Walk this Way – #MusicisLife #TedTocksCovers #Aerosmith #TheMeters #RunDMC

Today’s feature song has roots that go back forty five years. In keeping with my interest in the songwriting process I will focus on how ‘Walk this Way’ by Aerosmith developed as the classic release by Aerosmith and then I will tell the story of how the song was born again ten years after its original release.

‘Walk this Way’ began as a riff at a sound check while Aerosmith were opening for The Guess Who in late 1974. In a classic example of how influence works its way down the line, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry had recently become infatuated with the playing of Jeff Beck. When the two met, Beck let his protégé know that he had been recently hooked on the guitar patterns in a New Orleans funk act called The Meters. The riff you hear in ‘Walk this Way’ has a loose connection to The Meters song ‘Cissy Strut’. You can hear it here.

To a lesser extent you can hear how the groove in The Meters song ‘People Say’ influenced the Aerosmith sound. The Boston rockers added a harder edge to it but they definitely reached back into funky scat roots. Here is ‘People Say’.

This is great stuff. How have I lived 52 years and not heard these guys?

Back to ‘Walk this Way’, while Perry was laying down his riff he asked drummer Joey Kramer to come up with a corresponding groove. Out of that sound check Perry and Kramer came up with the foundation for the future classic rock gem. It was not without a bit of tension within the band though.

I have read two accounts of how the song evolved from this point. The first was in Joey Kramer’s autobiography ‘Hit Hard’. Evidently, the relationship between Kramer and Tyler was very strained. To put it mildly Tyler often pulled the alpha male card on Kramer and managed to belittle the drummer at every turn throughout the band’s lengthy run. While Perry and Kramer were working on the riff and the drum response Tyler came out and pushed Kramer aside and devised his own, adding an improvised, nonsense scat wording to fill in the blanks. This animosity filtered into the studio when the song was ultimately recorded.

I have gotten a little bit ahead of things. In 1975 Aerosmith was recording their Toys in the Attic album in New York City, and they were a few songs short. The ultimate plan was to write more material in the studio. The riff Perry and Kramer/Tyler worked out came back to them, but they struggled with the lyrics. The band members and their producer Jack Douglas decided to go see a movie which turned out to be ‘Young Frankenstein’. Upon their return to the studio the band was laughing about Marty Feldman’s character, who was telling Gene Wilder to follow him, and ‘walk this way’ while limping noticeably. It was at this moment that Douglas said that would be a good title for a song. So far, we have a riff and a title. Next comes the lyrics. According to Steve Tyler in his book ‘Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?’ the song evolved as noted below.

There are two aspects to this portion of the post that add to the intrigue of this classic song. First, as I already noted, the struggle between Joey Kramer and Steve Tyler. Part of this issue stems from the fact Tyler was a drummer at one point, so he had a vision for virtually every song and in his mind, Kramer could never drum as well as him. In his role as the band’s front man he could not do both. This frustrated Tyler and the borderline abusive relationship took its toll on Joey Kramer. Both of the books I mention are excellent reads that I highly recommend. Since Tyler was infatuated with the groove of the guitar riff laid down by Joe Perry, his vision saw the drum beat become a syncopated rhythm laid down by him and Kramer. By default the lyrics needed to match. After watching Young Frankenstein, Tyler headed to the hotel and wrote the lyrics that night. He was pumped about his productive evening and he may have celebrated a bit too much. The next morning, he hopped into a cab and headed to the studio to share his song and realized he left the lyrics in the taxi. To add to his anxiety none of his band mates believed he did anything more than indulge, the night before so Tyler did the next best thing. He grabbed a cassette player, two pencils and some headphones and headed to the stairwell of the studio. In his haste, he forgot paper so as he listened to the music his band laid down and began to write the words on the stairway wall and even down a few stairs. When he was finished he ran back to the studio and grabbed some paper and transcribed the now famous words. The words were literally a percussion blend to the music as they told the story of a high school boy losing his virginity to a confident young woman. The lyrics represent Steve Tyler’s powerful capabilities when he put his mind to it. They are written in a blues style with a heavy dose of double entendre. Because of the delivery style in the scat vein, focusing on a heavy rhyme scheme, Tyler actually channels an example of what rap/hip hop music would become. This is a tip of the hat to his influence and innovation as a lyricist and a songwriter. More on that in a moment.

Despite the fact Aerosmith now had a a guitar riff, drum beat and lyrics, they were still at a crossroads as to how to record the song. Typically, Joe Perry liked to have Steve Tyler record his vocal track and lay it down on the foundation of the song’s music before he “could weave around his vocal attack”. For this song Tyler wanted to approach the song the opposite way. He wanted to have his words ‘attack’ the guitar riff that inspired the song’s output in the first place. Producer Jack Douglas intervened and ultimately, Tyler ended up recording his vocals first. Much like the character in the song, the entire process has a ‘happy ending’. ‘Walk this Way’ became one of three Aerosmith signature songs from the ‘70s along with ‘Dream On’ and ‘Sweet Emotion’. They still perform all three to this day and ‘Walk this Way’ is a clear audience participation song where Tyler rings in the chorus with his ‘Walk this Way ‘ and invites the openly receptive audience to respond with ‘talk this way’. Here is an example of Aerosmith at their live best.

Notice how Steve Tyler drops a little line from ‘Bring it On Home’ by Led Zeppelin in towards the end of the song? The blues influence is definitely there.

I mentioned above that Aerosmith, through Steve Tyler’s vocal stylings that harkened back to his scat influence, created what could be described as an early example of hip hop or rap. Coincidentally that is exactly how producer Rick Rubin saw ‘Walk this Way’ when he introduced the song to the hip hop group Run-DMC (Joseph Simmons and Darryl McDaniels). Apparently Run-DMC had sampled the opening riff in some of their songs but they never listened to the whole song and they admittedly didn’t realize how big Aerosmith was in their ‘70s heyday. Rick Rubin talked the pair into recording the full song as a cover and although the pair were not too receptive to the idea they were convinced by their DJ, Jam Master Jay. The ultimate result shocked them when it became a worldwide hit. It actually performed better on the charts than the original, because of its mass appeal. In addition to that it was the catalyst to a comeback for Aerosmith. The video is also extremely well done, showing the rival acts in an adjoining apartment dispute. Ultimately Run-DMC wins out and the two acts produce a fun joint effort. Ironically, Tyler and Perry are the only two members of Aerosmith in the video. Run-DMC could not afford to pay the whole band. This issue of affordability would not be a concern in the future. Sadly, Jam Master Jay was murdered in 2002 in what appeared to be a targeted attack. He would have turned fifty four today.

The story of Aerosmith was definitely a rags to riches to rags to riches affair. It continues to this day. As noted the Run-DMC version of ‘Walk this Way’ was definitely a launching pad to their ascent in the late ‘80s. It opened the door to their comeback album in 1987 called Permanent Vacation. From about 1980 through 1986 the band had been mired in a downward spiral of in fighting and drug and alcohol addiction. The pressure of achieving the heights of their early promise took its toll and the clash of egos within the band became notorious. I had the ‘pleasure’ of seeing Aerosmith once in 1984 and it was hands down the worst concert I have ever been to. It started out okay, but I got the sense that things weren’t right and they were simply going through the motions. A little over half an hour into the show Joey Kramer did a drum solo that was average at best and when it was over the band came back on stage and played one more song. When the song was over the crowd thought things might ramp up a little but Steve Tyler announced that the cops were back stage, and they had ordered them to call it quits. Forty five minutes and the show was over. Everybody filed out more than just a little bit disappointed. The short concert surprised all attendees, but perhaps none more so than the amorous couple who chose the edge of the pathway just outside the theatre gate to consummate their desire for each other. Sweet emotion! When that is the highlight of the show the effort definitely fell short. Great moments in Ted Tocks concert history.