DRAWING THE LINE: Some Yardbirds fans think...

DRAWING THE LINE: Some Yardbirds fans think something sounds a little too familiar in Aerosmith’s new single, “Living on the Edge.”

The song, which Aerosmith singer Steve Tyler says was inspired by the L.A. riots, addresses the issue of racial harmony with the line, “If you can judge a man by the color of his skin, then mister you’re a better man than I.”

What has the Yardbirds fans buzzing is the similarity to lines in the song “Mister You’re a Better Man Than I,” written by Manfred Mann’s Mike Hugg and his brother Brian and recorded by the Yardbirds in 1965. That song was originally on “Having a Rave-up With the Yardbirds,” the same album that contains the English group’s version of “Train Kept A-Rollin’,” which Aerosmith used as the blueprint for its early-’70s version of the same song.

Bryn Bridenthal, publicist for Aerosmith’s label Geffen Records, says that she spoke of the matter with Aerosmith’s manager Tim Collins, and that the band was “not aware that the line was in a Yardbirds song. The inspiration comes from the news.”