The 70s Hard Rock album that Joe Perry said is brilliant

The career of the guitarist Joe Perry could have been really different if he had pursued his first dream as a child, which was to become an oceanographer. However, his grades at school really weren’t good and he eventually discovered that what he really should do in life was to become a professional musician. Alongside Steven Tyler, Brad Whitford, Joey Kramer and Tom Hamilton, he helped to make Aerosmith one of the most successful bands of all time, that really made a huge impact in music especially in the 70s, 80s and 90s.

Their capability to reinvent their sound and be relevant for many generations are certainly a proof of their incredible songwriting and live performance. Over the decades, Joe Perry always praised other artists and talked about music that influenced him. He once even revealed which is a brilliant Hard Rock album from the 70s in his opinion.

The 70s Hard Rock album that Joe Perry said is brilliant

Like many Rock and Roll bands from the 70s, Aerosmith’s music has always been rooted in Blues and they were able to mix many other influences with that. There were many other groups taking their sound to another level during that decade and one of them was the Australian group AC/DC.

Since the early days, the Aerosmith guitarist has always been a huge fan of the group. In an interview with Classic Rock back in 2021 he even said that their underrated album “Powerage” (1978) is “brilliant”.

“I have the album on vinyl and I’d just play it over and over, flipping it and starting again, It never loses its power. These might not be the AC/DC songs that you hear on the radio or necessarily hear on jukeboxes in bars. But no-one writes rock’n’roll better than this.”

He continued:

“I’ll still go to see AC/DC when I can and they’re still a great band. Brian Johnson had such big shoes to fill when he came into the band. But he’s done an amazing job and they still kill it. But when I listen to ‘Powerage’ I hear that amazing band who played 30 or 40 shows with us at the time. (They) tore it up every single night. It’s a brilliant record, just pure rock’n’roll, and it will never age,” Joe Perry said.

The record has many famous tracks like “Rock N’ Roll Damnation”, “Down Payment Blues”, “Riff Raff” and “Sin City”. Still produced by Harry Vanda and Malcom’s and Angus’ older brother George Young, “Powerage” performed well at the time in some countries. The album reached the position number 26 on the United Kingdom charts. But it was number 133 on the United States Billboard 200.

They would really reach a huge audience with the release of their two most famous albums “Highway To Hell” (1979) and “Back In Black” (1980).

He first met AC/DC when they opened for Aerosmith in 1977

AC/DC was formed in Sydney, Australia  in 1973, three years after Aerosmith was formed in Boston, United States. After releasing albums in their home country that were successful, the records were released worldwide. So they quickly started to reach a new audience all over the world. But until they were big enough to tour on their own, AC/DC was the opening act of many famous groups. One of them being Aerosmith.

It happened during the “Draw The Line” tour in 1978. At the time the Aussie group was promoting their 1977 album “Let There Be Rock”. Perry was “blown-away” by seeing them when the tour began back then. He said many times that he has been a huge fan ever since.

At the time the band was formed by Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Phil Rudd, Cliff Williams and Bon Scott. He would still record two albums with the band after that tour: “Powerage” (1978) and “Highway To Hell” (1979). Scott tragically died in 1980 at the age of 33. Only a few months later he was replaced by Brian Johnson.

Curiously, the first big concert that Metallica‘s James Hetfield ever went to was Aerosmith with AC/DC as the opening act. The show happened at the Long Beach Arena in California.