Back in the Saddle
by Aerosmith
- 123
- BPM
- Db major
- Key
- 3B
- Camelot
- 43
- Danceability
- 1
- Acousticness
Aerosmith reunited in 1984 and went out on the Back in the Saddle Tour, named for a song from eight years earlier. "Back in the Saddle" was written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry and opened the 1976 album Rocks. It came out as the album's third single in 1977 and peaked at number 38 on the Billboard Hot 100. That was a moderate success at first. It later became one of the best known songs in the band's catalog.
Perry wrote the main riff on a Fender Bass VI, an instrument with a distinctive growl. He had admired Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac, who sometimes played a similar instrument in live performances. Brad Whitford plays the lead guitar part, and Tom Hamilton adds a heavy bass line.
The sound effects took more work. The band meant to use a bullwhip and spent hours trying to get it to crack. They ended up cut and hurt with nothing to show for it. In the end they whirled a 30-foot cord from the studio and fired a cap gun for the crack. The galloping horse is there too, and Tyler closes the song with screams and yodeling.
Back in the Saddle runs at 123 BPM, the tempo of house, disco and most club dance music. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.95 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 488 ms. It is in Db major, Camelot 3B, which shares its notes with Bb minor and mixes cleanly with F# major and Ab major.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.