by Stephen Davis and if you are an Aerosmith fan, you have to read it (You might remember me boasting that Stephen Davis wrote the best Guns N' Roses bio of all time). Even if you are only slightly an Aero fan, but enjoy rock, you need to read Walk This Way. The book originally came out in the late 1990s but that doesn't matter. The bulk of the book takes place way before that obviously. You can divide Aerosmith into two versions - Aerosmith 1.0 and 2.0. The first half of the career exists in the 70s to 85. Version 2.0 starts with the Permanent Vacation
album when the band started using outside writers. I am a bigger fan of Aerosmith 1.0. Try to find better 70s rocks songs than Mama Kin, Toys in the Attic, Walk this Way and Back in the Saddle are amazing rock songs. Strangely enough only available to buy on Amazon.com and not iTunes. I created this Amazon widget so you can hear five classic Aerosmith classics:You've probably heard of the bands dependency problems. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were called the Toxic Twins for a reason. The book goes way into depth about the bands depravity. Maybe more than you even care to know.
Since I missed most of the 70s, and not for the reasons that phrase normally goes with, I learned a lot about the band. For example, Aerosmith was the underdog from the beginning. The band's first album came out at the same time as Bruce Springsteen's. Both bands were on Columbia and all of the promotional money went to Bruce. The press hated the band, but the fans loved them. After reading the book, I think Steven Tyler has a man crush or one sided bromance with Joe Perry. Joe Perry was one of those guys who is so into a relationship that he could not focus on the outside world. Maybe that has changed now. Overall Aerosmith was a band that would not give up no matter how bad they had it.
If you are a fan, I suggest reading this book first, then going in for the supplemental information with Hit Hard by Aerosmith's Joey Kramer.
More book reviews here.
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