"Toys in the Attic"

This song, to me, has always been that awesome kind of inexplicable. There's that ultra-manic guitar riff that urges the entire song along, which fills you with adrenaline and fist-pumping excitement, the kind that few bands manage to accomplish. There's that incredibly chantable lyric: "TOYS! TOYS! TOYS! IN THE ATTIC!" which has no discernible meaning or context (it's been said to be a reference to insanity) but makes you want to sing along like you're part of something. Then there's the other lyrics:

Lights
Voices scream
Nothing's seen
Real's a dream

Leaving the things that are real behind
Leaving the things that you love in mind
All of the things that you've learned from fear
Nothing is left but the years...

From two years earlier, Steven Tyler was writing some very ponderous, philosophical lyrics to go along with Joe Perry's bloozy riffs. What we have here is beautiful, evocative nonsense. The meaning they carry - one of confusion and exasperation with the "real world," seeking escape - is not explicitly spelled out, but expressed in their obscurity, urgent delivery, and composition. It's getting maximum usage out of the fewest words, the easiest to hook people in.

Ultimately, the meaning of "Toys in the Attic," the secrets its lyrics and music conceal, aren't as important as the energy it emits. By now, Aerosmith were in the game of playing huge venue to thousands of paying fans. They created for the fans something loud and visceral and intuitive: rock you can feel and not need to know.