Tag: Toys in the Attic

My Sunday Song – “Sweet Emotion” by Aerosmith

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For My Sunday Song #310 and the final in the 10 Song Aerosmith set, we will discuss my all time favorite track, “Sweet Emotion”. The song is another off ‘Toys in the Attic’ and was the first single off the album. It kicks off side two of the album and actually went all the way to #36 just cracking the Billboard Top 40 song chart.

The song is supposedly about Joe Perry’s ex-wife and the riff she caused in the band. I guess she was the Yoko of the band as they did eventually part ways briefly with Joe Perry (he came back after his marriage ended). Steven blasts her for “Talking about things that nobody cares/ wearing things that nobody wears”. And how she was on the side of the stage just shaking her ass for Joe and he was soon eating form her hand. No, no tensions there! The song also is about the infighting in the band as not only were the wives getting in the way, but so were the drugs and egos.

Another Tom Hamilton and Steven Tyler penned track which explains that killer bass opening to the song. Damn Tom is on fire with this one. That bass line is so hauntingly cool and then throw in Perry on the Talk Box and you have a memorable, killer opening. And that vibraslap you hear in the opening, actually broke on their third take from what I’ve read. Tyler’s vocals are pristine and no one can deliver a lyric like him. Perry’s guitar playing is on fire just like the pants in the lyrics. Kramer lays down a great rat-tat-tat right before Perry’s solo and his fills throughout are over the top as he is playing on the twos and fours rather than than ones and threes of the beats which totally blew producer Jack Douglas away. The band shows a more sophisticated side to their writing and they deliver one of my all time favorite Aerosmith tracks. It is a freaking masterpiece.

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My Sunday Song – “Toys in the Attic” by Aerosmith

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For My Sunday Song #309, we are working through “Toys in the Attic” by Aerosmith which is off their 1975 album of the same name. It is the lead off track, but was not a single. Instead it was the B-Side to the single “You See Me Crying”. The album was their third studio album and is one of their biggest selling albums with over 9 million sold as it chock full of Classic Aerosmith tracks including this one.

The song was written by Joe Perry & Steven Tyler and the phrase “Toys in the Attic” is a euphemism for insanity and that is what the song is all about. It talks of a guy that is hearing voices and seeing things yet nothing is real. He is losing his mind and we get to watch it happen in all its glory.

“Toys In the Attic” is rich with the guitar riffs of Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton’s bass groove will get the juices flowing. It is fast-paced, a bluesy and gritty rocker that is almost punk, but so not at the same time. It is a fun-filled pack of goodness and the band just explodes. Steven Tyler’s vocals are on edge, tilting towards the edge of insanity and fits with the them of the song perfectly. You have to listen to the bass as it is front & center and some of Tom’s best work. Really brilliant!!

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Aerosmith – The Albums Ranked From Worst to First (The Aerosmith Collection Series)

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Aerosmith…one of the greatest American Rock & Roll Bands. From the early 70’s the band has delivered, solid, good time, bluesy rock & roll. With 15 Studio albums, numerous live albums and compilations, they are a beloved American Icon. From the rough and raw days of the early Boston Bar band to the well-polished Stadium filled rock & roll band, they are as American apple pie.

Now the band has had issues, but for a majority of the career it has been Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer. Yes, some members went away for awhile, but the magic was always these five original guys. Alone, they are not the same…together they are magic. To celebrate this band, I went through all the albums in my collection (which was around 28 posts) and now we are going to rank their studio albums from Worst to First. So sit back, relax and get ready to be rocked like only Aerosmith can do it.

THE WORST – ‘MUSIC FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION (2012):

This album is so bloated with 16 tracks and at around 68 minutes and that is before the 3 bonus tracks on the 2nd disc which we will get to soon.  First off, yes, the packaging is better than the album.  The album does nothing for me but reinforce how tired I am of anything of Aerosmith’s past ‘Done With Mirrors’.  This series has reenforced that for me…big time.  Although I could pull out ‘Honkin’ on Bobo’.  The album is too much of everything and not enough of Aerosmith if that makes sense.  If this ends up being the last studio album, it is a shame. My Overall Score is 2.0 out of 5.0 Stars.  I didn’t enjoy this one and it didn’t get better with each listen. Sorry.

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Aerosmith – ‘Pandora’s Box’ (1991) – Album Review (The Aerosmith Collection Series)

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Columbia Records was taking full advantage of the band’s new found popularity on Geffen Records. Even though they lost the band to another label, they still could release Aerosmith material for everything they had rights to and that was quite a bit. They kicked off with two live releases ‘Classics Live!’ and ‘Classics Live! II’ as well as compilation called ‘Gems’. The cool things about those releases is there were no repeats from old live albums or greatest hits collection. It made it enticing for collectors. And this was no different. Released on November 19, 1991, this was a 3 CD compilation full of the bands greatest hits (while under Columbia) with a ton of previously unreleased material. That alone makes this worth getting. There are 31 previously released cuts and 21 unreleased consisting of live, alternative mixes and pure rarities.

I am lucky enough to have the long box version and it really is a box. It contains a book plus 3 CDs all in jewel cases with artwork. If you picked up a later version, the long box was replaced with a cardboard sleeve and the book was shrunk down to CD case size. The set I have is the one you want…in my opinion at least. The box set did real well going to #45 on the Billboard Charts and it was eventually certified Platinum on August 16, 1996. If I’m not mistaken, since the set includes 3 CDs, they only had to sell 333,334 copies to reach the 1 million sold platinum status. Someday, I might go song by song, but for now I am sticking to an overview of each disc and what I like about it each one. So let us get to it.

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Aerosmith – ‘Classics Live! II’ (1987) – Album Review (The Aerosmith Collection Series)

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As we mentioned in the prior post on ‘Classics Live!’, the band Aerosmith had reunited with Brad Whitford and Joe Perry and went out on tour to celebrate the reunion. That tour was the Back in the Saddle Tour. The band had been on Columbia Records, but jumped ship and signed with Geffen Records in hopes of getting back in the good graces of the buying public. They planned out and released their comeback album ‘Done With Mirrors’ with little fanfare at least that was until they were on the Run DMC cover of their song “Walk This Way”. That combination of Hip Hop and Rock joining together and being celebrated so much on MTV brought them back in to the limelight.

This new found fame was great for Columbia Records because the bands new deal with Geffen still allowed Columbia to release material they owned of the band, which was a lot. Columbia took full advantage of this opportunity and the first release was a live compilation called ‘Classics Live!’ in April 1986. This time around in June 1987, a little over a year later, Columbia released ‘Classics Live! II’.

This time around the album is mostly one show which was the New Year’s Eve show at Orpheum Theatre, Boston, Massachusetts, December 31, 1984. It had all five original members back in action. There are two additional songs from other shows, but like the other songs, it is the full gang back together. Nice thing is there are no repeats songs from ‘Classics Live!’ and four of the song titles were not on ‘Live! Bootleg’. There are just 8 songs like before so it isn’t a full show. It is purely a money grab by Columbia, but as a collector, I don’t care. I’ll take it. Plus, it would be 11 years before we get another live album from the band which we will get to eventually.

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Run DMC – “Walk This Way” – 12″ Single (The Aerosmith Collection Series – Bonus Edition)

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After ‘Done With Mirrors’, the band was not in a good place with fans, the label and themselves. The drugs use was real bad and it was time to sober up. First Steven got sober and then the rest of the band did and by 1986 they were ready for the next big thing. They needed a break. Something to get them back in the public eye. And it came in the most unexpected way.

The big break for Aerosmith came about because of Rick Rubin. Rick was working with Run DMC on their 1986 hit album, “Raising Hell”. Rick pulled out ‘Toys in the Attic’ and told Run DMC they should cover ‘Walk This Way’. Not a crazy thought as the band had free-styled over part of the song in their live shows anyway. They weren’t too keen on the idea at first, but Jam Master Jay was digging it.

But Run DMC wasn’t going to just sample the album. Why not get the band to come in and play and sing. So, a few calls were made, the band was convinced and Joe Perry and Steven Tyler went in to the studio to help out on the song. Joe played that famous riff and Steven sang the chorus and they even changed one line from “Give me a Kiss” to “Give me Head”…okay! Not what I was expecting.

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Aerosmith – ‘Toys in the Attic’ (1975 ) – Album Review (The Aerosmith Collection Series)

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After a very long tour in support of their album, “Get Your Wings”, the band was tight and playing better than ever. They were ready to jump back in the studio and bring producer Jack Douglas back with them. This time around though would be different. Their first two albums used up all the songs they had been playing for years. Aerosmith now had to write a whole album from scratch. As a result, they would create an album that was spawned from a new level of confidence with the band and a more polished understanding of how to write songs. The album they created, ‘Toys in the Attic’, would take the band to a whole new level of stardom. The album would go on to sell more than 8 million copies and be one of their most commercially successful albums of all time.

‘Toys in the Attic’ was released on April 8, 1975 and was recorded at the Record Plant in New York City from January to March of that year. It would go as high as #11 on the Billboard Charts and deliver not one, but two Top 40 hits with one going all the way to #10 as well. The success of this album also saw the band’s first two albums get a renewed interest and so they would re-release the single “Dream On” in from the debut seeing it go to #6 on the charts. Yes, ‘Toys in the Attic’, finally saw Aerosmith get what they had been working so hard for over the years. Fame, Fortune and Drugs…lots and lots of drugs.

As you can see from the pictures, my copy of the album is well loved.

The band was still the same old song and dance of members with Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Tom Hamilton, Brad Whitford and Joey Kramer. Everyone had at least one writing credit on the album except for Joey. Tyler had them on all of the songs except for the cover song they do. The band was on fire, but so were things behind the scenes, especially with the band members wives who didn’t all get along and would be a driving force behind a lot of the band’s battles and problems over the years…well that and drugs…did I mention drugs? These boys could not get enough of the stuff. That would soon become a problem, but not so much now.

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Run DMC & Aerosmith – “Walk This Way” (12″ Single)

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I came across this 12″ Single in someone’s collection I was buying and I knew I had to have it.  I am rocker at heart, but this hip hop version of a classic Aerosmith song is quite groundbreaking and I knew I needed it in my collection.  Mainly, because it adds to my Aerosmith collection as I don’t really have a Run DMC collection (until now I guess).

“Walk This Way” was released back in 1975 (and re-released in 1976) and reached #10 on the Billboard charts.  The song is off the band’s album “Toys in the Attic” (great album by the way, but that is for another day) and it is that producer Rick Rubin pulled out and played for Run DMC while they were recording their album “Raising Hell” back in 1986.  The band had sampled the song before, but didn’t know the song.  Rick suggested the band cover the song, but the band was not too keen on the idea except for Jam Master Jay.

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The band recorded the song and even were able to get Steven Tyler to sing and Joe Perry to actually play on the track.  I said earlier it was a groundbreaking song and that was because it was really the first big hip hop & rock collaboration that crossed-over into the hip hop world and to the rock & pop world.  The song helped take hip hop and rap mainstream.

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