Aerosmith - Dream On | Steven Tyler Vocal Cord Damage? ME TOO! 😜 [COVER]

The one crazy high scream in "Dream On" by Aerosmith can be dangerous to the vocal cords! Just ask Steven Tyler, who suffered vocal cord damage forcing postponement of their "Peace Out" farewell tour. Hey, he's 76 years old now, so it's amazing he can still even hit that note, let alone do his trademark screams for an entire concert!
Covering this iconic rock ballad brought me back to my high school band days. I had a blast faithfully recreating all the parts. It stirred up some cherished memories of band rehearsals in my basement, my drummer Jerry's log cabin, and of various shows. If only we could go back in time to those carefree days!
"Dream On" is a power ballad by American rock band Aerosmith, from their 1973 eponymous debut album. Written by lead singer Steven Tyler, this song was their first major hit and became a classic rock radio staple.
The album version of "Dream On" (4:28, as opposed to the 3:25 1973 45 rpm edit where most of the intro has been edited out and the first chorus is replaced with the second chorus) was re-issued in late 1975, debuting at number 81 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart on January 10, 1976, breaking into the top 40 on February 14 and peaking at number 6 on April 10. Columbia Records chose to service top 40 radio stations with both long and short versions of the song, thus many 1976 pop radio listeners were exposed to the group's first top 10 effort through the 45 edit.
In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song at number 172 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was moved to number 173 in 2010, and re-ranked at number 199 in 2021. In 2007, Aerosmith would perform a re-recording of the song, amongst some of their other songs, for the game Guitar Hero: Aerosmith as the master track was missing during the game's development. In 2018, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. On November 29, 2023, Dream On surpassed one billion streams on Spotify.
Background
In a 2011 interview, Tyler reminisced about his father, a Juilliard-trained musician. He recalled laying 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. Lyrical composition was completed when Steven was 14 years old. 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:
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.
Vocal, Guitar, Bass & Keys by Sean McCabe
Drums - Drum Cover Eliott - • Aerosmith - Dream On (...
DISCLAIMER: In producing my covers, I use instrumental, karaoke and third-party backing tracks. If you want 100% live music, this is not your place. My covers are for entertainment purposes only. My channel is not, and never will be monetized.
FULL DISCLOSURE: As I fast-approach 60 years of age, it is getting harder to hit the high notes, not to mention play the guitar for extended periods without age-related aches and pains. I pre-record my own vocal and instrumental tracks, and fully admit to lip syncing and miming as accurately as possible to the master track for video.
✅ Subscribe to Sean McCabe Rocks here:
/ @seanmccaberocks
✅ Share this video with a KZbinr friend:
• Aerosmith - Dream On |...
✅ Spotify Artist Page:
open.spotify.c...
✅ Apple Music Artist Page:
/ sean-p-mccabe
✅ Facebook Page:
/ seanmccaberocks
✅ Website:
seanpmccabe.com

[@MikeConwayDrums]

Excellent rendition Sean! The vocals are incredible and grab a lot of attention, but the instrumentation and the overall vibe are really remarkable -- you absolutely nailed it my man! Just beautiful work my bro. 🤘💥🤘💥🤘

[@seanmccaberocks]

Much appreciated Mike! That vibe no doubt emanates from the very roots of its instrumentation. The chord structure is as much classical as it is rock! Here's a quote from Steven Tyler: "I grew up, under the piano, listening and living in between the notes of Chopin, Bach, Beethoven, Debussy. That's where I got that 'Dream On' chordage." 🎹🤘

[@RickHardcore]

awesome singing Sean!!

[@seanmccaberocks]

Thanks for the compliment Rick! I had a bit of help from my DAW, VST's and good ole post-processing. Without them, I am just your average Joe karaoke singer (Just listen to my real, untreated voice at the beginning of the video!). Gotta love the tech! 🎤🤘

[@DeyanBratic]

Wow! The level of detail captured. 😮🤘And those screams. Amazing!

[@seanmccaberocks]

Thanks Deyan! Steven Tyler's famous Dream On screams are a doozy for sure! I had to stack them several times over to fatten them up (20 or so takes later, my throat was dry toast with no butter!), bump the low-mids at 250 to 500 Hz to sound less choir boyish, add a shite ton of compression to even things out... and finally crank the reverb to mask the imperfections (plenty of those! Haha). Geez, all that time and effort to polish a few friggin' tough notes! 😜 But nobody knows this drill better than you, right?! 🤗 I put those dry vocal takes at the beginning of the video for a pre/post-processing comparison (prob not doing myself any favors!) 🤘

[@DeyanBratic]

@@seanmccaberocks dude that is work I cannot relate to, fortunately, as I’m no singer, but I can only imagine the pain! But I’ve heard every account of others who’ve done said work offer similar experiences, with the layering, EQ and compression tricks etc. Badass!

[@seanmccaberocks]

Well, I was more drawing a corollary to your meticulous attention to detail in recording guitars. 🎸👍

[@DeyanBratic]

@@seanmccaberocks indeed, I think that’s a main reason why I’m a fan of your work; your attention to detail is so evident.