The Back-Burner: Aerosmith Outtakes & Demos

It’s not too often that the band premieres an unreleased song during a tour, and even less usual for them to perform an unfinished song.

This is taken from a radio broadcast on KMET in Los Angeles as the band sits in with DJ Jim Ladd before the upcoming California World Music Festival show. Tyler and Perry played some of their favourite songs and unveiled this raw recording that the duo said was from a few days earlier in Wichita.

Mark Prado, Aerosmith: Tapes From The Cellar 1970 to 1986, pag153. August 22, 2020

We hear different versions of the vocal melody and some barely finished lyrics, mostly scatting. While the instrumental part is basically the same as the finished version, it’s interesting to hear what the state the song was during April 1979, specially knowing that Tyler was already under pressure to finish the lyrics and lay down the final recordings of this vocals to meet the November release of the album later that year, so it makes sense that the band would try some of those tracks live – in a way, to force/help Tyler finish the lyrics, rehearse and get feedback from the crowd.

We don’t have exact date for that show this recording was taken from but we can assume it was the next night after the Omaha show. The only venue large venue they would have played was the Kansas Coliseum in Wichita. But in 78 they slipped away to the Midwest and played some club gigs in towns like Omaha, back then anything was possible. There’s a definite progression towards the final track.