First of all thanks to Mr Books(Aaron) for sending Aerosmith’s Toys In The Attic to me this past Christmas on vinyl! When I thanked Aaron for the album he told me he checked out Mikey Ladano’s review of Toys and there I was spouting off in the comment section of Mike’s review!
I checked this site to see after 500 reviews if I had reviewed Toys and Nope I had not…
Well……
I was real late to the Toys In The Attic party. It was probably around 1983-84ish that I originally purchased Toys on cassette tape and it came with zero packaging. No pullout sleeve/No songwriting credits/No where was Toys recorded. Absolutely squat! In this case though it’s definitely an album where you will Let The Music Do The Talking!
From the get go opener of the title track Toys In the Attic just takes off with the whole band firing on all 4 Cylinders! Vocal Guru Steven Tyler really starts finding his groove as a clever lyricist on many of these tracks that are featured on this album and many Aero albums beyond! Steve-o as well was finding his voice as well and the Toys track encompasses what I love about Aerostoned! Big Ass power riffs/Drums steaming along and Tyler taking it to the next level.
Producer Jack Douglas brought out the coolest of sonics in Aerosmith. When I listen to this album today in 2018 the production of some of these albums you can just not replicate nowadays!
After the Aero Bar is set high with the opening number! Uncle Salty follows and Salty oozes rock cool especially the ending when Steven goes into that trippy dippy “Sunny day outside my window” verse at the end of the track. Love the Aerogroove!
Adams Apple is a friggin brilliant track with Steven writing and singing about Adam in Verse One and Eve in Verse Two with a guest appearance by Mr Snake!
even Eve in Eden
voices tried deceiving
with lies that showed the lady the way
at first she stopped turned and tried to walk away
man he was believer
lady was deceiver
so the story goes but you see
that snake was he
she just climbed right up his tree
Ha! Man this song reeks of AeroSex and I love the guitars of Joe Perry/Brad Whitford who keep the buzz rolling with the guitar work on this song and basically the whole damn album!
Ok! What am I going to say about Walk This Way that hasn’t been written about! Well for starters this must have been the High School Anthem for anyone going to school back in 75! Still to this day at some point we can all relate to the lyrics and what about the groove laid at the start by drummer Joey Kramer. Joey sets the table and the rest of the fella’s take over and rocket this song to the top as “She Told Me To…”
Ha! Big 10 Inch Record is the lone cover tune on this album and for a good time has more good ol Sexual Innuendo to please the mass of male testosterone running rampant nationwide back in 75. Basically a big band swing like song done with loud guitars and a loud harmonica courtesy of Steven!
When you mention the name Tom Hamilton in rock circles this opening Bass Riff that Tom slams down has to be associated with him. Sweet Emotion is pure brilliance that starts off Side 2 and don’t you just love how the chorus takes off into a huge wall of guitars mixed with Tyler’s lyrics of horniness all spewed throughout the place for the next Four Minutes and Thirty four Seconds!
No More No More is just a straight ahead Aero track that just rocks out with Tyler singing about life on the road that features a great verse/great chorus added for a treat is the wicked guitars courtesy of Perry/Whitford who at the end of the day make a real fantastic guitar duo don’t cha think?
Brad Whitford wrote Round and Round along with Tyler and its a huge ball of Sabbath like sludge riffs that crawls and limps along and shows that these guys can shift musical gears quicker than my pal Tbone slamming back an drink called the Irish Car Bomb. Aero proves that they are going to stick their necks out in the musical forest and take a sniff around and see what they can conjure up!
What do Toys/Rocks/ Night In The Ruts/Rock In A Hard Place/Done With Mirrors*/Pump/Get A Grip/Nine Lives all have in common?
Answer is on all these Aerosmith albums they end with a ballad! With Toys/Rocks/Rock In A Hard Place and Pump these are Aero albums done right as the all the tracks up till the last song of the album are rockers. This is the way I prefer albums. Don’t bore me man! Rock my socks off and place the big ballad track at the end. Lay down the Rock Law so to speak and on Toys the last song of the album You See Me Crying is a huge song complete with a strings and Tyler you can hear the torture or perhaps pain in his voice. Dude, dug dig on this track!
Toys is an all time Great Record which continued right into 1976’s Rocks which I also need to review….
How Many Times Did I Get Lost In The Attic?
Purchased on cassette(1983-84). Purchased on CD (1990). Received on vinyl as XMAS Gift from Mr Books(2017)
*-In regards to the last song being a ballad on the various Aero albums mentioned above. Done With Mirrors when I bought on vinyl (1985)ended with the slop like Aero Rocker called The Hop. Tbone purchased at the exact time as me Done With Mirrors on cassette which featured a bonus ballad track called Darkness.
I love this album and Rocks from Aerosmith!
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Two of the finest slabs of vinyl right there!
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Heck, yes!
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Nice one Mr. Sweet Emotion for me, every time!
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Thanks! You cannot go wrong with any these songs here no can ya fella!
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Is Lord of the Thighs on this one? (sorry feeling too lazy to go downstairs and grab my copy) – love that one too!
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Lord of the Thighs is on Get your Wings…..
I really like the live thingy they do with that song on Live Bootleg!
Esp when Tyler gets going on that “Twack a twack Do Do Ah…..Shit” part with the maracas! haha….
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Pretty flawless album I reckon. Cool one to have on vinyl!
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Great album. I remember my brothers had this one on vinyl and I loved listening to it. Oh the memories. I plan on grabbing this one when I amount vinyl hunting, but haven’t come across a good used one yet.
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Mr Books I believe scoured through a few before he settled on the one he sent me. Great surprise
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Confirmed. Lots of manky copies out there. This was the first I found that I felt was clean and a good gift for our Superdekes!
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Superdekes keepth forever!
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But not in the attic, though, right? 😉
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Aero for Deke and an impact album to boot! Wahoo! So glad you had fun getting lost in the attic again, brother! You said it all when you used the word ‘groove,’ man, this stuff’s amazing. And you’re right it’s tough to replicate these days! Merry Christmas! 🙂
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Merry Xmas indeed Dude!
Just love the look/feel/sound of it…just an absolute mother of an album and they were fried out! haha
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Haha for sure… I imagine there are chunks of time they don’t even remember…
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More like the whole back half of the 70’s into early 80’s is the time that Aero forgot but produced incredible music!
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Amazing, really, that they accomplished anything at all let alone greatness!
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Says something about doing Drugs! HAHA
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There’s a whole culture of folks who lack the ability to express their creativity and also to have the confidence to perform their creations without the drugs. Rock, Jazz, fine art, you name it. Can you imagine rock and roll if everyone was stone cold sober all the time? Some bands did it with the straight edge (Minor Threat!) but for many folks and for all the ages of history getting messed up is a gateway to where they needed to be to get done what they saw/heard in their minds.
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All acts would have been Stryper Like…
Stryper Jazz/Stryper Blues/Stryoer Country…
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I shudder to think…
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Special place in my heart for this album! I would’ve been about 12 when this came out and it was my 3rd “real” rock album I ever owned. Had been doing the 45’s top 40’s in my younger days but somewhere in ’74-’75 I purchased my first rock album, the Coop’s Welcome to my Nightmare! Once I had that there was no going back to those lame 45’s! Followed that purchase up by getting this one and Dressed to Kill by KISS, there was no looking back and my rock and roll journey was well on it’s way! Thanks for this site I have a good time reading about your concert/rock adventures which mirror mine a lot of times only I’m in Los Angeles and not Thunder Bay but if I don’t play up to Murray Chadwick’s expectations I might be sent there along with Youngblood!
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Scott,
Thanks for the kind words and compliments. I totally appreciate this kind of feedback as it makes what I think is a total ramble sometimes can find an audience! HAHA….
Also thanks for sharing your early memories of Coop/Aero/Kiss awesome stuff and real cool as music is the one memory that always lasts forever….
I’m sure its real nice in L.A today whereas in Tbay its going to -30 here tonight in Thunder Bay!
Thanks again…
dEKE
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I’m jealous you live in LA. Not just for your weather. Whenever I see an amazing one-off show, it’s always in LA. I would need 3 jobs to afford to go to all the shows if I lived there.
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Trust me, lot’s of cash spent on concerts here! And yes the one off’s can be fantastic! Best one in recent memory was the 2015 Dave Grohl birthday bash the Foo’s did with a bunch of guest stars, it was epic!
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I remember that …seeing clips is that the one where David Lee Roth showed up and was bald…haha
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Really enjoyed this post Deke – especially the talking music / lost in attic wordplay!
I gather there was a TBay band in the mid 80s that did a nice version of walk this way too!
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HAHA…well I would think we put the butchered version on Walk This Way!
Thanks for remembering that post…haha…still though High School friends playing ‘Cocaine’ at a Xmas assembly with actual snow outside was the show stealer for me! haha
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One of the greats. I’ve owned it in every format and if they invent another in the future I’ll buy it in that too. The trilogy of Toys, Rocks and Draw is a golden triangle of all that is great in heavy rock and roll.
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Awesome. Lots of Toys in your Attic so to speak! Thats real cool…..interesting and cool and that u include the Draw album as well….
That one has some great moments….Get It Up is a wicked number
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Draw The Line is a Phenomenal album. I always say you can hear the paranoia seeping through the grooves. I Wanna Know Why & Bright Light Fright are awesome tracks too
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Hah! I too have to check to see if I reviewed something already. Sometimes I think I have a GREAT idea for a review…and then I check…and I say, “I already said that exact same thing!” Happened more than once.
Anyway.
TOYS! TOYS! Toys in the attic!
Yes this album drips sex…it’s funky…it’s among their very best…and you’re right, it ended weirdly on a ballad!
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Speaking of which I started writing a review for Teenage Heads “Some Kinda Fun” album and got about 150 words in and than checked and sure enough I reviewed it back when we did the Ontario bands week…
hahaha…..big time DOH!
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Hah! Yeah see? Same deal! And sometimes I’ll be writing a story and realize I did write it already. So frustrating! No wonder so many bands just do reissues! LOL
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Great name for a Blog ‘Reissue to What Issue”
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No Dick Wagner or Steve Hunter (as great as they are/were) ghosting needed on this one. Killer album front to back.
That Irish Car Bomb sounds awesome. I wonder what it is. Baileys and Crème de Menthe???
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I’ll Tbone about the Irish Car Bomb…but that sounds right Bop…You drop the shot glass in the the big glass of Baileys and chug it down….one swoop no cheating!
Thats right no ghost solos on Toys. Great point!
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Great review, Deke. I’m of the opinion that this is as good as Aerosmith gets… perfect album. Start to finish it’s a killer.
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Nice! Seen Aerosmith a few times. While Toys is a great album, I’m still biased towards Rocks, which I think is their best. They opened with Rats in the Cellar last two times I saw them, which was killer. Here’s a crazy story about one of the times I saw them:
https://thestubcollection.wordpress.com/2016/01/24/aerosmith-12181984/
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