Aerosmith
Greatest Hits

THE REVIEW

Among the many collections released by Aerosmith, I chose to review what I consider to be the best one, namely the Greatest Hits that gathers the best from the Boston group, period 1973-1980.

Without a doubt, this collection contains tracks that have made hard rock history, it starts with "Dream On" and already chills run down the spine: just this song, with the scream-out-loud finale, is worth buying the CD, a simply stunning and romantic track (other than "Crazy"...); it continues with the riff that introduces us to "Same Old Song And Dance", and here it's literally impossible not to move to the rhythm of this captivating track supported also by a good horn section and Perry's Zeppelin-esque guitar. The third track is "Sweet Emotion" where the bass takes the lead accompanied by Perry's strumming (yet another great riff...) and a chorus that makes the walls shake. Another big riff and another capital-piece track: it's the turn of the famous "Walk This Way" and here words aren't needed: a piece of rock history encapsulated in 3 minutes and 32 seconds containing a risqué text... moving forward we find "Last Child", which apparently seems like a slow song, but 20 seconds in it takes shape, delivering a moment not very hard rock but appreciable; Steven Tyler's shouted finale ("I was the last child, just a punk in the streets") is one for the history books. The sixth track is "Back In The Saddle", accompanied by Mr. Tyler's hysterical singing, who repeats "I'm back in the saddle again" till exhaustion and showcases his singing talent: it's impossible not to sing along to this track's chorus. It's the turn of "Draw The Line" (needless to tell you what Aerosmith refers to when they talk about the line...), this is also a very hard rock and engaging track with good guitar parts. Next is "Kings & Queens", not a very fast track but it helps calm the waters after so much rock; the ninth track is the (very successful) cover of The Beatles' "Come Together", also on the Armageddon soundtrack. The tenth and last track of this best of is another cover, "Walking In The Sand", which closes this collection with a bit of melancholy.

The product is undoubtedly of great value but if this "best of" had included tracks like "Mama Kin" or "Train Kept A Rollin'", we would be facing a masterpiece. It's a shame, but it's still a great album.