The Classics Live series of Aerosmith albums is, was, and always will be a cash-in. That was the whole purpose since its incarnation in 1986, while the band was recovering from its fall from the top. In 1986, Classics Live was released by Columbia Records, coinciding with Aerosmith’s slow recovery from drug addiction and constant in-fighting. The cash-in nature of the album shows through; instead of choosing older recordings from Aerosmith in their prime, Columbia chose relatively newer recordings, when guitarists Brad Whitford and Joe Perry were still replaced by different guitarists who lacked chemistry with the group (according to other critics - I own none of the Joe Perry-less Aero albums). After finding out about this, the Aero-Ones wisely decided to interfere in the release of its sequel, the cleverly named Classics Live II.

And it begins with a bang. Out of four Aerosmith live albums (Live! Bootleg, Classics Live! Classics Live! II and A Little South of Sanity), “Back In the Saddle” is the opener, for three and rightfully so. Nobody pulls off the vocal intro like Steven Tyler can. While it is possibly a case of no other vocalists being willing to consume that many toxic chemicals to damage their throat so it -luckily- yeilds a great, raspy scream, this track is one of the best Aerosmith has every produced. It captures their cock-rock style perfectly while giving Tyler space to stretch his vocals.

Next, Tyler and the crowd take some time to sing happy birthday to their bassist, Tom Hamilton. This leads directly into a mediocre version of “Walk This Way”. Most of the band sounds energetic, but Tyler at times sounds like he’s trying to sound like he did on the studio version from Toys in the Attic. At that time, he was still perfecting his raspy, screaming howl.

As sort of a “hats off” to their self-titled album, Aerosmith adds in “Moving Out”, the first track they wrote and recorded together. This version improves over the studio version. The song grew with the band while they were on the road, and it shows.

Two more under-appreciated Aerosmith tracks make appearances on this album: “Draw the Line” from the album of the same name and “Let the Music Do the Talking” from Done with Mirrors. Both make their first listed live album appearances, (“Draw the Line” was on Live! Bootleg but unlisted) and both focus on Joe Perry’s skills as a guitarist. “Draw the Line” is a slide-guitar rocker with guitars at the center of attention. “Let the Music…” was written by Joe Perry for the Joe Perry Project, his band in the time he was out of Aerosmith, and then covered by Aerosmith for their album following the reunion.

The fan-favorite “Same Old Song and Dance” also makes its first live album appearance, but not its last. Whether or not it’s the best is arguable, but this version has very little to criticize. It features some of the best guitar solo work from Joe Perry (unless some obscure B-side has better guitars), then a vocal, crowd clapping and drums-only portion from Tyler, giving it something that keeps it different from the studio version.

“Last Child” has the distinction of being one of the very few Aerosmith songs to make appearances on three of their four live albums (you would think these things would be more varied; they’ve released one eight years after forming, one eight years after that one, one a year following, and another in 11 years). Of the two I’ve heard, this is the worse, but it’s still not bad. It stays fairly close to the album version.

The album closes out with the absolutely rocking “Toys in the Attic”, the title track to their hit-filled album that features “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion”. It closes the album well on an energetic note.

Classics Live II is Aerosmith’s most consistent live album. The band is clean, sober, and tight as they ever will be. They haven’t moved into the stage in their career where the synthesizers are as abundant as the guitars, but they aren’t in the drug-addled days, either. They’re right in the middle, which is a good place to be, since live recordings from their prime won’t see the light of day for awhile.