There were some great American rock bands in the 1960s, but so many of them came from California that they didn’t present a very diverse product. SoCal singer-songwriters and Bay Area psychedelia influenced a great deal of American rock & roll by the end of the decade. But where were the old-school blues-based guitar bands that could rival the Stones and Zeppelin?
Well, one of the first was in Boston. In 1970, they came together as Aerosmith. With very minor changes along the way, the quintet of vocalist Steven Tyler, guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, bassist Tom Hamilton, and drummer Joey Kramer would remain together for the next five decades, releasing 15 studio albums and a raft of hit rock & roll singles.
They would play a vital role in the evolution of an American brand of R&B-based rock and provide a foundational piece of rock-hip hop crossover. They would become among the greatest and most influential rock and roll acts ever produced in the USA.
Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic turns 50 in April
It all really began with their third album, Toys in the Attic, which turns 50 in April.
Their first two albums – a self-titled debut in 1973 and Get Your Wings in 1974 – hinted at what was to come. They could do power ballads like their first hit “Dream On,” and they could do good old greasy rock & roll like “Same Old Song and Dance.” They put it all together on Toys in the Attic.
Jack Douglas, who had engineered albums for rock’s elites suck as John Lennon and The Who, was beginning a career as a producer. He had worked with Aerosmith on Get Your Wings. By the time they were ready for the follow-up, both the band and the producer were ready to step up their games.
There was nothing magical about what happened with Toys. Aerosmith had gotten a lot better as a band because they had been out on the road so much. Perry and Whitford were forming a better double-guitar attack. Tyler was refining his frontman moves and growing as a songwriter. And Douglas was figuring out how to capture it all on record.
They blast out of the gates with the title track and do not look back. They follow that up with the oozing blues riff of “Uncle Salty,” courtesy of bass player Tom Hamilton. The Tyler-penned “Adam’s Apple,” which dives head-first into his sexually suggestive metaphors, closes out the opening trio.
Then came one of the crucial songs in Aerosmith’s discography. Perry came up with the funky riff that underpins “Walk This Way,” and Tyler spits out his machine-gun-like lyrics about adolescents and sex. It didn’t hit right away, but it would go on to be one of the band’s best-selling singles. And a decade later, it would play a part in changing the direction of popular music.
Side one of the original album closes with the boys' cover of the ‘50s jump blues standard ”Big Ten Inch Record.” It has an old feel, with horns, piano, and some boisterous guitar work.
Perry pulled out his talkbox for “Sweet Emotion,” the opening track on side two. And Tom Hamilton adapted an old bass riff that helped propel the song into the top 40 at a time when disco was beginning to rule the world. The remainder of the second side ran the gamut from the pre-Boston “No More No More” to the most Zeppelin-like Aerosmith would ever get with “Round and Round.”
And it would close with the epic “You See Me Crying”, complete with orchestral accompaniment. That finale pointed the direction forward toward the power ballads that made Aerosmith one of the biggest bands in the world in the 1990s.
First, they would go through a fall, brought on by exhaustion and substance abuse. A decade after Toys in the Attic, it seemed very likely that Aerosmith was on the verge of vanishing. Then, a popular rap group decided to use “Walk This Way” as the basis for a stab at crossover appeal. The new version of the old song helped launch Run-DMC into the stratosphere while simultaneously resurrecting one of the first and best American rock bands.
Is Toys their best album? Some fans prefer 1976’s Rocks. The undeniably infectious Pump is at the top of other lists. Toys in the Attic is always on the short list, though it may not be at the very top. But if you’re talking about the most important album in Aerosmith’s long career, Toys is number one.