‘Walk This Way’ is a song by the American rock band Aerosmith. Written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, the song was originally released as the second single from the album Toys in the Attic (1975). It peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1977, part of a string of successful hit singles for the band in the 1970s. In addition to being one of the songs that helped break Aerosmith into the mainstream in the 1970s, it also helped revitalize their career in the 1980s when it was covered by hip hop group Run-D.M.C. (in collaboration with Aerosmith) on their 1986 album Raising Hell. This cover was a touchstone for the new musical subgenre of rap rock, or the melding of rock and hip hop. It became an international hit, reaching number 4 on the Billboard charts and becoming the first hip hop single to reach the top five on the charts, and won both groups a Soul Train Music Award for Best Rap Single in 1987 Soul Train Music Awards. Both versions are in the Grammy Hall of Fame.
In December 1974, Aerosmith opened for the Guess Who in Honolulu. During the sound check, guitarist Joe Perry was "fooling around with riffs and thinking about the Meters," guitarist Jeff Beck had turned him on to. Loving "their riffy New Orleans funk, especially 'Cissy Strut' and 'People Say'", he asked the drummer "to lay down something flat with a groove on the drums." The guitar riff to what would become ‘Walk This Way’ just "came off [his] hands." Needing a bridge, he: “...played another riff and went there. But I didn't want the song to have a typical, boring 1, 4, 5 chord progression. After playing the first riff in the key of C, I shifted to E before returning to C for the verse and chorus. By the end of the sound check, I had the basics of a song.” When bandmate Steven Tyler heard Perry playing that riff he "ran out and sat behind the drums and [they] jammed." Tyler scatted "nonsensical words initially to feel where the lyrics should go before adding them later."
When the group was halfway through recording Toys in the Attic in early 1975 at Record Plant in New York City, they found themselves stuck for material. They had written three or four songs for the album, having "to write the rest in the studio." They decided to give the song Perry had come up with in Hawaii a try, but it did not have lyrics or a title yet. Deciding to take a break from recording, band members and producer Jack Douglas went down to Times Square to see Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. Returning to the studio, they were laughing about Marty Feldman telling Gene Wilder to follow him in the film, saying "walk this way" and limping. Douglas suggested this as a title for their song. But they still needed lyrics.
At the hotel that night Tyler wrote lyrics for the song, but left them in the cab on the way to the studio next morning. He says: "I must have been stoned. All the blood drained out of my face, but no one believed me. They thought I never got around to writing them." Upset, he took a cassette tape with the instrumental track the band had recorded and a portable tape player with headphones and "disappeared into the stairwell." He "grabbed a few No. 2 pencils" but forgot to take paper. He wrote the lyrics on the wall at "the Record Plant's top floor and then down a few stairs of the back stairway." After "two or three hours" he "ran downstairs for a legal pad and ran back up and copied them down." Perry thought the "lyrics were so great," saying that Tyler, being a drummer, "likes to use words as a percussion element." He says: “The words have to tell a story, but for Steven they also have to have a bouncy feel for flow. Then he searches for words that have a double entendre, which comes out of the blues tradition.”
Perry always liked to wait until Tyler recorded his vocal so he "could weave around his vocal attack," but Tyler wanted Perry to record first for the same reason. After a "tug-of-war", Tyler's vocal was recorded first with Perry's guitar track overdubbed. The lyrics, which tell the story of a high school boy losing his virginity, are sung quite fast by Tyler, with heavy emphasis being placed on the rhyming lyrics (e.g., "so I took a big chance at the high school dance").
Cash Box said that "Steve Tyler's vocal is aggressive, gritty and right on as he literally spits out a slew of lyrics while never losing clarity" and that "the music itself is hardboiled rock." Record World said that "the pattern that sent 'Dream On' up the charts is again being established." In 2022, it was included in the list "The story of NME in 70 (mostly) seminal songs", at number 26. The Run-D.M.C. cover launched Aerosmith's comeback. They were in drug rehab when it came out, but sobered up and released Permanent Vacation in 1987, which gave them a string of hits, their first since "Come Together" in 1978. The collaboration also boosted the band's profile in Europe, where Run-D.M.C. was huge.
Label – Columbia
Songwriters – Steven Tyler, Joe Perry
Producer - Jack Douglas
SONG LYRICS
[Verse 1]Backstroke lover
Always hidin' 'neath the covers
'Til I talked to your daddy, he say
He said, "You ain't seen nothin'
'Til you're down on a muffin
Then you're sure to be a-changin' your ways"
I met a cheerleader
Was a real young bleeder
Oh, the times I could reminisce
'Cause the best things of lovin'
With her sister and her cousin
Only started with a little kiss
Like this
[Pre-Chorus]
Seesaw swingin' with the boys in the school
And your feet flyin' up in the air
Singing, hey diddle diddle
With your kitty in the middle
Of the swing like you didn't care
So I took a big chance
At the high school dance
With a missy who was ready to play
Wasn't me she was foolin'
'Cause she knew what she was doin'
And I know love was here to stay
When she told me to
[Chorus]
Walk this way
Walk this way
Walk this way
Walk this way
Walk this way
Walk this way
Walk this way
Walk this way
Just give me a kiss
[Guitar Solo]
[Post-Chorus]
Like this
[Verse 2]
Schoolgirl sweetie with the classy kinda sassy
Little skirt's climbin' way up the knee
There was three young ladies in the school gym locker
When I noticed they was lookin' at me
I was a high school loser, never made it with a lady
'Til the boys told me somethin' I missed
Then my next door neighbor with a daughter had a favor
So I gave her just a little kiss
Like this
[Pre-Chorus]
Seesaw swingin' with the boys in the school
And your feet flyin' up in the air
Singing, hey diddle diddle
With your kitty in the middle
Of the swing like you didn't care
So I took a big chance
At the high school dance
With a missy who was ready to play
Wasn't me she was foolin'
'Cause she knew what she was doin'
When she told me how to walk this way
She told me to
[Chorus]
Walk this way
Talk this way
Walk this way
Walk this way
Walk this way
Walk this way
Walk this way
Talk this way
Just give me a kiss
[Guitar Solo]
[Post-Chorus]
Like this
[Instrumental Outro]
[Guitar Solo]