Walk This Way : The Autobiography of Aerosmith

Rating:
Summary: Aerosmith Comes Full Circle
Review: This book is for every Aerosmith fan, whether they are 15 years old or 55 years old. It is a truthful (and somewhat cautionary) look inside the life of the most talented of American Rock and Roll Bands. No holds barred here, as told straight from the people who lived it, the truth about what it was like as a young rock band in the age of Drugs, Sex and Rock and Roll. There is no sugar coating, Stephen Davis and Aerosmith take us from the earliest beginnings of Aerosmith, through the drug years, the break up and the reunion. This is a must read for any Aerosmith fan.

Rating:
Summary: ultimate fans-inside look
Review: Great book with reveiling thoughts on the history of the band members. I am a large fan. I appreciated their honesty about the hard times. This proves that life experience and adversity is interesting and motivating. They have to be very proud of their accompishments.

Rating:
Summary: Rags to riches to rags to riches tale of rock n' roll excess
Review: Love em' or hate em', Aerosmith deserves its' props. Walk This Way is a rags to riches to rags to riches tale of rock n' roll excess, and if you were alive in the 70's, their music was probably a part of the soundtrack to your life. The book is funny, brutally honest, pensive, and sad - sometimes all at once. Its anecdote-city as Stephen Tyler, Joe Perry and the boys lay it out - drug addiction, groupies, management & record company tales of woe (& triumph). It's an unlikely story really, especially the way the band has risen back to prominence in the 1990's. Are all of these stories true? Who cares? I read it all in one sitting on a Sunday and wished I had left some for the week ahead. Proceed immediately to the check out bin...

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Read, Wonderful Style
Review: Always wanted a backstage pass but could never get one? Here is your golden opportunity to get a behind the scenes look at America's #1 band of the 1970's. Written in a "script" style, the book covers the stories and events that shaped Aerosmith from its' roots to the present. With often conflicting stories from bandmembers, roadies, managers, wives, et.al., this is a don't miss opportunity to observe the over-the-top decadence of rock and roll in all it's filthy glory.

Rating:
Summary: This book will set you free...
Review: For an Aerosmith fan this book will do to you "something i can only describe as an epiphany", as steven describe listen to Rattlesnake shake by the jam-band at the barn before Aerosmith was made...
For all Aerosmith fan this book is like a bibble.At list it become my own private bibble and my favorite book of all time of course after i read it for the first time.
Everything is in here; from the childhood of the band-members to the years before Aerosnith and all the stories and secrets in Aerosmith until 1997 (The year this book published).
The stories of the songs,The work on the albums,The people close to the band.everything is here and if you're an Aero-fan,mark my words-You wont stop reading this book!.
So get it,read it,look at the fantastic old photos in the middle,and read it again & again & again until your dreams come true...
Let the music do the talkin' !

Rating:
Summary: Great rock n' roll autobiography
Review: Back in the 70's there was a guy named Joe Perry and a guy named Steven Tyler that eventually formed one of America's greatest rock n' roll bands to date. The most interesting thing to note is how the toxic twins originally met in Sunapee, New Jersey because Tyler wanted to comment to Perry on how good his fries were. This was the first interaction that inevitably formed Aerosmith. Walk This Way is an autobiographical history of the band from Boston including some of the craziest rock n' roll stories you've never heard. The book begins with the tale of the rehab in the 80's that was required to get Aerosmith back to the top of the music world. Tyler, who claims his bitterness to this day, was held an intervention by band members and managers, some of which were in just as bad a shape as he was. The book then goes back to childhood showing early musical influences of Tyler as well as early bands of all members including Chain Reaction and the Jam Band featuring Joe Perry and Tom Hamilton. Several issues follow through their entire career, including yoko-like girlfriends, greedy managers, and harder drugs. They also chronicle early reviews of the band, and lack of support from record labels. The band wasn't taken seriously, only being considered a Rolling Stones rip-off. The label would spend only $1 on Aerosmith for every $100 they spent on Bruce Springsteen. This is a must read for any Aerosmith fan or anyone who wants to be enthralled in tales of sex, drugs, and rock n' roll.

Rating:
Summary: The best rock autobiography around
Review: "We believed anything worth doing was worth overdoing." Those words are spoken from the famous mouth of the ever talkative, ever charismatic Steven Tyler, frontman of the East Coast rock band, Aerosmith. Indeed, that seems to be the underlying current of thought running through the pages of the recently released autobiography, Walk This Way.

Overindulgence is an understatement for these Boston Bad Boys. Why then, should their ever faithful "Blue Army" of fans be any different? Aerosmith is a potent drug themselves. They keep you wheedling for more, whether it be a dying thirst for their exciting, blues-influenced brand of rock, to the ache of withdrawal you feel when they're not breezing into your nearest town with one of their awesome live shows. Once you get hooked, you can't even pick up their massive autobiography and be able to put it down, even when going back for seconds.

Walk This Way is a surprising expose from five guys who knew the story best -- Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton, and Joey Kramer -- the guys who lived through it. To fill in the gaps of consciousness are wives, ex-wives, managers, roadies, friends, and peers from the entertainment field.

The journey of Walk This Way takes you back to Tallahassee, sort to speak. It starts where it should: from the beginning, from the childhood years of all five guys in the band, their family background, and their influences that helped pave the way for their musical direction. It portrays their struggles, their frustrations, their hopes and ambitions, and even their starry-eyed dreams. Even Steven Tyler, as a young lad, had his idols as he sat for hours in front of hotels to meet the members of The Rolling Stones -- much like his fans do today.

The journey called Aerosmith is one full of clouds, full of bumps, full of fights, full of brotherhood, full of triumph, and full of ideals and goals. The book takes you through the pages of history when Aerosmith got their first record deal with their self titled album, and through their second, Get Your Wings, as a band trying to make their mark in the rock and roll universe. It takes you through their countless determination in building a following by playing club after club, and being persistent. It takes you through their first big taste of success when their next two albums, Toys In The Attic and Rocks hit the public smack in the head. Suddenly they were somebody and success, money and fame walked right into their door.

Along with that fame and success came a slow destruction that was caused by the excesses of life: drugs, drinking, women, and endless touring and being on the road. The devil of drugs started to play puppet master with the band, causing what appeared to be a slow and imminent death of a band that had the chance to be destined for greatness. This cancer took hold when Draw The Line was made, and escalated during the making of Night In The Ruts. A wedge was finally driven between the two soul brothers of the band, Steven Tyler, and guitarist Joe Perry. Joe left in the middle of recording NITR. The fighting, the drugs, and the band members significant others, pried the band apart, leaving their fans wondering if rock and roll would ever be the same.

Joe Perry branched out on his own, forming the Joe Perry Project, and releasing two cult hit records, Let The Music Do The Talking and I've Got The Rock `N' Rolls Again. Aerosmith plunged on and started recording Rock In A Hard Place when Brad Whitford decided to leave the fold. The band continued to crash and burn, losing money, cars, their homes, and their relationships.

Aerosmith hit bottom and seemed to be continuing on their path of destruction when the members of the band seemed to get brought together again. Joe Perry and Brad Whitford returned, along with a new manager, Tim Collins. Trying to clean up their act, they recorded their next album, Done With Mirrors, which didn't make as much noise as it should have.

It wasn't until the release of Permanent Vacation and a commitment to a sober lifestyle by all parties involved that caused Aerosmith to rise from the ashes. They were back with a vengeance with the biggest album of their career, and continued thereafter to hit the concert trails and reach even higher numbers on the charts with the release of their next two albums, Pump and Get A Grip. There was a new Aerosmith on the rise, and they were going to steamroll anyone who got in their way. The born-again Boston Bad Boys were newly sober and loving life, and the world embraced them. The last chapter winds up at the present, with their current tour and release of Nine Lives, as they continue their successful jaunt.

This book is more than a book about the drugs and the women. It is more than a book about the fame, the money, and losing it all. It digs deeper than the tantrums, the in-fighting, the "business" part of the entertainment field, and the distrust. This book covers all of that, but it has a deeper message. The pain, the struggle, the love for music that brought these five very different personalities together like brothers, and the inspirations that drove them first to the top of the world, and then to the bottom of hell, then back up to an even higher plateau . . . all of that is here in black and white. It's a frank, honest, sometimes amusing, and sometimes painful story about how each member thinks and what makes each of them tick. It is written in such a way that their personalities burn through each page. It lets you peek in on their hopes and dreams. Most of all, it is a book about survival. Aerosmith survived when others didn't. While they indeed fell as many of their peers had, it wasn't a final fall for them, and they got back up. Today, they are still standing, while others didn't get a second chance once they fell. That, I believe, is the crux of what makes Aerosmith tick. Not many lived through what they have and still be around to tell their story. With a nod of thanks in having nine lives, these five men are still on their journey, meeting their destinations a little at a time, but never stopping too long to miss the train. May they continue down that road of magic called music for a long time to come, continuing to win the smiles of millions along the way who have felt some happiness because of them.

© Diane Trautweiler. Written November 22, 1997.

Rating:
Summary: hells bells
Review: It's so good, they shook me all night long. They were on the highway to hell and never coming back. You know, rock and roll ain't noise pollution. The drug days for them seemed all back in black and it was the end of a dream. One fine day, they would shoot to thrill and realize that it was all a bust. High voltage was no longer the name of the game. I have to say, dirty deeds done dirt cheap and for those about to rock, we salute you. Only their big balls could get them through. That just about says it all.

Rating:
Summary: This book will set you free...
Review: For an Aerosmith fan this book will do to you "something i can only describe as an epiphany", as Steven Tyler describe listen to the song Rattlesnake Shake by the jam-band at the barn before Aerosmith was made...
For all Aerosmith fan this book is like a Bible.At list it become my own private Bible and my favorite book of all time of course after i read it for the first time.
Everything is in here; from the childhood of the band-members to the years before Aerosnith and all the stories and secrets in Aerosmith until 1997 (The year this book published).
The stories of the songs,The work on the albums,The people close to the band.everything is here and if you're an Aero-fan,mark my words-You wont stop reading this book!.
So get it,read it,look at the fantastic old photos in the middle,and read it again & again & again until your dreams come true...
Let the music do the talkin' !