Aerosmith- Toys in the Attic- Steven Tyler, Brad Whitford

We dust off Toys in the Attic,  the breakthrough third album for Aerosmith in  April 1975. Toys in the Attic   was the foothold  to climbing the sales charts on their way to becoming America’s most popular and influential hard rock band. Containing perennial favorites “Walk This Way”,”Sweet Emotion”, the first anti-child abuse song “Uncle Salty”, the circular contagion of “No More, No More”, a swingin’ cover of Bullmoose Jackson’s bawdy “Big Ten Inch”, and the riff rock title song, Toys in the Attic   showed that my guests Steven Tyler, Brad Whitford, and Joey Kramer, along with bassist Tom Hamilton and lead guitarist Joe Perry, were not toying around.

( Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry with Steven Tyler, Dallas 2014 )

Contrary to what you might assume, through their first two albums Aerosmith struggled to get noticed. In this classic rock interview, Aerosmith drummer Joey Kramer reminded me that “Dream On” from their debut by then had been released as a single three times  and flopped twice. Sure, a few of us intrepid radio deejays played it  followed by several songs  on Get Your Wings   (my efforts were confirmed years later in the band’s autobiography Walk This Way  when Aerosmith noted that, outside of the Boston base, their next biggest crowds & sales circa 1973-74 were in Marion, Ohio), but Toys in the Attic changed all that in Spring 1975, eventually racking up over eight million copies sold and a ranking of #229 on Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 500 Albums of All Time list. –Redbeard