Aerosmith - "Sweet emotion"

A bass-driven song...

Tom Hamilton (bass) : "The bass riff came first. I wrote that line and realized I should think of some guitar parts for it if I was ever going to get a chance to present it to the band. I didn't think I ever would. But it was at the end of the recording and Jack [Douglas, producer of the album] said, 'Tomorrow's jam day, if anybody's got a stray riff hanging around'. So I spent the day showing everybody and we took it from there. Steven [Tyler, vocals] had the idea of taking that intro riff, which became the chorus bass line under the "Sweet emotion" part, and transposing it into the key of E, and making it a really heavy Zeppelin-esque thing".
Brad Whitford (guitars) : "We kind of bastardized that lick from [Jeff Beck's] "Rice Pudding." [i.e., the transitional guitar riff that comes between verses and leads into choruses]".
Hamilton : That part came from all the times that we listened to [Beck's] "Rough and Ready" album".
Tyler : [to Joe Perry, lead guitars] "Remember, we didn't know how to end it ? We got into a big fight. Cocaine was all over the place. It was late and we were at the end of our rope. Finally I said, 'Just fuckin' play a drum fill and we'll go into...[sings outro riff]'. And we did it. It was such a magic moment".
Perry : "We knew it would be killer live - a show stopper. So then the f*ckin' record company got it and said, 'What can we maul to get this on the radio ?' The single version of "Sweet Emotion" is pretty chopped up. They edited it down to just the melodic element. But that's how it was done back then".

Available on the album "Toys in the attic"