The Back-Burner: Aerosmith Outtakes & Demos

“Sedona Sunrise” was an Aerosmith outtake from the Pump 1989 sessions co-written by Steven Tyler, Joe Perry and Jim Vallance. It’s country flavour differenced it from all the other songs in Pump and was likely the reason it was omitted by the record label. According to Vallance:

“Sedona Sunrise” was started during the writing sessions for “Pump”. It was an idea that Joe Perry had, and he showed it to me and Steven one day. Joe and his wife Billie had recently spent time in Arizona, visiting Joe’s mother. They were impressed with the serenity and beauty of the desert near Sedona, and Joe was inspired to write about it. We did a bit of work on the song, but it wasn’t completed at that time. Steven and Joe finished it later, possibly back home in Massachusetts. The track was never released, and I completely forgot about it. Seventeen years later (September 2006) I got a call from the receptionist at Aerosmith’s management office.

Jim Vallance website 2006

A small segment at the very beginning of the “Big Ones: You Can Look At” home video showed Steven and Joe working on the song. During the late 90s, a few Pump demos leaked online, including a full version of Sedona.

The song was reconsidered during the following album’s sessions and was even played live partially once during the Moline, IL show of February 22, 1994.

While the song was found listed on a few later tapes, the band reportedly never recorded a Sedona Sunrise demo during the Nine Lives sessions, they maybe have considered it for redevelopment, added a few overdubs or altered the mix from the Pump sessions, as Sedona was the sole track in the 02/08/1996 lost DAT tapes and sounded like a crystal clear version of the Pump demo.

My mother actually lived in Sedona for about 13 years, so I spent a lot of time out there, you know, when I visited, and even now my wife and I will take a side track and go up to Sedona, its a pretty amazing place, one of the supposedly seven most spiritual places there is on the planet; so, when we wrote the song, I told Steven about Sedona and I think he’s been up there a few times, you know, I invited him out there, and it obviously rubbed off because when you hear the music it definitely captured the vibe, it came together.

Joe Perry interview, 2006 Dan Neer, Premiere Radio

Steven Tyler: Sedona Sunrise has been a wish of Joe Perry and I for 15 years, ever since we wrote it.
Joe Perry: It’s a piece of music that we don’t have anywhere else in the list of songs. I’ve always loved some of the parts and the sound of Sedona Sunrise, and when I went in and played a few more guitar parts, I kind of liked them more.

Sedona/Devils BTS 2006

The song stayed on the band’s wishlist for years and was eventually reworked during the 2006/2007 sessions for an aborted outtake-based album.

At the time, the band considered changing its title to “The Heat of Love”, an alternate title that had actually been in the table since it was written. It would have made sense as a line in its lyrics clearly repeated the phrase during the song. Steven commented on this when asked by a fan during a live interview with Eddie Trunk.

Justin: I heard a rumour going around saying that we might actually get to hear that elusive Sedona Sunrise song.
Steven: Uuuu…
Eddie: He’s got some inside dirt, hu?
Steven: I like you.
Tom: We have spies on the internet.
Joe: Nothing like the internet, hu?
Joey: Yeah, really.
Eddie: Who’s gonna take that one?
Steven: The new title of that song is called “The Heat of Love”, but, I mean, it was always Sedona Sunrise. It was a song that Joe and I wrote, god, 15 years ago, and fight like hell to get it in every record, and wound up on the B-list, and we looked at each other and scratched our heads bald and finally, you know, it’s time, it is time, so Justine…
Joe: We better put it out soon before it goes up in flames!

Eddie Trunk with Aerosmith, 2006

Steven later reconfirmed the band was working on the song while Tyler visited the Mount Blue restaurant after a fan asked him about the song on March 6, 2006.

The track was released eventually on the “Devils New Disguise” compilation album in 2006.