Aerosmith

Well! I don't think Aerosmith will be replacing Queen as my favourite band any time soon, but I still love their music (and now know which albums to avoid!), think Steven Tyler is amazing, and really enjoyed this biography (even if Joe Perry now claims that parts are fabricated).

One quote that sums up the band for me would be this from Joey Kramer: 'I wish someone had smacked us back then. But we were one of the biggest bands in the world. There was literally no one who could tell us show more anything.' I never really appreciated how big Aerosmith were in their heyday, or even how good their music actually was/is, dismissing them as a heavy rock band of the type that I wouldn't usually listen to. But they have an amazing variety of styles - a lot like Queen (just thought I'd throw them in there!)

The many, many pages dedicated to drugs are frustrating to read - although the famous anecdote about Steven not recognising his own song ('It's us, fuckhead!') still makes me laugh - as are the chapters about Steven's weird (and kinky) taste in women, and (ugh!) Joe and Elyssa, but this is the real band. Well, mostly. They rocketed to fame, based on actual talent instead of Simon Cowell and his like, then self-destructed. But they're still going strong, way past the 1997 publication date of this book, so I guess that just goes to show. show less

First of all, I must say that I lost this book some time ago :(

Walk This Way is the story of how five boys from Boston became one of the biggest bands in the world. Everything is there: from the very early and humble beginnings (way before 1971) to the big commercial breakthrough with Toys In The Attic in 1975, and how they had it all and literally blew it away. The struggle to get clean and how they finally made their first basically sober album, Permanent Vacation, was intense to the say show more the least. It resulted in one of the biggest comebacks in the history of music. show less

The highs and lows of America's greatest rock band. Five musicians who are sex, drugs and rock 'n roll incarnated....

Big Ones / Aerosmith

Walk on Water 4.0
Love in An Elevator 4.5
Rag Doll 4.5
What It Takes 4.5
Dude (Looks Like a Lady) 4.5
Janie's Got a Gun 4.5
Cryin' 4.5
Amazing 5.0
Blind Man 4.0
Deuces Are Wild 4.0
The Other Side 4.5
Crazy 4.5
Eat the Rich 3.5
Angel 5.0
Livin' on the Edge 4.5

Overall: 4.50 (4.40)

***January 23, 2024***