Between Hunger and Debauchery - Toys in the Attic

Aerosmith is as much of an American institution as the Smithsonian (although that august body may not contain any exhibits of a greater age.) Toys in the Attic is one of the reasons why.

Throughout the 70s, they were America’s premier home-grown hard rock band, only matched for popularity by greasepaint goons Kiss. However, it wasn’t an easy ride. Reviled by critics, they were dismissed as second rate New York Dolls or Rolling Stones clones, largely thanks to Steven Tyler’s ample lips rather than their music. Their eponymous 1973 debut bombed outside of their Boston hometown and it was only some frantic wheeler dealing and a punishing touring schedule that allowed them the chance to make their second, Get Your Wings, in 1974.

Get Your Wings introduced the band to young producer Jack Douglas, who refined the raw r’n’b of their debut and tightened their arrangments. It was the start of a mutually beneficial relationship, which would reach a creative zenith over the next few years.

Drugs and booze were already an integral part of the Aerosmith lifestyle by the time of Toys in the Attic. However, the band was still sufficiently focussed to turn in its strongest collection of songs to date. From the breakneck thrash of the title track through to the orchestral bombast of the obligatory closing ballad (You See Me Crying), the album is riotous delight of bluesy rock and roll.

Unusually for hard rock bands, it provided Aerosmith with two hit singles. Walk This Way would introduce Aerosmith to a new audience when it was rerecorded with rappers Run DMC in 1986, but the original is far superior – a sassy, streetwise strut built around Joe Perry’s dynamite guitar riff and Tyler’s lascivious vocals, written on the stairwell wall of the Record Plant studios. Drummer Joey Kramer had learnt his trade playing with James Brown cover groups, and it shows.

The other stand out track, Sweet Emotion, builds on a haze of marimba and Tom Hamilton’s looping bass line, before launching into another classic Perry riff and finally expiring in a Yardbirds style freakout. A storming cover of Bull Moose Jackson’s Big Ten Inch Record, the lyrics of which left little to the imagination, served to remind listeners that Aerosmith was rooted in the blues. Presciently, No More No More cast a jaded eye over the rock and roll lifestyle which would eventually overtake the band.

Toys in the Attic’s immediate success allowed them to indulge themselves to the full. It quickly gave them their first gold record, boosting sales of their first two and placing them in rock’s premier league. Astonishingly, despite their excessive lifestyle, Toys was followed within a year with the equally classic Rocks. Subsequent albums, such as 1977’s Draw the Line, had their moments, but by then Tyler and Perry were spending more time chasing the dragon than seeking inspiration. By then, a new breed of hungry young metal acts, such as Van Halen, were poised to take their crown.

Aerosmith’s 80s comeback, minus the drugs, has been a truly remarkable tale of rock and roll redemption. In particular, 1989’s innuendo laden Pump (1989) was a stunning return to form. But, perfectly poised between hunger and debauchery, Toys in the Attic remains their finest hour.