Steven Tyler’s performance onstage with Aerosmith night after night defies belief. Given how much wear and tear he has put on his body and, especially, his voice over the years, Tyler’s ability to raise his voice above a gentle croak at this point is admirable, let alone the mile-high screams he achieves in songs like ‘Dream On‘ and ‘Crazy‘. Steven Tyler admitted that he thought he could sing as soon as he heard The Yardbirds, despite the fact that much talent takes years of practice.
Without the British invasion, Steven Tyler might still be playing in local bands indefinitely. Tyler, with a passing interest in music due to his father’s classical background, began feeling compelled to play. This happened when he first heard bands like The Beatles.
However, anyone who has seen Aerosmith perform and observed Tyler’s behaviour onstage knows that he worships at the altar of The Rolling Stones. Despite infusing a healthy dose of classic blues into Aerosmith’s sound, Tyler was repeatedly chastised by the music press. They criticized him for being too reminiscent of Mick Jagger.
Tyler did lean into it a little. Tyler used his physical similarities to The Rolling Stones frontman to get into parties before he had a record deal. He frequently putt on a fake Cockney accent and claiming to be Jagger’s half-brother who was visiting the US.
Tyler became more interested in the heavier side of British rock as he began to play the backyard and high school circuit in New Hampshire. For him, the blues became one of the most important things in the world. The Yardbirds nailed it, playing rock and roll worthy of artists such as Muddy Waters and Willie Dixon.
Even though The Yardbirds are now better known as a breeding ground for some of the world’s best guitar players, Tyler was looking at the big picture. Tyler knew he could get up and sing in front of a crowd the moment he heard Keith Relf. Even before the big hits like ‘For Your Love’.
While Relf lacked the Beatles’ voice, he compensated with mountains of attitude. He transformed songs like ‘Train Kept A-Rollin’ into massive rock anthems. Tyler saw this as the blueprint for his sound. He told Rolling Stone, “As a singer, what I learned from the Yardbirds was that you don’t have to have a great voice. It is all about attitude. He was a white boy who took it to the limit. And he was an excellent harmonica player. “You never heard Jagger hang out on a single note like Keith Relf could.”
Tyler would take more than just the attitude, adapting the band’s version of ‘Train Kept A-Rollin‘ and making it a staple of Aerosmith’s setlist for years. Everyone may wax poetic about what Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck became after leaving The Yardbirds. However, in Relf, the band had the ideal frontman with a negative attitude.
