This next batch of songs will be 10 of my favorite songs of all time.  They will be some very well known songs and maybe some that you don’t know, but either way, I think they are awesome.  I hope you enjoy them as well…

My Sunday Song #41 is “Dream On” by Aerosmith.  The song is off their debut album, ‘Aerosmith’ and was their first big hit.  When it was originally released, it only made it to #59 on the Billboard Charts.  When it was later re-released in 1976, it made it all the way up to #5, but for some reason never made it to #1.  It was that re-release and hit that saved Aerosmith from being dropped by their record company, Columbia.

At 17 or 18, Steven Tyler started writing “Dream On”.  It took him about six years to finish, but it is still amazing to me that someone so young could create something so amazing.  The lyrics seem to speak about life and aging and how you have to keep trying no matter what to make your dreams come true.

The opening two lines – “Every time I look in the mirror / All these lines on my face getting clearer”, he is being reflective on his life at 17 as he is snorting the cocaine off the mirror and thinking how fast time has already gone by.

He goes on to talk about “Half my life’s in books’ written pages / Live and learn from fools and from sages” where he spent all the time in school, but his dream is to sing.  That hunger to sing drives him to do whatever it takes to make it.  Well, I would say he made it alright!  I don’t know why I highlighted those two lines, but I find them to be great lyrics.

Some interesting stories I found on the song were at Songfacts.com if you want to check them all out.  I will point out a few that I liked below…

From the Rolling Stone Article “The Emancipation of Steven Tyler,” Rolling Stone, May 12, 2011.

Tyler reminisced about his father, a Juilliard-trained musician. He recalled lying beneath his dad’s piano as a three-year-old listening to him play classical music. “That’s where I got that Dream On chordage,” he said.

With regard to the piano that was used in the song…

Tyler bought an RMI keyboard with money he found in a suitcase outside of where the band was staying. The “suitcase incident” became part of Aerosmith lore, as Tyler didn’t tell his bandmates that he took the money, and when gangsters came looking for it, he continued to play dumb.

The piano is what really sets the tone on the whole song.  The added guitar brought in and then the slow build up throughout the song to the climactic point where Steven hits those trademark screams is why I think the song works so well for me.  I can never get enough of that scream.

I hope you enjoyed it the write-up and I hope you enjoy the song!  Have a great Sunday!!

“Dream On”