Review: Aerosmith Release ‘Legendary Expanded Edition’ Of Their Debut LP – Just For Die Hard Fans?

This weekend Aerosmith released a new box set focused on their 1973 debut album. And while I’m on record as a huge fan of debut albums in general, I have to admit to you that this set might be just for the Aerosmith die hard fans…and yes, I count myself as one of those.

We’ve been hearing that Aerosmith were going to start digging into their vaults since almost before they were forced into retirement in 2024. That was a blow to me as I’ve always loved Aerosmith, one of America’s great rock n roll bands. Or if I’m being accurate, one of America’s great blooze rock bands.

While I’ve been hoping for some vault stuff from Aerosmith this was not the box I was expecting. I know in 2021 they released a live album from their early days, 1971: The Road Starts Hear, that I somehow missed writing about. I heard they had a double disc of rarities and unreleased stuff percolating. This ain’t that. Oh well, like Cubs fans always used to say, maybe next year.

I’m one of the people who love the LP Aerosmith. Although oddly I didn’t pick it up until later in my rock n roll journey. The first Aerosmith album I bought was, believe it or not, the double live album Live Bootleg. That album is still their best live album to my ears.

I stood in the record store trying to choose between that live album or their classic 1980, single-LP hits compilation Aerosmith’s Greatest Hits…the red one. When I first met the Rock Chick, that was the only Aerosmith CD she owned. I was impressed, that’s a truly great greatest hits LP…if you will.

By the time I’d graduated from college I’d amassed quite a few of Aerosmith’s Columbia Records catalog, on vinyl of course. The real peak of Aerosmith… You know, the “old stuff.”  I was living in exile in Ft. Smith, Arkansas when they released Permanent Vacation. 

Listening to that album now, yes, it’s mired in that 80s-Hair metal-production but I still like that record. I think I was just happy Aerosmith was “back.” Especially since it was the original line up (who’d recorded Done With Mirrors prior) again: Steven Tyler (vocals), Joe Perry & Brad Whitford (guitars), Tom Hamilton (bass) and Joey Kramer (drums). Deep tracks “St. John” and “Hangman Jury” from the album took me back to those early Aerosmith albums.

Permanent Vacation sort of sent me into an Aerosmith renaissance. I quickly realized I had never picked up the debut or Get Your Wings. I quickly rectified that situation. I seem to remember wanting to make an Aerosmith-only mix tape on cassette for my long journeys away from Ft. Smith… which was every weekend. I built the mix tape loosely on, yes, the Live Bootleg track list. “Obsess much?”

I’m the first to admit that Aerosmith’s eponymous debut album is not perfect. Producer Adrian Barber didn’t do them any favors. Joe Perry has described the guitar sound on the album as “wimpy.” Steven Tyler, due to insecurity about his vocals, chose to sing in a Kermit the Frog/Patrick Mahomes type voice. I actually never thought the vocals were that bad.

The tracks most people are familiar with here are “Dream On,” the proto-power ballad, and “Mama Kin.” I think Tyler loved the latter song so much he tattoo’d it on his body somewhere. Guns N Roses of course later famously covered “Mama Kin.” Aerosmith were quickly dismissed after the debut came out as a “poor man’s version of the Stones.” It was clear they were heavily influenced by the Stones and Yardbirds here, and perhaps spiritually by Led Zeppelin. Not bad influences if you ask me.

But there is so much more to this record. My absolute favorite songs on the album – which rank amongst my favorite Aerosmith songs period – are “Moving Out” and “One-Way Street.” I didn’t realize until recently that Tyler wrote almost all the first album. “Moving Out” was the first track he ever wrote with guitarist Joe Perry. “Moving Out” is an atmospheric blast of blues rock. “One Way Street” grabs a groove and rides it all the way to the end of town. “How did my sunshine turn so shady…” Yeah, I’ve been there.

I always thought “Write Me A Letter” was a classic blues song, but no, it’s an original. They do cover “Walkin’ The Dog,” an old Rufus Thomas track, but I think they were more influenced by the Stones’ cover of it. Despite the production shortfalls there is a lot to love on this debut. It’s a bit like Zeppelin’s debut – not as good, of course – in that all the pieces of what we would come to know as Aerosmith and their sound are there. They were fully formed already. It just needed some proper tending. And that nasty attitude that comes across, oh yes!

The first two discs of this new box set are the original album, first in a 2024 remastered version and second in a 2024 remix. I have to admit, I’m not hearing anything here that would make me head to the used record store to sell my original vinyl copy. Or put my CD copy back into the Box Of Fire set. There’s nothing egregiously wrong here – unlike Terry Brown’s recent remix part of Grace Under Pressure(Super Deluxe) – but nothing that grabs me either. The remix version does sound larger to my ears.

The secret sauce here, as it always is for me, is the bonus material. The final disc is a combination of a live show, recorded for a radio broadcast from 1973 from Paul’s Mall and some stray bonus tracks.

That Paul’s Mall broadcast has been widely bootlegged over the years, but I actually never had it. You’ll likely recognize the tracks “I Ain’t Got You” and “Mother Popcorn” as they were included on the aforementioned Live Bootleg, on side 4… they did what the Stones did on Love You Live with some tracks from the club show from the El Mocambo. Always loved “I Ain’t Got You,” and the lyric “I got women to the right of me, I got women to the left of me, I got chicks all around me, but I ain’t got you…” Damn, I’ve been there too.

I had read that this live show is “bootleg quality.” It is rough, it certainly doesn’t sound like it’s got any studio tinkering. But listening to it, first in my car (always the supreme test) and then on headphones, I actually didn’t think the sound quality was that bad. I am used to bootlegs, though. The guitar does sometimes sound like they’re in the next room. Tyler sounds great. Over all it’s a pretty rockin’ performance and definitely worth a listen…or two.

The disc is fleshed out with the bonus tracks. There’s a great studio version of “Train Kept A Rollin'” that I’m stunned didn’t make the cut on the record. There a handful of “alternate” versions of tracks that did make the album. Of which, the one I thought was the most interesting was of “Write Me A Letter.”

There are also a couple of jams. “Harmonica Bass Jam Jelly” is a short, like a minute and a half instrumental. It’s a bit like some of the sketches that made their way onto Pandora’s Box. I guess the jams are designed to give you a peak into the “Aerosmith creative process.” The second jam, “Joined At The Hip – Aerojam” I suspect was from much later. They incorporate several riffs that became hits on later albums.

While I do love the live show and getting to finally hear all of it, I don’t feel that any of it is compelling enough to pick this one up. Although, at a price of just over $50 this box is reasonably priced. And for me, this certainly beats that Yungblud collab from last year… sigh.

Let’s hope this signals just the beginning of more Aerosmith vault material. I know they’ve got a lot of material from the latter part of their career in the vaults and a lot of it is really good Aerosmith. Fingers crossed!

Cheers!