"Big Ten Inch Record," "Round and Round" & "You See Me Crying"

Here are three tracks from the same album that could hardly be more different if they came from different bands. "Big Ten Inch Record" is a cheeky old blues song that lends the album an intimate juke-joint feel, but doesn't seem tacky or kitschy: it's a real piece of the show.

But so is the extreme metal (for 1975) of "Round and Round," one of those rare occasions where the guitars completely overwhelm all the other instruments, with that clinical, mechanical, nonstop cycling riff that just keeps spiraling onward and onward. It's a good demonstration of the difference between Joe Perry (who writes riffs like "Walk this Way") and Brad Whitford, who wrote this one. Brad is a bit more technical, and it leads to this whopping, angular sound in songs he contributes to, which often feel inescapable.

And then in like cool rain comes the opening piano of "You See Me Crying." Maybe not one of their best ballads, but definitely one that proves the band had an interest in such things before "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" or "Angel." Admittedly, the form hadn't been so completely solidified by the mid-70's, but this one is more recognizable as a power ballad than "Dream On" or "Seasons of Wither," with its swelling winds and strings.