10 Best Cover Songs In Classic Rock
4. Train Kept A-Rollin - Aerosmith
In their early years, Aerosmith always felt like a mirror image of the more rootsy blues artists coming over from Britain. Before the band truly found their sound, much of Aerosmith's early work features tunes that could have come off of any Rolling Stones or Cream record.
It's ironic that one of the songs that helped them really find their voice as a whole was actually done by someone else first. "Train Kept A-Rollin" was a song everyone on the blues circuit performed, but the most popular single cut of it was performed by English troubadours the Yardbirds. Though their version is equally as incredible, the rhythm is a lot straighter than you would expect from this bouncy blues tune.
Once Steven Tyler got this song worked up, the feel of the track became much less frantic than the Yardbirds' version, instead replaced with a hard rock groove. It may have seemed a bit sloppier than what many might have expected, but the end result was a much more sultry boogie that made people want to get up out of their seat and dance. By the time the midpoint drum roll kicked in and the groove hit you one last time, Aerosmith had come out on the other side as their own authentic musical entity.