IN THE BEGINNING
It all started in the 1960?s in Sunapee, New Hampshire. A young boy from Yonkers, NY would head up with his family every summer to man the family's summer resort, the Trow-Rico Lodge. Young Steven Tallarico flourished in such an environment. His father was a classical pianist, which engrained in young Steven some of the finer points of music. Steven took this musical knowledge with him when he formed one of his earlier bands, The Strangers, later named Chain Reaction. He played drums for this band, his instrument of choice, yet he yearned for the spotlight. As Chain Reaction's reputation grew, so did their audience. Eventually they were opening for such acts as The Yardbirds, The Beach Boys and The Byrds. They got a recording contract as well which didn't take the band very far. Steven was tired of being the drummer.
During the later summer of the '69, the Jam Band, another Sunapee, New Hampshire band was also making a name for itself. Steven went to one of these shows and he liked what he saw. After the show, he came up to the lead guitarist, Joe Perry, and said, "Maybe someday we'll have a band together." The following summer, the Jam Band broke up, as did Chain Reaction. Two talented musicians looking to play music ran into each other once more.
Aerosmith was born in the summer of 1970. Steven Tallarico at vocals and his buddy Ray Tobano playing rhythm. Joe Perry played lead guitar and his buddy from the Jam Band, Tom Hamilton, played the bass guitar. The band moved to Boston, where they could get some real exposure. However, they needed to find a drummer. Ray Tobano introduced the band to a friend of his from Yonkers, which Steven also knew. Joey Kramer tried out for the band and made it.
Aerosmith began touring local colleges and sought to expand but felt that in order to do so they had to dump Ray Tabano. In 1971, Ray Tabano exited the picture and in came Brad Whitford. With Brad Whitford manning the rhythm guitar, a new dimension was added to the band The final piece of the puzzle came to be when Steven Tallarico decided to change his name for more appeal. He had to narrow it down to two choices, Steven Tyler or Tyler Brit. He chose the former. As that final piece came together so did many other puzzles as they began to tour outside of Boston. Aerosmith would frequent clubs in New York City, Long Island, New Jersey and Connecticut. Their big break came in 1972. As told in the song "No Surprize", Aerosmith was playing at Max's Kansas City, a club in NYC, when in came Clive Davis who was impressed with what he saw and signed the band to Columbia Records. The following year, the band released its first album, "Aerosmith" which contained such songs as "Dream On", "Mama Kin", and "Walkin the Dog"