Rocks In The Attic #100: Aerosmith - ‘Toys In The Attic’ (1975)

It only seems apt that as I covered Aerosmith’s Rocks as the 50^th entry in this series, I would need to do Toys In The Attic as the 100^th, completing the name of the blog which took inspiration from these two albums.

So the story goes that not long after I was first exposed to Aerosmith - via an Aerosmith music video weekend on MTV - I went on holiday with my parents to Cornwall. I had, by this time, bought Pump on CD - in fact, I think I bought it the following weekend after that MTV weekend, from the Our Price that used to be next to Boots on Market Street in Manchester.

These, however, were the days before CD players in cars had become commonplace. I think we travelled down to Cornwall with a taped copy of Pump playing on the car stereo. When we landed in Newquay, the first thing we did after checking in at the Bed & Breakfast, was to walk down the road and pop into the little adjoining row of shops. In that row of shops was a second-hand record store, and in the row of tapes on the counter was a second-hand copy of Toys In The Attic. I snapped it up, and alongside Pump - which I’d probably played too much on the journey down - Toys In The Attic became the soundtrack to that holiday.

To me, Toys In The Attic and Rocks are very much like Rubber Soul and Revolver - two back-to-back albums with a very high watermark, and indistinguishable enough to be double albums in their own right - hence Rocks In The Attic as the name of this blog (or I guess to take the song from Rocks, the alternative to this would be calling it Toys In The Cellar).

Of the two, I believe Rocks is the better album, but I prefer Toys In The Attic. It’s a little looser, and has a bit more light; whereas Rocks is the shadier, more serious of the two. Rocks really doesn’t let up, and you can almost hear the cocaine on it. Toys on the other hand, sounds like it was only made with the assistance of a joint or 200.

I love this album so much, I have it on CD twice - one of those being the 1994 collector’s edition gold disc version from Sony’s Mastersound 20-Bit Super Bit Mapping Series; and I also have it on LP twice - one of those being a Japanese pressing with an Obi strip. I probably still have that worn-out copy on cassette that I picked up in Cornwall too.

Hit: Walk This Way

Hidden Gem: Big Ten Inch Record

Rocks In The Attic #74: Various Artists - ‘Air America (O.S.T.)’ (1990)

Of all the film soundtracks I have in my record collection, this is probably the film I’m least familiar with. I think I’ve only seen it once, and it doesn’t ever seem to be played on TV (well, not on New Zealand television at least).

I bought this as it has an Aerosmith song on it - a cover of The Doors’ Love me Two Times, presumably recorded during the Pump sessions.

The rest of the album isn’t bad - a random collection of pop rock mainly from the late sixties and early seventies. Aside from Do It Again by Steely Dan - which always sounds good - the real treasure on the album is Rescue Me - Fontella Bass’ 1965 single on Chess Records.

On a negative point, this album goes a long way to showcase how poorly made vinyl records were in the early 90s. On both sides, the run-in groove has been cut into the record incorrectly so that when you put the needle down it doesn’t actually run onto the first song - it’s just goes around in a circle without the songs starting. Idiots.

Hit: California Dreamin’ - The Mamas & The Papas

Hidden Gem: Rescue Me - Fontella Bass