It’s a weekend of cover songs from the Random iTunes Fairy. Today’s track was an outtake from the sessions for R.E.M.’s 1986 album Lifes Rich Pageant.
Aerosmith’s ‘Toys in the Attic‘ was the title song, and first track, of a 1975 album that also featured the hits ‘Walk This Way’ and ‘Sweet Emotion.’ Though it reached only #11 on the Billboard chart, that album has sold more copies than any other Aerosmith record.
R.E.M. released this song on 1987’s Dead Letter Office, a collection of odds and ends from their early years as a band. In his liner notes, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck wrote this of ‘Toys in the Attic’: “If you grew up in the seventies you liked Aerosmith. This one is always fun to play live.”
Light voices scream, nothing seems real’s a dream
Leaving the things that you learned behind
Leaving the things that you love behind
All of the things that you learned were real
Nothing except for the years
Voices scream, nothing seems real’s a dream
(Chorus)
Toys, toys, toys in the attic[x3]
[Verse 2]
Leaving the things that you love behind
Leaving the things that you learned behind
All of the things that you learned were real
Nothing except for the years
Voices scream, nothing seems real’s a dream
[Chorus]
[Bridge]
All of the things that you learned were real
Nothing except for the years
Voices scream, nothing seems real’s a dream
[Chorus]
Meet Me In Montauk 
I like both Aerosmith and REM better when they sound more blues/folk and less like Ozzy Osborne.