Aerosmith had been performing since the early 1970s, playing pretty much all of the clubs of New England, when they finally broke through after the release of 1973’s “Dream On.” Following the moderate success of their first album, the party boys from Boston dropped another album, Get Your Wings (“Train Kept a Rollin’”). At last, after the massive commercial appeal of their third release, Toys In The Attic (“Sweet Emotion,” “Walk this Way”), Aerosmith was headlining and have remained on the music scene for over 30 years. Following Toys was going to be a challenge; and the booze, drugs, women and egos weren’t helping.

Aerosmith had made it. Now they had to prove it, again. Six weeks before the American Bicentennial, Aerosmith released their fourth album, Rocks. After dropping the needle, the album starts with “Back In The Saddle” and the underrated and slick guitar work of Joe Perry. Steven Tyler had the hard rock look, and voice, and although the band was somewhat estranged from each other, the musical chemistry worked. In fact, the original lineup is still intact. This record has classic hard rock roots with “Sick As A Dog” and “Lick And A Promise” and east coast blues with “Last Child” and “Get the Lead Out.”

As the album progresses, tracks like “Combination” and “Rats In The Cellar” make you wonder how (or why) they recorded “Dude Looks Like A Lady.” Aerosmith, now famous for their ballads, end the record with “Home Tonight,” a “road” song that was just the thing to end their live performances.

I definitely grade this album as Aerosmith’s best. Although Toys In The Attic is the preferred album, I choose Rocks, because it does just that. Aerosmith will be at Deer Creek, sorry, Verizon Wireless Music Center on Tuesday, June 8.

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