Their third album, Toys In The Attic, had changed everything for Aerosmith in 1975, going Gold and rising to No. 11 in the Billboard chart. In 1976, with the follow-up, Rocks, the band would take things to yet another level.
While the Toys album has subsequently outsold it two to one, notching up eight million sales thanks in a large part to it containing Sweet Emotion and Walk This Way, Rocks actually charted higher, peaking at No.3, and highlighted a year when the band had five hit singles.
With hindsight, the albums used the same template and play like twins. Rocks, though, is lyrically darker and musically heavier. Its songs chronicle the band’s growing stature as a touring act as well as an unhealthy level of drug abuse.
After years when critics regularly lambasted the Boston five-piece as the poor man’s Rolling Stones, influential US music magazines Rolling Stone and Creem finally began showering Aerosmith with compliments. The audiences (dubbed The Blue Army by the band due to the prevalence of denim in the arenas they were playing) grew exponentially and started behaving almost as outrageously as their heroes – boozing, popping pills and throwing firecrackers.
Aerosmith had always liked but to drink but, during the nine-month, 99-date Toys In The Attic tour (which never left the North American continent), cocaine was everywhere – thanks often
