Toys In The Attic – Aerosmith

Producer: Jack Douglas

Released: April 8, 1975

Rating: ****

In 1987 I was 13 years old and like many kids my age, I was quickly falling in love with Aerosmith due to their unlikely, yet extraordinary comeback album Permanent Vacation. Like a junkie, once I got that first hit I couldn’t wait for my next fix. While Permanent Vacation was an excellent album, it wasn’t enough. I quickly began collecting the band’s back catalog and this, the band’s third album, was the second that I added to my collection. Was I pleased? In a word, very.

This was the band’s second collaboration with producer Jack Douglas, but the results were much more satisfying than the band’s previous album, Get Your Wings. When I first heard Permanent Vacation I felt somewhat enlightened. Prior to this, I’d heard Run DMC’s cover of their classic tune, Walk This Way, but not much else. Because many of the bands I was currently listening to cited Boston’s Bad Boys as a major influence, I was that much more interested in exploring Aerosmith’s music. Permanent Vacation certainly had a bluesier edge than any albums the hair bands were churning out, but this was 1987. As bluesy as Permanent Vacation was, it was also very slickly produced thanks to Bruce Fairbairn. Naturally, as I began collecting the band’s older albums I was expecting more of the same of what I’d already heard.

I was blown away the first time I heard Toys In The Attic. If hearing Permanent Vacation left me feeling enlightened, after hearing Toys In The Attic, I was awakened. The bluesy sound was there, but with a much rawer energy. The frenetic album opener, Toys In The Attic literally punches you in the face. I’ve always felt that Get Your Wings failed to, well, take flight. The songs seem to drone on and on. When you first hear Toys In The Attic, it’s clear within seconds that the band raised the stakes and took their song writing to another level. The songs found on this album are a tad more concise and the arrangements are brilliant. In addition, this is the album where lead singer and front-man extraordinaire, Steven Tyler finally found his voice. That, or Jack Douglas finally figured out how to capture it in the studio. Either way, the Demon of Screamin sounds perfect.

Following the title track and album opener is perhaps my favorite Aerosmith tune of all time. Uncle Salty is one of many narrative style songs in the band’s catalog, but this one is amazing. The narrative itself is that of a young girl who is orphaned, abused and eventually turns to a life of prostitution. Only Tyler and Co. could take such seedy lyrical content and marry it with a hip swinging, boogie beat. The song is also an early example of Tyler’s unique, yet perfect sense of rhyme.

Adam’s Apple is up next, which within the context of this album is an average tune, yet I can’t imagine a band in 2011 releasing a song of this caliber. With its simple “trot up the fretboard lick”, Walk This Way is perhaps the band’s signature song. It’s hard not to like this song, but it’s also possible it suffers a bit from over exposure. Certainly not a bad thing to have your music “over enjoyed”, many band’s would count themselves lucky to have their songs celebrated for 35 years.Big Ten Inch Record is a light-hearted cover of an old R&B tune, but if you didn’t know better you’d swear Tyler penned this one himself.

The super trippy intro to Sweet Emotion gets the second half of the album started and is another one of my favorite Aerosmith tunes. I actually think this is a far better riff than Walk This Way. According to the band’s autobiography, Walk This Way, the lyrics to Sweet Emotion are about Joe Perry’s then girlfriend. Hardly flattering. The album continues on in fine fashion with the slightly ethereal No More No More and the harder driving, Round And Round. Closing out the album is one of the band’s best ballads, You See Me Crying. I’m not sure if it’s the orchestra or Tyler’s vocal performance, but there is something about this tune that most of the 90’s Aero-Supply ballads were lacking. About half-way through the song Tyler squeals out something nearly unintelligible, but stunning nonetheless, followed by a grandiose orchestral break and a spot-on perfect guitar solo.

When people speak in terms of 70’s “Classic Rock”, Aerosmith was very much a part of that scene and this is the album that catapulted them into the pantheon of rock super stardom. This is a brilliant piece of work that not only made a musical statement upon its initial release, but also sounds just as fresh over 35 years later.