Dream On (Aerosmith song)

"Dream On" was first played live in Mansfield, Connecticut, at the Shaboo Inn.[4] In a 2011 interview, 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.[5]

Tyler says that this was the only song on the band's first album where he used his real voice. He was insecure about how his voice sounded on tape, so for the other songs, he tried to sing a bit lower and sound more like soul artists, such as James Brown.[4] The song is also famous for its building climax to showcase Tyler's trademark screams.

In the authorized Stephen Davis band memoir Walk This Way, Tyler speaks at length about the origins of the songs:[6]

• "The music for 'Dream On' was originally written on a Steinway upright piano in the living room of Trow-Rico Lodge in Sunapee, maybe four years before Aerosmith even started. I was seventeen or eighteen. ... It was just this little thing I was playing, and I never dreamed it would end up as a real song or anything. ... It's about dreaming until your dreams come true.

Long a concert staple, the song's piano part has been played live by Tyler. The band has also played "Dream On" with an orchestra on a couple of occasions. One of these performances, conducted by Michael Kamen, was performed live for MTV's 10th Anniversary (in 1991) and included on the soundtrack for the movie Last Action Hero. Additionally, in 2006, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry performed the song live with the Boston Pops Orchestra at their Fourth of July spectacular. On September 19, 2006, Aerosmith dedicated the song to captured Israeli soldier Ehud Goldwasser. On September 22, 2007, at a concert in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Aerosmith dedicated the song to one of their fans, Monica Massaro, who had been murdered earlier that year. In August 2010, Tyler performed much of the song on a grand piano on top of the "Green Monster" at an Aerosmith concert at Fenway Park in Boston, before the rest of the band joined in to close out the song. On May 25, 2013, Tyler performed a brief rendition of the song live during the finale of the tenth season of American Idol. After the Boston Marathon Attacks, Tyler performed the song at the Boston Strong Concert.

A coinciding video directed by Marty Callner was also created at the MTV 10th anniversary special performance with the orchestra.

• Steven Tyler – vocals, electric harpsichord, mellotron
• Joe Perry – guitar
• Brad Whitford – guitar
• Tom Hamilton – bass guitar
• Joey Kramer – drums

The song has appeared on almost every Aerosmith greatest hits and live compilation, including:

• Live! Bootleg
• Greatest Hits
• Classics Live I
• A Little South of Sanity
• Big Ones (as a bonus track in CD 2)
• Young Lust: The Aerosmith Anthology
• O, Yeah! Ultimate Aerosmith Hits
• Devil's Got a New Disguise
• Music from the Original Motion Picture "Last Action Hero"

It also appears on both of the band's box sets.

The song "Dream On" is part of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll list.[13] It is also ranked #173 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

• In 2002, the song was sampled by American rapper Eminem for the song "Sing for the Moment", from his 2002 album The Eminem Show. Joe Perry played the guitar solo on the track and the chorus features Steven Tyler singing, with Eminem adding "sing", "sing with me" and "come on" in the refrain as well.
• In 2011, the song was sampled by Immortal Technique on his song "Angels & Demons", on his album The Martyr.