Last Child

A swaggering, blues-fused tune, this was written by Aerosmith lead singer Steven Tyler and guitarist Brad Whitford. The lyrics contain many clever double-entendre lyrics from Tyler, and he breaks new ground by rhyming "Tallahassee" with "Sassafrasse." The song was a modest hit, but it quickly became a live favorite and has stayed in Aerosmith's setlists throughout their run. In concert, it is often a showcase song for Whitford.

In the Aerosmith biography Walk This Way, Brad Whitford explained how this song came together: "After rehearsal one day, I played this riff and Steven yells, 'I love it!' and stared playing drums; he plays very different from Joey (Kramer) with a more jazzy approach, fun to work with. Joe (Perry) threw in a couple of chord changes, a D chord to an A, and then spiced up the chord a little."

This was one of the first songs written for Aerosmith's fourth album, Rocks. They hit it big with their previous album Toys in the Attic and the re-release of "Dream On," so they suddenly found themselves with a big budget and lots of record company support. The album was recorded in a mobile studio at a warehouse outside of Boston that they called "The Wherehouse." With plenty of money, there was also plenty of drugs, but Aerosmith were still very functional addicts at the time and remained creative and productive in making the album, something that didn't happen on their next effort, Draw the Line.