, and after a short break, they reconvened at the band’s rehearsal space.

The year before, 1975, the band was looking for a place to rehearse. Ray Tabano was originally their guitarist, but when he was replaced by Brad Whitford, he became sort of their assistant and their fan club manager. They sent Ray on a mission to find a new place for them to practice and kind of a home base for the band. Ray found an empty building on Pond Street in Waltham, Massachusetts, not far from Boston, which they leased, rewired, built a stage, and turned into their clubhouse. They called it “A Wherehouse”. The Wherehouse became their band office as well as their rehearsal space, and it was a place they all felt comfortable.

Producer Jack Douglas, who had produced their last two albums, was there with them, helping them to develop and work out new songs for their next album. They decided, rather than move everything into a formal studio, they would just record the album right there at the Wherehouse. So, Jack brought in the Record Plant’s remote recording truck, and he mic’d up the Wherehouse,m trying to capture that raw live sound. They spent about six weeks hammering out the songs and laying down the basic tracks. Then the band took the tapes into the Record Plant studio in New York to record the vocals and the guitar overdubs.

The finished album, dubbed “Rocks”, was released on May 14, 1976. It was their hardest-rocking album to date. In fact, looking back now at their entire catalog, it’s still the hardest rocking album that Aerosmith ever made. For many fans, this is their favorite Aerosmith album, and “Back In The Saddle” is the track that opens the record.

It was written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, was produced by Jack Douglas and the band, and was performed by Steven Tyler on vocals, Joey Kramer on drums, Brad Whitford on guitar, Tom Hamilton on bass, and Joe Perry on guitar and six string bass. Joe Perry had purchased a Fender Bass VI, which more or less plays like a regular guitar, but it’s tuned an octave lower, like a bass. If you’ve seen The Beatles “Get Back” documentary, then you’ve seen John Lennon play a Bass VI in that film. But Joe Perry was inspired to pick up a Bass VI because one of his guitar heroes, Peter Green from Fleetwood Mac, used to play one. In fact, back on episode 67 of this podcast, we explored the Fleetwood Mac track “The Green Manalishi” and talked about Peter Green and his six-string bass. Then here’s a little bit of Peter Green on his six-string bass.

So, inspired by Peter Green, Joe Perry got himself a six-string bass and started messing around with it. According to Joe himself, he was in his bedroom, lying on the floor on his back, wasted on heroin, when he came up with the riff for “Back In The Saddle”.

The song begins with a long, slow buildup. You can hear the sound of a horse galloping. According to legend, that’s Steven Tyler tapping two coconuts together, Monty Python style. I don’t know if that’s really true or not, but I like to picture that in my head.

And you can hear the horse winnying in the background of the right channel, and that launches us right into the chorus. It’s not exactly unusual for a song to start with the chorus, but it is a little uncommon.

Before we go further, let’s listen to Joe Perry’s six-string bass riff. That was the genesis of this song. That is one brutal riff.

For Stephen Tyler’s voice, Jack Douglas used a particular type of microphone referred to as a shotgun mic. Very unusual choice for a lead vocal mic. Shotgun mics are extremely directional and mostly used to focus on a sound that’s very far away. In this case, it really captures all of the rasp and the ragged edge of Tyler’s voice. It also sounds like Douglas used quite a bit of compression on this vocal track, which accentuates that even more.

While they were at the record plant working on overdubs, the idea of being back in the saddle came up. With a new album coming out, the band would be saddling up and hitting the road again. It reminded Jack Douglas of that old song by Gene Autry, “Back In The Saddle

For Steven Tyler, because he’s Steven Tyler, “back in the saddle” meant having sex with his girlfriend again. But he took these ideas and his notepad and went into the stairwell at the Record Plant. He liked to go there for some quiet and privacy, and that’s where he wrote the lyrics to this song.

You can hear the footsteps there of our main character, his spurs jangling. This was achieved by taping tambourines and bells to Steven Tyler’s boots and then recording him stomping on a piece of plywood.

He mentions the Crazy Horse Saloon and a woman named Suki Jones. He just made those names up. But sometimes characters take on a life of their own. Stephen Adler, the former drummer for Guns N’ Roses, loved this song so much, he named his band Suki Jones.

Throughout the song, there’s a couple of guitars, one on the left, one on the right channel, just making these wild noises, bending and pulling notes and wrangling with their whammy bars. There is also, very low in the mix, two other guitars, one electric and one acoustic– in fact, the acoustic might even be in Nashville tuning– that are hammering on this droning part in the background. Let’s listen to these guitars.

Let’s pick it back up at the second chorus.

That brings us to the second verse. Let’s look at some of the parts that make up the verse. First, let’s hear just the guitars. And this includes the six-string bass.

Then you have the rhythm section with Joey Kramer’s drums and Tom Hamilton playing the regular four-string bass.

All right, let’s hear that all together.

There are some guitar licks in the mix there. I believe those are played by Brad Whitford. Let’s go back and listen to those.

Let’s go back and hear those in context.

There are some really intense Steven Tyler vocals there, enhanced by the use of that microphone and the compression. Let’s hear just that vocal track peeling off.

Let’s go back and listen to the guitars that play under that chorus. And there are more of those clip-clopping steps that are mixed pretty tightly with the drums. You don’t really notice them in the final mix, but you’ll hear them clearly here.

We’ll back it up again and play into the next section.

This is one of my favorite parts of the song. There’s a harmony added to the lead vocal.

The six-string bass is playing another great part. And notice how they’ve added a flanger to it to give it that swirling sound.

The bass and drums are just really driving forward and the layered guitars are really adding a lot of texture. Notice when the acoustic guitar doubles that little descending part. Let’s hear that all together again.

We’re going to hear another chorus. And then there’s a guitar solo that’s off to one side and fairly low in the mix, but we’ll fade some of the other tracks in and out so that you can hear that guitar part a little clearer.

Steven Tyler actually yodels there. You can hear that in the left channel.

There’s more of that Steven Tyler nonsense. Obviously, they were having a lot of fun in the studio with this track. You can hear the sound of a whip cracking. They actually brought a bullwhip into the studio, trying to capture the sound of a real whip. But after a few hours of messing around with the whip, all they ended up with was some cuts and bruises with no usable sounds. So, Steven Tyler ended up whirling a microphone cable around, and they used a cap gun for the sound of the whip cracking. So let’s hear all of that, along with a little more of those backing guitar tracks.

And while all of that is going, on mostly in the left channel, there’s some nice guitar playing going on in the right. So let’s check that out.

Aerosmith – “Back In The Saddle”

Joe Perry and Brad Whifford would leave the band a few years later, Joe in 1979 and Brad in ‘81. But of course, they reunited in 1984, and Aerosmith went on to do the unthinkable: they became even bigger after their reunion.

Very few bands get a second chance at success. You can count on one hand the number of bands who achieved greater success the second time around. Aerosmith is one of them, and they maintained that success for a long time. Say what you will about Aerosmith, but what they’ve done is unprecedented.

The other thing, too, is that all five original members are still with us. There have been dangerous drug habits, overdoses, car accidents. Joe Perry even had a heart attack on stage a few years ago. But at the time of this recording, they’re all still alive. Just the fact that all five of them still walk the planet is some kind of miracle. If this truly is the end of the line, I’m gonna miss them. But they’ve left behind some incredible records and some of my favorite music of all time.

Thanks for listening to this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on the Pantheon Podcast Network. You’ll find new episodes of this show on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so I’ll see you back here in about two weeks. Until then, you can catch up on all of our previous shows on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, or listen to us on your favorite podcast app.

We always appreciate your reviews and your comments, and please go tell a friend about this show. Your help in spreading the word is better than any advertising we could ever pay for.

In these trying times for musicians, whether they’re legacy artists or new acts, remember to support the artists you love by buying their music. And thanks for jumping “Back In The Saddle” with Aerosmith.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Aerosmith
https://www.aerosmith.com/

Toys in the Attic Album
https://www.allmusic.com/album/toys-in-the-attic-mw0000192339

Rocks Album
https://www.allmusic.com/album/rocks-mw0000189173

Fender Bass VI
https://shop.fender.com/en-US/electric-basses/other/six-string-bass/

The Beatles ‘Get Back’ Documentary
https://www.disneyplus.com/series/the-beatles-get-back/4SrN28ZjDLwH

Fleetwood Mac
https://www.fleetwoodmac.com/

Gene Autry
https://www.genautry.com/

Record Plant Studio
http://recordplant.com/

Suki Jones Band
https://www.discogs.com/artist/

A teenage summertime love affair with a foreign exchange student was the inspiration for this song by Wishbone Ash. Though overlooked in the US, Wishbone Ash reached #3 on the UK charts with the album Argus, which features “Blowin’ Free”. Wishbone Ash’s twin lead guitar sound would inspire many band that followed.

— This show is just one of many great Rock Podcasts on the Pantheon Podcasts network. Gotta catch ’em all!

TRANSCRIPT:

Hey, it’s Brad Page. I’m back in the studio, powering up the mics and cranking up the headphones because it’s time for another episode of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast, here on the Pantheon Podcast Network. Each episode of the show, we take a song and look at it from every angle, trying to get a handle on what makes a song work. No musical knowledge is required here– you don’t have to be technical, all you got to do is listen.

This time around we are listening to a track from a band that was big in Europe and the UK, but just never really caught on here in America. This is Wishbone Ash with “Blowing Free”.

Wishbone Ash came together in 1969 with Andy Powell and Ted Turner on guitars, Martin Turner on bass and Steve Upton on drums. Though Ted and Martin share a last name, they’re not actually related.

The thing that distinguished Wishbone Ash right out of the gate were those twin guitars of Andy and Ted. Though there had been other bands with two lead guitar players– the Allman Brothers come to mind– Wishbone Ash was one of the first to make harmony guitar parts such an essential element. That was the Wishbone Ash sound.

They released their first album in December 1970. Less than a year later, they released their second record, and in May 1972 they released their third album called “Argus”. It’s the album that most people consider to be their best.

“Argus” was well received, both critically and commercially. It was their biggest selling album, reaching number three on the UK charts. The “Argus” album flirts with progressive rock and hard rock, but it was the upbeat track “Blowing Free”, the closest thing to a pop song on the album, that got them on the radio and exposed to a wider audience, at least in the UK.

The song almost didn’t make it onto the album. The band thought it was too poppy compared to the rest of the record, but Martin Turner insisted that they keep it on the album.

The song is credited to Martin Turner, Ted Turner, Andy Powell and Steve Upton. Martin Turner wrote the lyrics and he plays the bass. Ted Turner and Andy Powell are on guitars and Steve Upton is on the drums. The album was produced by Derek Lawrence and engineered by Martin Birch, both known for their work with Deep Purple.

The song kicks off with a great guitar intro by Ted, and it didn’t have the same impact here in the states, but in the UK, learning that guitar intro was like a rite of passage for British guitar players, like “Stairway To Heaven” or “Sweet Child of Mine”, it’s just one of those intros that seems like every beginning guitar player had to learm. That introduction was actually inspired by an old song by the Steve Miller band called, “Children of the Future”.

They took that and turned it into something of their own.

Before the band fully kicks in, they’re going to change up the guitar riff.

Let’s listen to those guitars again.

You can hear how they’ve panned the guitars to the left and the right to add some differentiation and some dimension to the sound. Martin Turner’s bass part is also great here, too. Let’s listen to some of that.

When Martin Turner was a teenager growing up in a seaside town in southwest England, he had a summertime romance one year with a Swedish exchange student. Her hair was golden brown like a cornfield. When he was looking for lyrics for this song, he reminisced about that relationship and that story of teenage love and loss; that became the song.

Following that verse is a guitar solo played by Andy Powell, most likely played on his Gibson Flying V guitar. He was mostly known for playing Flying V’s. This is a great guitar solo.

Next up is the second verse. Martin’s Swedish girlfriend didn’t speak much English and he didn’t speak any Swedish, but I guess they found some way to communicate. Apparently when he asked her if he could kiss her, she said, “you can try”. That phrase appears a couple of times in this song.

Now the song shifts gears into a quieter, more melancholy section. Every good memory has a tinge of sadness for those lost moments you’ll never relive again.

I really like what Martin Turner’s bass and Steve Upton’s drums are doing behind this section. It’s simple but really effective. This leads us into another guitar solo. This one played beautifully by Ted Turner. Just incredibly tasteful. I think that’s just great. To me, he captures that wistful feeling of recalling old memories.

But that melancholy doesn’t last long. They kick right back into the verse riff, and Andy Powell takes over with another solo.

Let’s listen to some of that guitar.

And they return to the first verse.

More guitar work by Andy Powell. Now some of their trademark guitar harmonies start to appear in the background.

And here we have a slide guitar solo played by Ted Turner. Ted had started to listen to Ry Cooder, one of the great slide players of all time, and it inspired him to play a little slide guitar here. This is the first time Ted had ever tried playing slide.

Guitars start to build up from the background.

“Blowing Free” by Wishbone Ash

In the UK publication “Sounds” magazine, which was a big deal at the time, the readers voted “Argus” the best album of 1972, beating out albums like David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust”, Deep Purple’s “Machine Head” and the Rolling Stones “Exile on Main Street”. That’s some serious competition– that just shows you how big Wishbone Ash was in the UK.

But here in the US, “Argus” didn’t get any higher than 169 on the charts. America just wasn’t that interested in Wishbone Ash, but guitar players– guitar players were paying attention. Bands like Thin Lizzy and Iron Maiden would adapt that twin guitar harmony style, and, though largely forgotten by the average listener, Wishbone Ash left their mark on generations of guitar players.

A couple of years ago I was reading an issue of “Classic Rock” magazine and they had an article on this song, which inspired me to dig out that album and eventually inspired this episode. It had probably been 20 years since I last listened to this record, and you know, it’s always great to go back to an old album you haven’t heard in ages and hear it again with fresh ears. And it reminded me of my past loves, and loves lost.

Thanks for listening to this show. I really appreciate it. New episodes of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast come out on the 1st and the 15th of every month, so I’ll be back soon with another new edition. You’ve been warned.

You can keep in touch with the show on our Facebook page or on our website, lovethatsongpodcast.com, where you’ll also find all of our previous episodes. And, of course, we’re available on Amazon, Apple, Google, Stitcher, iHeartRadio, pretty much anywhere you can find podcasts, you’ll find this show.

And we are part of the Pantheon network of podcasts, home to many more music related shows, so check those out too.

Thanks again for listening to this edition of the “I’m In Love With That Song” podcast on Wishbone Ash and “Blowing Free”.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Wishbone Ash
https://www.wishboneash.com/

Argus Album
https://www.discogs.com/Wishbone-Ash-Argus/master/12065

Pantheon Podcast Network
https://www.pantheonpodcasts.com/

Deep Purple
https://www.deeppurple.com/

Steve Miller Band
https://www.stevemillerband.com/

Ry Cooder
https://www.rycooder.nl/

Classic Rock Magazine
https://www.loudersound.com/classic-rock

Thin Lizzy
https://www.thinlizzy.org/

Iron Maiden
https://www.ironmaiden.com/

Gibson Flying V Guitar
https://www.gibson.com/Guitar/USA3M638/Flying-V

Tag: Guitar Riffs

Aerosmith – “Back In The Saddle”

Wishbone Ash – “Blowin’ Free”