10 Perfect Rock Songs Written At The Last Second

After years spent out on the road, it looked like Aerosmith had finally gotten their credentials as rockers on Toys in the Attic. For all of the Stones comparisons that followed them around since the beginning of their career, this is where they really started to come into their own as blues rock crasftmen, with Steven Tyler writing immortal odes to sex, drugs, and rock and roll like the title track and Walk This Way. There's more to Aerosmith than just sleaze though, and Sweet Emotion was actually driven by spite more than anything else.

Needing one more song for the album, the main idea of Sweet Emotion actually came from Tom Hamilton's bassline, setting the mood for the rest of the song as the band put different psychedelic sounds into the mix from backwards drums and acid rock guitar licks. In between the guitar riffs though, Steven was seething with anger, writing the song in response to Joe Perry's girlfriend Elyssa, who was hanging around a lot of the time and taking Joe away from working with the rest of the band.

Since this was so late in the process though, there wasn't even enough equipment to set up the vibe in the room, with Steven getting the maraca sound by taking a little packet of sugar that was left on the studio console and putting it up close to the mic to get that shaking sound. They may have been working with lofi equipment, but some of the greatest songs in the world don't need a million different instruments to sound great.