1 Minute Read (+ Several Hours of Listening)

Happy Hump Day and I am sending this from a too-early flight to Denver.  We are off to the Rocky Mountain summer wedding of our niece Nikki Vale to the engineering stud Baron Belgium, in Breckenridge, Colorado.  And yes, I do feel a micro Travel Guide coming on . . .

But until then, I was saddened by the news that Steven Tyler's throat condition is terminal, meaning that America's best band, Aerosmith, will not play live again.  A bummer, but what a run.

They started in 1970.  Their budding greatness is captured on a recently released demo tape, 1971:  The Road Starts Hear.

In many ways, I grew up with Aerosmith.  For one, the best man at my wedding, the unfortunately now-estranged Brooks Nazarian, was obsessed with them when we were kids; he even wore scarves like Tyler, FFS.  And for Aerosmith, hailing from Boston, Albany was practically their backyard. 

Indeed, they were fucking huge for my high school Class of 1981, despite their last real album during that period, Draw The Line, being almost 4 years old.  We played them constantly, and oh, how we'd all scream "Yes it did!" after the Sweet Emotion lyric, "You can't catch me because the rabbit done died."
 
Aerosmith, 5 January 1973

Get Your Wings, 15 March 1974

Toys in the Attic, 8 April 1975

Rocks, 3 May 1976

Draw the Line, 9 December 1977

While I had not seen Aerosmith live at this point, I vividly recall attending a Joe Perry Project show at Albany's legendary (and tiny) nightclub J.B. Scott's, during the early 80s break-up years.   

(It was quite a month for the Class of 1981:  We saw Rush on May 15,  Van Halen on May 17, and then that show above.  Who says Albany is a backwater?)

I can even remember listening to their reunion album, the substandard Done With Mirrors.  I was home from Boulder for Thanksgiving of 1985, shortly after it had been released. 

No, I am not going to link to that one or any others. 

That's because:  Why bother? 

That string of five studio albums - one each year from 1973 through 1977 - is unmatched by any other performer, and I include The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, or anyone else you care to name.  If you doubt me and as I not-so-gently said recently about The Beach Boys and Pet Sounds:

Listen and learn.  

And today, that's easy - see above - and even easier - see below.

So thank you, Tom Hamilton, Joey Kramer, Joe Perry, Steven Tyler, and Brad Whitford.  

Thank you, Aerosmith.

I would like to thank a long-time reader who paid for a subscription at my new home on Substack.  It was completely unnecessary and absolutely appreciated. 

But it begs the question:  Doesn't that mean I'm a professional writer now???

Thank you for reading this newsletter.  

What if there were an Aerosmith playlist curated by an obsessive?  One where the silly stuff they've released over the years is rightly ignored, yet their famous bad-assness shines through brightly?  And what if it had the cuts from Joe Perry's solo career that mattered?

No problem. 

Here are the best Aerosmith (and solo Perry) songs, 57 and 5 hours' worth, from the start of their career, through its end, or at least what I define as the end.