Issue date: 9/6/01 Section: E-Zone

Up until “Toys in the Attic,” critics dismissed Aerosmith as imitators of the Rolling Stones.

Although the band always denied this, nobody listened until their third album solidified both their trademark blazing guitars and tongue-in-cheek sexuality. “Toys in the Attic” let the music do the talking.

Their self-titled debut and “Get Your Wings” both had true moments of brilliance, but neither was a great album on the whole. “Toys in the Attic” flowed through nine tracks of pure lock-up-your-daughters rock.

Steven Tyler explored his tongue-in-cheek sexuality on tracks like “Walk This Way “ (to which he wrote the lyrics after watching Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein”). With the line “You ain’t seen nothin’ till you’re down on the muffin, and you’re sure to be changing your ways,” he proved that snide is always better than overt.

But Tyler also deals with such issues as rock and roll excess (“No More, No More”) and child abuse (“Uncle Salty,” which dealt with the topic years before “Janie’s Got a Gun”).

“Toys in the Attic” not only spawned the commercial hits “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion,” but its title track and the Dr. Demento favorite “Big Ten Inch Record” always make an appearance at their concerts.

Although Tyler did not write “Big Ten Inch Record,” he may as well have. “She said quit your clownin’ and whip out your your big ten inch… record of the band who plays the blues,” only served to further Tyler’s sexuality.

The tracks not becoming radio or concert staples became hard-core fan favorites like Tom Hamilton’s dark masterpiece “Round and Round” and the piano-driven “You See Me Crying.”

In the beginning of their career, Aerosmith responded to their critics’ accusations of being Rolling Stones imitators by claiming they wanted to be Led Zeppelin.

Initially, the proof lied in the British-blues invasion influenced guitars of Joe Perry and Brad Whitford and the comparable lip-size of Steven Tyler to Mick Jagger. “Toys in the Attic” left only the lips.

The dirty twin-guitar attack of Perry and Whitford deviated from their prior Yardbirds-esque strum and solo to a more riff-oriented manner of song writing.

The psychedelic blues riffs on “Sweet Emotion” were so different from anything else at the time. The track helped sever the “‘n roll” from the “rock” and Aerosmith finally became Led Zeppelin II.

The band had dabbled with this driving style of rock on “Get Your Wings” with the Yardbirds’ “Train Kept A Rollin,” but “Sweet Emotion” pushed them to the next plateau. At the same time, however, the band did not limit themselves to only playing rock, as is evident with the R&B; influences found scattered about and the two piano-driven tracks.

“Toys in the Attic” turned Aerosmith from a Boston-area favorite into America’s band.

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