GET YOUR WINGS THE ULTIMATE AEROSMITH ALBUM DESPITE SOME IMPERFECTIONS

GET YOUR WINGS is the best AEROSMITH album, better than TOYS IN THE ATTIC, better than ROCKS and better than later albums following the bands mid 80`s detoxification such as PERMANENT VACATION, PUMP and GET A GRIP. A big call to make considering that TOYS and ROCKS are considered to be the benchmark for american hard rock in the 70`s, the only thing that let GET YOUR WINGS down was its featherweight production, dynamics wise it was a warm up for the groundbreaking hard rock that was to follow on TOYS in '75 and ROCKS in '76, but it retained a lot more of the band's JAMES BROWN and Motown funk influence than these two more polished and arguably formulic albums. In particular what stands out on GET YOUR WINGS is the dry black soul styled drumming of JOEY KRAMER in a hard rock outfit, the more the 70`s wore on the less and less of this influence is evident on later releases. GET YOUR WINGS is not so much a hard rock album but a riff based album, with JOE PERRY laying down some great licks which positively puts anything the ROLLING STONES recorded in their entire career to shame. The one hit is actually one of the more formulic songs and isn't one of my favourites - SAME OLD SONG AND DANCE. LORD OF THE THIGHS is obviously not on the SOUND OF MUSIC soundtrack with a title like that, once it gets going it pumps man, SPACED is the album's epic, if this song would have made it onto TOYS with better production it would have ended up Aerosmith's definitive 70`s song (in my opinion). You find me two songs as good as SEASONS OF WITHER and PANDORAS BOX which close out GET YOUR WINGS on any post '82 Aerosmith album and i'll eat Mike Tyson's earlobe. That's how confident i am that you wont be able to. The best Aerosmith song of all time, hands down, also comes off GET YOUR WINGS, it's a cover of a YARDBIRDS tune actually, the band that briefly employed Zeppelin's Jimmy Page as a fill-in guitarist just before the Zeps formed in 1968, called TRAIN KEPT A ROLLIN'. It's a great party song, a great hard rock song, and not to mention innovative in terms of the intentional overdubbing which makes it sound as if the band recorded the song in front of a live studio audience.