Dream On

Okay, I love Reaction videos. If you don’t know, just go to YouTube and type “Reaction” and then whatever your favorite band is, and you’ll find someone filming their very first time experiencing it. Sometimes it’s magical, like that scene from Almost Famous, when the kid listens to The Who’s We Won’t Be Fooled Again (considered the greatest rock song of all time) for the first time.

What would you give to be able to go back for that moment again? Makes you long for Alzheimer’s. But first you have to make your list.

Dream On, by Postmodern Jukebox

Postmodern Jukebox (PMJ), is a rotating musical collective founded by arranger and pianist Scott Bradlee in 2011. He’s pulled in various former American Idol contestants, and this one is notable because Morgan James seemed to come out of nowhere (actually Juilliard), with the pipes to sing Aerosmith’s Dream On, almost recreating a first-time listening experience.

Lyrics

Every time that I look in the mirror
All these lines on my face getting clearer
The past is gone
It went by like dusk to dawn
Isn’t that the way?
Everybody’s got their dues in life to pay, yeah

[Interlude]
I know nobody knows
Where it comes and where it goes
I know it’s everybody’s sin
You got to lose to know how to win

Half my life’s in books’ written pages
Lived and learned from fools and from sages
You know it’s true
All the things come back to you

[Chorus]
Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter and sing for the tear
Sing with me, if it’s just for today
Maybe tomorrow the good Lord will take you away

Sing with me, sing for the year

Sing for the laughter and sing for the tear
Sing with me, it’s just for today
Maybe tomorrow the good Lord will take you away

[Bridge]
Dream on, dream on, dream on
Dream until your dreams come true
Dream on, dream on, dream on
Dream until your dreams come true
Dream on, dream on
Dream on, dream on
Dream on, dream on
Dream on
Aaaaaah!

[Chorus]
Sing with me, sing for the year
Sing for the laughter and sing for the tear
Sing with me, if it’s just for today
Maybe tomorrow the good Lord will take you away

About the Song

Released in June 1973, Steven Tyler wrote the power ballad for their debut album, Aerosmith.

"It's about the hunger to be somebody: Dream until your dreams come true. This song sums up the shit you put up with when you're in a new band. Most of the critics panned our first album and said we were ripping off the Stones. That's a good barometer of my anger at the press, which I still have. 'Dream On' came of me playing the piano when I was about 17 or 18, and I didn't know anything about writing a song. It was just this little sonnet that I started playing one day. I never thought that it would end up being a real song."

Steven Tyler