After fifty years of playing their blues-based rock music with full force, floor-to-floor gas pedal, Aerosmith is now one of the world's biggest - and most whimsical - rock 'n' roll bands. In this thick, picture-filled holiday volume, we can look at the entire career of the Boston bad guys for the first time. It explores how the whole of America got to know them in the 1970s, and how they fought their way back to the top towards the end of the 1980s, all the while fighting each other. Music journalist Richard Bienstock energetically presents the band's rise, fall and rebirth. The book is illustrated with nearly 400 photographs, rarities, concert posters, backstage tickets, concert tickets, album covers and classic T-shirts. There is room for a comprehensive discography, and such famous rock experts praise the group's studio records as Daniel Bukszpan, Neil Daniels, Chuck Eddy, Bill Holdship, Greg Kot, Martin Popoff, Bud Scoppa, Phil Sutcliffe and Jaan Uhelszki. The end result is a fascinating portrait of a band considered by many to be America's greatest rock 'n' roll band.

Richard Bienstock is a senior contributor to Guitar World magazine and editor-in-chief of Guitar Aficionado magazine. He is also a musician himself, and his articles have appeared in many American and international magazines. He lives in New York.