Aerosmith Fan Club

Amazon.com
Few comebacks in rock and roll history have been as amazing as that of Aerosmith. Their triumphant return to the charts in the ’80s not only rekindled the band’s earlier success, but also significantly surpassed it. With their top 20 hits “Dude (Looks Like a Lady),” “Ragdoll,” and the top 10 power ballad, “Angel,” the group proved they had even more fire left in their fight than anyone could have imagined. Leaving behind its reckless lifestyle, the band sacrificed none of their rowdy rock and roll. “Ragdoll” and “Love in an Elevator” built upon Aerosmith’s raunchy blues approach to hard rock, complete with singer Steven Tyler’s howl in the best form of his career. Big Ones includes these rockers along with the spooky Grammy-winner “Jamie’s Got a Gun,” and the slower but still hard-edged “Crazy.” Other high points of the new and improved band are reflected in “The Other Side” and the anthem “Eat the Rich.” –Steve Gdula

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20 of their best for the beginning player, including: Amazing (It’s Amazing) * Angel * Back In The Saddle * Blind Man * Crazy * Cryin’ * Draw The Line * Dream On * Dude (Looks Like A Lady) * Janie’s Got A Gun * Kings & Queens * Last Child * Livin’ On The Edge * Love In An Elevator * Rag Doll * Same Old Song And Dance * Sweet Emotion * Walk On Water * Walk This Way * What It Takes

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Amazon.com Review
From Aerosmith’s heyday in the late 1970s, which they spent “gacked to the nines” (as lead singer Steven Tyler puts it), to the Aerosmith of today–clean, sober, and adored by millions–the band has a long, hard history. Walk This Way chronicles the whole story: drugs, booze, and all. Prefaced with the now familiar rock-star “intervention,” when Steven Tyler’s loved ones cornered him in his manager’s office in 1986, the autobiography traces Aerosmith’s twisted road, from their New Hampshire roots to their success in Boston to the worldwide fame that they long craved and currently enjoy. Tyler kicks off this rock & roll exposé, briefly recounting the history of his ancestors in Italy and sharing incidents from his own Northeast childhood. The book is written in interview style, with all five band members talking candidly about the good times–and the bad. We also hear from girlfriends, wives, friends, and various hangers-on. The story of Aerosmith (more…)

Amazon.com
While not their strongest recording, Aerosmith’s self-titled debut gave a taste of the musical path that the band, and much of the rest of hard rock, was to follow for the rest of the 1970s and well into the 1980s. Although the awkward social commentary of “Movin’ Out” and the swinging cover of Rufus Thomas’s “Walking the Dog” have largely been forgotten, two standards emerged from Aerosmith: “Dream On,” a prototypical power ballad with its keyboards and string arrangement, and “Mama Kin,” which contains one of the most recognizable riffs in hard-rock history. Though Aerosmith would record better albums–both before and after their drug-induced implosion–their debut serves as a kind of road map to much of post-’60s rock & roll. –Genevieve Williams

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Amazon.com essential recording
Originally released in 1975, this was Aerosmith’s breakout recording. Listeners only familiar with their more recent, post-comeback material may be surprised; like their other albums from the 1970s, Toys has a strong blues inflection, as indicated by their cover of “Big Ten Inch Record,” which also shows that Aerosmith has never lacked raunchiness or innuendo. There’s also the original (pre-Run-D.M.C.) version of “Walk This Way,” and the classic “Sweet Emotion.” This is classic Aerosmith at its gritty, streetwise best; they may have been derivative, but it really doesn’t matter, then or now: it’s all in good fun. –Genevieve Williams

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