‘I’m Down’: The first song to feature Steven Tyler and Joe Perry
While frontman-and-guitarist duos have the power to change the world and elevate their bands to the top of the musical hierarchy, these iconic partnerships often begin in surprisingly ordinary, serendipitous ways. Whether it’s John Lennon and Paul McCartney meeting at a church fête or Mick Jagger and Keith Richards reconnecting by chance on a train station platform after years apart, the history of music is filled with such chance encounters. Another prime example is the story of how Aerosmith’s ‘Toxic Twins’, Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, first crossed paths.
As is so often the case with these pairings, or any great friendship for that matter, the first time Perry met his future creative partner, he didn’t think much of him. Their inaugural encounter happened when Perry was working in a hamburger joint in the lake area near Boston, Massachusetts. He did everything as part of his job, from dropping the fries to cleaning the floor and taking out the trash, and was always busy, so he didn’t appreciate Tyler and his friends when he first came across them as they created more work.
Tyler’s family owned a bed-and-breakfast-style business in the locale, and every summer, the future Aerosmith vocalist would return home with whatever band he was in from New York. On this initial encounter, Tyler and his group rolled in and behaved as they thought rock stars should do, with petulance and a lack of care for anyone else. They threw food at each other and created a great mess that the sullen Perry had to clean up.
After that moment, the pair would begin to cross paths more frequently. The following summer, Perry’s band, which featured the future Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton, played a small local club called The Barn. That was where he met Tyler properly. At the time, The Jeff Beck Group were looking for a new singer, and Tyler wanted to try out. Not long after, Perry’s band were asked if they’d back Perry on a demo to send to the British star.
So, what was the first song?
Speaking to Classic Rock in 2023, Perry revealed: “We did I’m Down by The Beatles. He was a singing drummer – he’s an amazing drummer”.
He added: “And after that the two of us stayed and jammed for two or three hours. I think that’s when he saw something that I had, and of course I’d heard him with other bands. I said: ‘Man, we’re looking to go to Boston to form a band.’ We’d hang out at parties and talk seriously about it. And he said: ‘Yeah, I’ll come to Boston. But I don’t want to play drums, I want to be just the singer.’ And I said: ‘That’s good, cos we’ve got this guy from New York called Joey Kramer who is thinking about being in the band…'”
Just like everyone during the early stages of a lifelong relationship, Perry had no idea that he’d still be playing with the band in that room five decades later. At the time, rock ‘n’ roll was about living fast and for young folk with no genuine care for their future. So many bands came and went because of this nature; even Rod Stewart only lasted two years with The Jeff Beck Group. All the band wanted to do was keep their calendars full with gigs so they could pay their rent; they had no inkling they would make a fully-fledged career out of it.
