A rich and complex musical career replete with ups and downs has earned Aerosmith a special place in the annals of rock & roll. The group has continued despite all of the difficulties they have faced. The group’s well-known hard rock sound, which was infused with blues, pop-rock, and heavy metal and included catchy riffs and explicit lyrics, helped them become one of the largest arena rock bands of the 1970s.
The band became even more famous as a result of their victorious return towards the end of the 1980s. The Bad Boys from Boston have established their privileged place in American rock music throughout the years by releasing several memorable songs and music videos. ‘Dream On’ is undoubtedly one of the songs that consistently ranks in the top 10 Aerosmith tracks.
The song “Dream On” took a couple of years for Aerosmith vocalist Steven Tyler to finish, but the challenges did not stop there. The musician said that he was a little worried when he originally finished the song since he didn’t think it would receive such acclaim in an interview with Azcentral in 2016. He was worried about the extreme heights he took the composition to.
Due to the song’s peculiar sound, he also didn’t know how to convince the other band members to like it. They preferred louder, more upbeat music that allowed them to rock out, and “Dream On” was a moving ballad. The vocalist knew the band didn’t love performing this song every night since they didn’t appreciate it as much as he had anticipated. After finishing the song, Tyler admitted that it sounded strange since he wasn’t sure if it was good or horrible, but he felt there was something unique about it. This was shown to be true as the song went on to become an all-time classic.
Here are Steven Tyler’s comments about “Dream On”:
“I can only tell you that that happened a bunch of times in Aerosmith, and that’s the secret. When you hear something and go, ‘Where did that come from,’ that’s the secret. It happened with ‘Dream On.’ When you listen to ‘Dream On,’ you go, ‘Oh my God. That’s so weird. I’m a little afraid. We’re going to get thrown out of town.’ That’s what I thought.
I thought if I sang that, nobody would sing like that. I was in fear. I didn’t know. And of course, the band didn’t like it because we were into rocking out, and that was a ballad I wrote. They’ll say they liked it, but it was a big drag to play every night. Some people in the band didn’t like playing it. But look on the radio now. And I think we’ve got some on the record like that. I think ‘Only Heaven’ is a song that’s going to get played for a long time.
Trust me. I listened to Gary Lewis and the Playboys. And ‘Yummy Yummy Yummy, I Got Love in My Tummy.’ I came from that era of hearing weird stuff that was dumb when you first heard it but then you couldn’t stop singing it. It was very cool. So after writing ‘Dream on,’ I went, ‘Oh sh*t.’ That’s happened a couple of times in my career, where it’s like, ‘Wow, what is this?’ And I’ve just come to realize that when that happens, that’s when the magic has arrived. So open your door wide, baby.”
Listen to the song below: