Steven Tyler – The Biography

-

It’s very difficult to approach the book Steven Tyler: The Biography, and not have some preconceived idea of what it’s going to be like. Even if you aren’t an Aerosmith aficionado, the name and the reputation that goes with it is such that it would be hard for this not to be the case. Over 150 million albums sold worldwide, a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their very own Guitar Hero game. If you didn’t catch any of that, the pleasure of Mr Tyler’s entertainment can generally be viewed at such low key events as the Superbowl half time show.

All of this gives a perfect window into the hip swinging, brash, colourful and absurd rockstar bravado that he and his band purport. That the audience may see his sixty something withered, weathered, emaciated frame grind out to one sexually charged riff after another, courtesy of fellow rock icon Joe Perry. Even to the most untrained and unbiased, the whole thing screams sex, drugs, and rock and roll.

Personally, Aerosmith had never really done anything for me prior to reading this. It was a case of another Guitar Hero advert, another blast of ‘Walk This Way’, out of a zillion different radio stations. Another “Jesus Christ, did he really get that fucked up?” After reading Steven Tyler: The Biography, I can safely say yes. Yes he really did.

From the early to mid 1980s, Aerosmith and particularly Tyler were caught in such a cast iron drink and drugs grip that they made themselves effectively bankrupt, lost a record deal and for a time lost each other. After the successes of the seventies, Tyler could now barely stand at a microphone. They had gone from major support slots and alighting public interest with self explanatory albums such as Rocks, to playing basement bars in the twilight hours that at times weren’t even half full. It would take a crunch meeting with all members and management of Aerosmith for the first seeds of change to be sown. Tyler was coerced into rehab, and his about turn on his rapacious habits proved the catalyst for his band to follow suit. A seemingly insignificant collaboration with Run DMC lead to their explosive rebirth, and was firmly bolstered (as the world now knows) by one sure-fire platinum thunderbolt after another.

It’s the improbable U-turn, the great act of fiction. And it’s true to say that on reading Steven Tyler: The Biography, you begin to realise that there is not one story of its kind that quite plumbs the depths and then tears the sky open in the way this does. Laura Jackson goes to great lengths to assert that it was through Tyler that this all became possible; that his work ethic and strength exhibited in exorcising his demons were absolutely invaluable to the bands success. Quite apart from that, his stage persona to all intents and purposes is Aerosmith.

The chronicling of Tyler, the man, is doubtless very accurate – bolstered with quotes from the very same and its hard to deny the pungent aroma of sex and rock and roll. It is also a decent time line for his softer side, not skimping on the wives and daughters front (and yes, that means there is plenty of mention of Liv Tyler in here). You even get to hear about his childhood, which is the real surprise in the book given that it sounded so unsuitably idyllic.

The major problem is in the way its written. With a story and a lifespan of this magnitude, you would expect it to be similarly spiced up in its narration. Rather, it feels like its all been copied and pasted from his Wikipedia page. Harsh as that may sound, its not an inaccurate statement when you consider that the entrance of every future bandmate is handled in the same “date of birth/where they were born/who they were born to/what they did” way. If that at all sounds normal, rest assured that it gets very annoying very quickly. Add to that a repeated repeated use of the same words to describe the same events (all the musicians involved are said to have “diligently practised” their instruments), and the fact that there is an actual copy and paste of a whole paragraph near the books end (the bottom of pages 221 and 223 are your friends here).

Infact, the ten years up to the present day just read off as a list of awards he and the band have won. Lists don’t make for good reading. Ultimately, Jackson has done the dot to dot on Tylers story, for sure. But its delivery feels offhand, like she’s written a few of these before, has a formula that works and slap bang its ready for sale. It’s difficult to recommend its purchase because of this. Should you reward writing-by-numbers with your money?