Steven Tyler: The Biography by Laura Jackson Read Free Book Online Page B

which he could not get out of his head. At the time he left it at that, with no specific notion of developing it into a song. At the Commonwealth Avenue flat he returned to the piano ballad in the key of F minor, as Tom Hamilton can vouch for. ‘When we were all living together, mine was the only room with a piano in it and I remember waking up hearing Steven playing this song over and over again,’ he said. ‘It pissed me off at the time but I’m sure glad he kept playing.’ Its heartfelt lyrics were about holding on to the hope of fulfilling aspirations and the grit needed to take life’s knocks. Tyler has been blunt: ‘This song sums up the shit you put up with when you’re in a new band.’ With its haunting quality and the way it builds to a crescendo, ‘Dream On’ made a lasting impression on Aerosmith fans and is classed as the prototype for today’s hard rock power ballad. ‘“Dream On” is one of my favourite songs to play live,’ stated Joe Perry.
    To put the finishing touches to this batch of songs, Aerosmith spent time that autumn holed up at the Sheraton Hotel in Manchester, Massachusetts, before moving into a rented house. This concentrated time helped the five men to focus purely on their debut album, free of all other distractions. It was when they headed back to Boston that Steven decided to change his surname to Tyler. Though it is commonplace for singers to adopt a stage name, some stars become irritated when reminded of their real name. In the case of Queen’s Freddie Mercury, Farookh Bulsara had yearned to reinvent himself as someone synonymous with glamour and strength - hence Mercury, the messenger of the gods. But Steven did not want to shut a door on his past. He did not want to deny his heritage. He simply saw changing Tallarico to Tyler as giving him a snappier name in preparation, he hoped, for when he hit the big time; he has little patience with those who attempt to apply cod psychology to his name-changing. He recently blasted: ‘I got that shit in rehab - “I want you to keep Tyler out of here.” Fuck! I am that guy. Steven Tyler and Steven Tallarico are the same guy!’
    Over two weeks in October 1972, Tyler joined the other four at Boston’s Intermedia Sound Studios to record their debut album with producer Adrian Barber. In addition to the seven songs Aerosmith had prepared, they recorded a cover version of the Rufus Thomas rhythm and blues number, ‘Walkin’ the Dog’. Though recording their debut album was what they had all dreamed of, they were too uptight and scared of making a mistake to be able to relax and enjoy the experience. Strain tautened every aspect of the recording process and this tension made relations fraught. Joey Kramer later recalled Tyler’s growing frustration when nerves made his timekeeping while drumming less than perfect. For some, it was also claustrophobic and a rushed affair.
    In 1976, Steven recalled: ‘Bob Ezrin [a producer] heard our first album and thought we needed a lot of work, which we did, but we’re honest. We’re not a band that puts track over track.’ Tom Hamilton has since reflected: ‘When we recorded our first album, it was done with very little studio experience. Unfortunately, we made a sort of crude album.’ Brad Whitford confirmed this when he revealed: ‘It was recorded on a recording console that was literally homemade. Part of it was cardboard with knobs the size of headlights!’
    Steven was dismayed when reaction appeared to be decidedly cool at Columbia Records during the first playback of Aerosmith’s debut album, and a comment from one label executive that there was no immediately recognisable single among the tracks leadened Tyler’s heart even more. Along with the others, Steven went through the process of shooting the album cover but even this was a downer when they realised that there was a dearth of material to chose from to help hype the band in the album’s liner notes. The Boston media had yet