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It’s hard to imagine a world without Aerosmith albums, but when their self-titled debut emerged in 1973 it was even harder to imagine they’d still be around half a century later. Ignored in the UK, it almost made the US Top 20, and as the Creem reviewer noted, it was “a full LP of screaming, metallic, creative, rock and roll”. It still is, of course, despite Adrian Barber - fresh from the Bee Gees and Aretha Franklin – stymying them on the production front, and a ludicrous blue skies and clouds cover that Poco would have found insufficiently manly.
Written mostly by Steven Tyler because the others weren’t bothered about writing, Aerosmith was a statement of intent. It’s still dwarfed by the wonderful Dream On – a setlist staple on their most recent dates in 2023 – which provided a template not just for Aerosmith's power ballads but for everyone’s.
It’s a slender treat, at just over 30 minutes, but this Legendary edition expands it to three CDs or five LPs. One CD is remastered into 21st-century pristineness, another is a Tyler and Joe Perry remix which inflates the flat production.
It’s the third disc that Aerosmith mavens will treasure. It’s partly a hometown show, the second of the two March 1973 nights they played at Paul’s Mall, the Boston venue of choice for Miles Davis, Bob Marley and Bruce Springsteen. Essentially, they were still a blues band, hence the covers of Jimmy Reed’s I Ain’t Got You and Tiny Bradshaw’s Train Kept A-Rollin’.
James Brown’s Mother Popcorn is given a stern talking to, and the remainder is album tracks, including Rufus Thomas’s Walkin’ The Dog, which Aerosmith were still playing occasionally in 2023. Bafflingly there’s no Dream On, though. They’re at one of the first tops of their game: raw, hungry and already road-honed by years of gigging.
There’s more: six extra tracks taken from the debut’s sessions. It’s not perfect: a sloppy Train Kept A’Rollin’ makes you yearn for Dr Beeching, and Harmonica Bass Jam Jelly is very much how you fear a track called Harmonica Bass Jam Jelly might sound, but there are two terrific goes at Make It, one spunky alternative take on Write Me, and six minutes of the mighty Joined At The Hip that includes snippets of what would become Sweet Emotion. They were on their way.
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