Upset, he took a cassette tape with the instrumental track we had recorded and a portable tape player with headphones and disappeared into the stairwell. 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.ĭouglas suggested this as a title for their song.īut they still needed lyrics. 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. They had written three or four songs for the album, having to write the rest in the studio.

Tyler scatted nonsensical words initially to feel where the lyrics should go before adding them later. Needing a bridge, he played another riff and went there.īut I didnt want the song to have a typical, boring 1, 4, 5 chord progression.Īfter playing the first riff in the key of C, I shifted to E before returning to C for the verse and chorus. The guitar riff to what would become Walk This Way just came off his hands. 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. In December 1974, Aerosmith opened for The Guess Who in Honolulu.ĭuring the sound check, guitarist Joe Perry was fooling around with riffs and thinking about The Meters, a group guitarist Jeff Beck had turned him on to. The song proceeds with the main riff, with Perry and Brad Whitford on guitar with Tom Hamilton on bass. It became an international hit and won both groups a Soul Train Music Award for Best Rap Single in 1987 Soul Train Music Awards. This cover was a touchstone for the new musical subgenre of rap rock, or the melding of rock and hip hop.

Thot walk song