Walk This Way … Literally

Aerosmith’s 1975 not-as-big-of-an-initial-hit-as-it-would-later-become, Walk This Way, almost didn’t see the light of day. It wasn’t for lack of trying; it was more a result of the band’s early struggles with writing lyrics. The song wasn’t pre-written for recording. Rather it was an impromptu effort that later became the second single release from Aerosmith’s 1975 album, Toys in the Attic. Since you might now be wondering, the lead single on the album was Sweet Emotion.

Walk This Way’s Origin Story

Aerosmith lead guitarist Joe Perry came up with that punchy electric guitar riff while doing a sound check for a performance in Honolulu, Hawaii back in 1974. At that time, the fledging band scored a gig as the opening act for The Guess Who. While tinkering with riffs while the sound engineers and roadies did their thing, Perry came up with the now-iconic Walk This Way rapid-fire guitar lick. By the end of the sound check, the song, sans lyrics, was mostly roughed out.

Hard Words

Fast forward to 1975, and the band was recording Toys in the Attic at the Record Plant in New York City. One problem. They only had a handful of songs ready to go, so the remainder had to be written in the studio. Nothing inspires urgency quite like doing your homework on the bus ride to school.

Still needing a punchy, upbeat number, Perry resurrected his riff from the Honolulu sound check. Steven Tyler got into it, and like he did in Hawaii, scatting nonsense lyrics to find the groove.

Enter writer’s block. Tyler had an insanely high internal standard for his work. Good lyrics must not only make sense and support the song but also accentuate the music. As a drummer by trade, many of Tyler’s lyrics are percussive in nature, adding another “instrument” in effect. And Tyler had a thing for taking double-entendre to the extreme. He always wanted to take his songs right to the edge of getting banned from radio. This compulsion threw yet another lyrical roadblock in the way.

Net-net: no luck on lyrics. The group was at an impasse.

Comedic Relief

Doing what all good producers do, Jack Douglas joined the band for a much-needed break, heading to Times Square to see the new Mel Brooks movie, Young Frankenstein. Tyler had already seen the movie, so he remained at the studio.

Later, the group headed back in high spirits, laughing and replaying the classic line, “Walk this way…” Igor (pronounced eye-gore), played by Marty Feldman, asks Dr. Frankenstein (pronounced fronk-en-steen), played by Gene Wilder, to follow him by “walking this way.” Igor dutifully hands Frankenstein his walking stick, so Wilder can limp away from the train station, as does the hunchback. Hey, you have to see it. It was funny.

All are laughing at the Three Stooges-like comedy, and Jack suggests, “Hey, ‘Walk this way’ might be a great title for the song.” All agree, and Tyler goes to work, agreeing to finish the words at his hotel that night.

Speaking of Gene Wilder, did you know laid down a condition for accepting the role of the original Willy Wonka? It was his idea for the first glimpse of the Candy King to show him hobbling to the factory gate using a can, tripping, and diving into a comedic fall and roll. Wilder figured that would set the stage for the audience never knowing whether Wonka was lying or telling the truth. Some people just have the vision, don’t they?

My Cab Ate It

Anyway, back to New York and the following morning. Tyler swears he completed the Walk This Way lyrics in his hotel the night before but must have left them in the cab. Crunch time. Donning headphones and a portable tape player, he disappeared into a remote stairwell in the Record Plant, listening to Perry’s music and starting fresh on the lyrics.

Realizing he had forgotten paper, Tyler wrote the words on the stairwell wall, transcribing them later. You can’t interrupt the creative process.

Happy Ending

Tyler cranked out the lyrics in a couple of hours. The band recorded the song, and in 1977, it made the top 10.

The development of the song itself makes for a pretty good story, but what happened later sets the stage for another. Arguably, what really gave Walk This Way long-term impact was the way it helped bridge the musical divide between rock and rap. In 1985, Run D.M.C. producer Rick Rubin brought the two bands together to create and perform a full rap version of the proto-rap tune, once again rocketing Walk This Way into the top 10.

Give the Run D.M.C. — Aerosmith video a watch. It’s not exactly subtle about the message of breaking down the wall between two diverse styles of music, but it sure is entertaining.