Classic Rock Confessional: Aerosmith's "Seasons of Wither"

Today we'll pretend the band that wrote this song never went on to soil the Earth with staggering works of ungenius like "Dude Looks like a Lady". In 1974, Aerosmith released one of the truly perfect rock songs of the 20th century, and not surprisingly, it's one which is almost uniformly ignored by classic rock radio. Though rather hilarious in hindsight, I first became acquainted with "Seasons of Wither" through Die Kreuzen's faithful cover of it on their 1989 Gone Away EP. I was in high school when I bought that record, and my hatred of the simpering, pop-metal band that Aerosmith had become was in full bloom. Yet even in the midst of my infatuation with ear-splitting hardcore and its related subgenres, "Seasons of Wither" warranted a trip to the local record hut for a used copy of the band's 1974 album, Get Your Wings. Then as now, it was two bucks well spent. As a friend recently remarked to me (rather dorkily, but he was right on), this song was definitely Aerosmith's "Stairway to Heaven" moment.