After spending millions on drink & drugs and blowing the rest of their money, here's a fitting retrospective of their career. Duck tells us all about it.

The Lowdown: America's greatest rock'n'roll band finally release a career spanning best of.

Last year Aerosmith, those hard living, Jack drinking, drug swilling, therapy loving Bostonian stadium rock legends reached the milestone of 30 years in the business. What better time for the band to release a double CD best of (or singles collection, depending on how you look at it). The album, not surprisingly, leans much more towards Aerosmith's post clean up, post John Kalodner 80s and 90s second coming than their dirty, drunk and sleazy first incarnation of the 70s. 20 tracks from the 80s and 90s, only 10 from the bands early days.

The material runs in chronological order, the first disc opening with the classic "Mama Kin", quickly followed by the even more classic "Dream On". A track that could stake a claim as Aerosmith's most popular even though it was recorded for their self-titled first album in 1973. In fact if enduring proof of the songs longevity was ever needed, then Eminem using it as the chorus to his recent hit "Sing for the Moment" is proof enough. The band's first classic album was their third release "Toys in the Attic" and three of its tracks are here. It's in these songs, such as the original version of "Walk this way" and the gritty groove of "Sweet Emotion" that you can first really hear that distinctive sassy Aerosmith sound. My personal early period favourites are the two songs from 1976's brilliant "Rocks" album - the cool razor sharp "Last Child" and still live favourite "Back in the Saddle". The confidence and assurance shown here both musically and vocally portray a group of musicians right at the top of their game. Little did the band know how wrong it was all about to go.

One song, the title track, from the following album "Draw the Line", and a great number too. Then, for ten years nothing. The next track is smash hit "Dude looks like a lady", from 1987's "Permanent Vacation". So what happened in between? Well drugs and wives got in the way, the usual Spinal Tap stuff. Aerosmith didn't break up, in fact they made three studio albums during the ten years not represented, one of them without lead guitarist and co-writer Joe Perry. They were patchy but still contained some diamonds and at least a couple of songs could have been included in place of a few of the latter day identikit ballads.

So now we've moved on to Aerosmith's second life, and the songs that will mean most to a European audience, as they didn't register there until Run DMC's version of "Walk this way" hit in the mid-eighties. And the question always asked is which Aerosmith is better; the 70s band fuelled on drink, drugs and the first flushes of fame, or the MTV friendly stadium rock band that they became after the wilderness years? Well, I don't mean to upset the purists, but I have to say the second FM radio version. Why? Because if you listen and dig through the obvious singles ballads you'll find that for every cheesy "Angel" there is a "Rag doll", for every "Amazing" there's a "Janie's got a Gun". Get the point? Spread over the end of the first disc and the whole of the second is Aerosmith's platinum output, and there are some unbelievable gems buried in there. Song's like "Livin' on the edge", or "Love in an Elevator" with its extended blues jam mid-section. Both these songs were huge hit singles but that doesn't mean they are necessarily overtly commercial. They are purely and simply great rock songs that surpass anything from the bands early output. And then there is the recent material, both "Pink" and "Jaded" showing the band maturing as songwriters without losing their sense of fun.

A well put together collection then and for the uninitiated a great introduction to Aerosmith. So maybe a few long term fans may have wanted a handful of songs from the late 70s/early 80s period in place of one or two of the big ballads, but hey! You can't have everything. And you know listening back now, some of those ballads kicked ass!

Further Listening: Aerosmith "Toys in the Attic", "Pump".

Contact Duck with any comments