from the LP Toys in the Attic, Columbia Records, 1975
Reusing a Victorian-era metaphor about dementia to suit their own drug-addled mindstates was a perfect and seamless choice, making sense to Aerosmith’s core audience, kids who were doing the same drugs the band was---namely, uppers & downers. Any experienced pillhead can tell you, the roller coaster of mixing speed with good sedatives (mmmm, sedatives…) can be one wild ride, sometimes leaving the user “down the rabbit hole” for days, as it were; to be honest, excepting for ketamine (obviously), I’ve never lost more days in a row than I have under the influence of barbiturates and/or meth…those were harrowing days indeed…but I digress. Steven Tyler has often recounted how those scarves wrapped around his mic stands in the ‘70s had practical, as well as aesthetic, uses: the band’s seamstress sewed pockets in them where Tyler kept his stash, black beauties (pharmaceutical grade amphetamine) for when he needed a boost, and reds (Seconal) if things required a slow down. By the sound of this track, the boys were opting for the black & white caps that day, exiting the atmosphere in record time, “…leaving the things that are real behind, leaving the things that you love from mind, all of the things that you learned from fears, nothing is left for the years…” I heard that Tyler is off the wagon---perhaps they’ll start putting out some interesting music again…
