“I know some people thought it was at a sound check at a gig in Lowell,” says Perry, on the phone from his Sarasota, Florida home. I mean, it’s funky and raw but everything’s there.” Joe seems to remember something about a two-track tape machine, but I can’t figure out how we got the quality. “Tape? Demo? Rehearsal? For me, the thing that makes it so mysterious is that the guitar, bass, drum and vocal parts are almost exactly what eventually went on the album. “I’m still racking my brain to try and remember when and how we recorded this,” he continues. “All of a sudden, it’s just there! When I first heard it, it was like hearing some young new band. “This record is a bolt out of the blue,” says Hamilton, via email. As to its provenance, well, that remains a bit of a mystery. The existence or whereabouts of the tape was unknown for years, until a discovery was made in an old van the band once used. When this was recorded, the band - Perry, singer Steven Tyler, guitarist Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer - was barely a year old.

Five of the songs showed up on their debut LP, recorded the following year and released in early 1973.

It’s a seven-song pressing of 10,000 LPs and 2,000 cassettes. It’s now a twice-a-year event and, as always, the second comes on Black Friday, a day when a myriad of bands release limited-edition rarities from their vaults.Īerosmith has come up with a hard-rocking, bluesy doozy - and a mystery: It’s called “1971: The Road Starts Hear,” a 40-minute LP and cassette culled from a two-track tape done on a vintage Wollensak reel-to-reel deck owned by guitarist Joe Perry. Over 13 years ago, Record Store Day was created, a concerted effort to drive fans to buy actual hard copy products in an increasingly digital age. Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer (drums), Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith on 'Midnight Special' in Burbank, CA - June 1974.

Aerosmith aerosmith