Madness To Creation’s A-Z Throwback Reviews: Featuring 1977 Release of “Draw The Line” by Aerosmith

At this time, the excesses of the rock and roll lifestyle were starting to get the best of this band.  A fun fact for you, they had them stay in a 300 room place that used to be a convent in an effort for the band to get sobered up, that didn’t work obviously as Joe Perry recalled spending days in bed coming down from drugs and Steven Tyler doing the same thing.  In fact, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry only co-wrote three of the songs on “Draw The Line”, despite no top 40 hits, the album went on to sell more than two million copies in the United States alone, peaking at No. 11 on the Billboard 200.

The album starts off with that memorable guitar hook in “Draw The Line”, which was their main single off of this album.  However, while I enjoy the riffs and rhythm from this album, the mixing and Steven Tyler’s voice seems to be off on this record.  Tyler himself even said that during this time it was hard for him to get inspiration to write when the music wasn’t coming together.  While the track is solid, it’s like eating Grandma’s favorite recipe with a couple of missing ingredients, it still tastes good, but it doesn’t have that same organic taste that one would be used to from Grandma’s homecooking.

Overall, you can feel the tensions in the songs within the band in particular in the songs “Bright Light Fright” and “Critical Mass”.  It felt like when you give your two weeks notice to a boss and you can’t officially quit until you’re done with your work and it just has that “let’s get this song over with” type of vibe to it.  It just felt like the magic was sucked out of those two songs.

However, Aerosmith did return to their blues roots and experimental rock roots in several songs, such as their cover of “Milk Cow Blues” by Kokomo Arnold and a slide guitar was incorporated for “Get It Up”, which some have joked that it’s a track about sexual frustration.

Overall, there were parts to it that showcased their brilliance but it felt like something was missing.  “Draw The Line” by Aerosmith felt rushed it it felt like the band was unraveling at this point.  In comparison to their other records, I’d give this a 4.5 out of 10 stars, as only the title track and “Milk Cow Blues” were the only songs that Madness To Creation thoroughly enjoyed.

Here is the track listing:

1.  Draw The Line
2.  I Wanna Know Why
3.  Critical Mass
4.  Get It Up
5.  Bright Light Fright
6.  Kings And Queens
7.  The Hand That Feeds
8.  Sight For Sore Eyes
9.  Milk Cow Blues