CoronaVinyl Day 115 (RS Greatest Albums 201-250): Toys in the Attic by Aerosmith

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Today, we are looking at albums ranked between 201 and 250 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time.  Aerosmith's iconic 1975 album Toys in the Attic is ranked #229 on the list.

Aerosmith is one of those bands that you sometimes forget about, but I'd say they're probably one of the top five to ten American rock bands of all-time. They were on top of the rock world for much of the '70s, and their third album, Toys in the Attic, is rightly revered by many as their best album.

After decent success with their first two albums, their 1973 self-titled debut (which reached #21 on the Billboard album chart) and 1974's Get Your Wings (which stalled at #74), the band crushed it with Toys in the Attic, buoyed by a couple years of touring, where then band became tighter.  While the album didn't crack the Top 10 on the Billboard album chart -- it reached #11 -- it has gone 8x platinum in the U.S., making it their best-selling studio album ever.  It also featured the band's first two Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with two songs that have become two of their signatures:  "Sweet Emotion" (#36) and "Walk This Way" (#10).

But the album is so much more than those two hits.  Simply put, it rocks.  Other than their cover of Bullmoose Jackson's innuendo-soaked 1952 R&B song "Big Ten Inch Record" and the final track, "You See Me Crying," which is kind of a power ballad, the other seven songs on the album are pretty straightforward rockers.  On Side 1, the title track starts the album off with a frenetic bang, and the snarling "Uncle Salty" and "Adam's Apple" complement "Walk This Way" and "Big Ten Inch Record."  On Side 2, "Sweet Emotion" kicks things off, and then two hidden gems -- "No More No More" and "Round and Round" -- keep up the energy, before "You See Me Crying" ends the album on a comedown.

Steven Tyler has such a perfect rock voice. It's slightly gravely, and he has that enviable ability to scream and wail while maintaining control. Joe Perry and Brad Whitford really shine on this album (not that they don't shine on others), with some fantastic riffs and great solos, and the rhythm section of Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer are hitting on all cylinders too.  This is a band hitting its stride, which they would keep up for the next five years or so, before drugs, booze, and in-fighting finally took its toll on their music, until they came back in 1986 with authority with their now-legendary collaboration with Run D.M.C. on the reworking of "Walk This Way," and then in 1987 with their comeback album Permanent Vacation.  But it's Toys in the Attic that established them as one of the best rock bands in the world, and it's easy to see why this album was such an influence on the next generation of hard rockers.  It's definitely one of those albums that should be in every rock and roll fan's music collection.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Walk This Way"

Is there a better riff in rock history? I'm not sure, but "Walk This Way" has a pretty legit claim that it holds that title. The lyrics -- which Steven Tyler hastily penned at the Record Plant when the band was recording the album -- describe an awkward kid losing his virginity, which is something we can all relate to (or at least those of us dudes who awkwardly lost their virginity, which I assume is everyone). Of course, the aforementioned collaboration with Run D.M.C. on a rap/rock reworking of this song is what resurrected Aerosmith's career. It's hard to say which version is better. They're both pretty awesome. VH1 named the original the #8 best hard rock song of all-time.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "No More No More"
This is one of my favorite Aerosmith songs.  For some reason, you rarely, if ever, hear on the radio, which I think that's a damn shame, but then again, I suppose you can't play every Aerosmith song regularly, or else your entire radio station would be devoted to Aerosmith.  "No More No More" is a great rock song lamenting life and temptation on the road as a rock star.  Joe Perry has a nice little solo near the end of the song, and Steven Tyler's vocals are perfectly strained, as they often are.  Maybe it's just me, but when I hear this song, I can hear a lot of hair band songs from ten years later, especially by bands who employed that kind of honky tonk hair metal, like Cinderella and Great White.