Kings And Queens

Aerosmith go medieval on this track, where Steven Tyler sings about a time of lords and maidens, imagining he was there in a past life. With the chorus line, "Kings and queens and guillotines," and lots of brutal imagery, it's not a glamorous look at this era, as he focuses on the capricious violence and wars that were common at this time.

The band was heavy into drugs and rather dysfunctional when they recorded the Draw The Line album with producer Jack Douglas, who managed to pull the thing together. A byproduct of this dysfunction was more input from guitarist Brad Whitford, bass player Tom Hamilton, and drummer Joey Kramer, since Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were less of a presence. Whitford, Hamilton and Kramer wrote the music for this track with Douglas, and Tyler added the lyrics later on - it's one of the few Aerosmith songs written while Joe Perry was in the band with no input from the guitarist. In our interview with Brad Whitford, he explained: "It probably would have ended up sounding different if they [Tyler and Perry] were there, but we were able to stretch out a little bit and hit a chord with that tune. We had the basis of it, and when Steven heard it, it really appealed to him and he came up with those great lyrics. It was just one of those things."

This was released as the second single (following the title track) from the band's fifth album Draw The Line.