Richard Bienstock

Aerosmith, 50th Anniversary Updated Edition: The Ultimate Illustrated History of the Bad Boys from Boston by Richard Bienstock (and a host of critics for sidebars) succeeds spectacularly with respect to two of the words in the title: illustrated and history.

I make the distinction because many beautifully produced coffee table type books are, as expected, heavy on the illustrations and visuals. And that is only rarely a true negative since that is what these books are usually purchased for. This book collects wonderful pictures of the group as well as a lot of memorabilia and equipment. Visually, the book is well worth having.

What sets this above so many books is that this is truly a history of the group. We start with them pre-Aerosmith and follow their many ups and downs. This is not a detailed history, there is not a lot of new information or deep analysis. Think of this as a nice single volume history that touches on just about everything but well short of the detailed history that tries to analyze and pick apart every little thing. The one area where there is more depth is in looking at the music itself, largely through a combination of the larger narrative and the album reviews written by various music critics/journalists.

If there is a weakness in the book it is in the journalists doing the album reviews. And even this weakness is largely the dynamic between a given reader and the different critics. For instance, I find Chuck Eddy to be among the most consistently annoying and, most of the time, way off base so-called journalists ever. His pompous style and inflated self ego combined with simply poor writing makes his reviews the absolute low points of the book. Unfortunately his drivel includes what is probably my favorite album, Rocks, so I just had to ignore his nonsense and accept that even morons still get writing jobs well after they have demonstrated their intellectual shortcomings.

That little annoyance aside, this is a wonderful book that fills any gaps for fans who lost track of the story at some point or came to the band late. And ignore any review that misuses the term "lip service." If the person can't even use that term correctly, are they really worth paying attention to?

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.… (plus d'informations)