Lately I’ve found myself listening to a lot of old Aerosmith. I need to clarify here that I’m speaking of the 70′s era Aerosmith, since what constitutes “old” is subjective at this point. When I was coming of age, Aerosmith was in the midst of a highly successful 80′s comeback, with big hits like “Walk This Way” with RUN D.M.C., “Angel”, and “Janie’s Got A Gun”.

Those 80’s songs are all great, but the 70′s albums are still the gold standard, with classics like ‘Get Your Wings’, ‘Toys In The Attic’, and especially ‘Rocks’ from 1976.

‘Rocks’ in particular strongly influenced the coming 80′s decade. The most obvious example of this was Guns N’ Roses ‘Appetite For Destruction’. Guitarist Slash was a Joe Perry disciple.

Of course, the biggest song from the 70′s for Aerosmith was “Dream On”. That is an example of a song which simply never gets old, simultaneously timeless and perfectly representative of its time.

Sometimes I wish I had been born 10 years earlier, which would have made me old enough to see Aerosmith live in concert in the 70′s.  Nevertheless, the subsequent times I’ve seen them have been awesome, so I have no complaints.