The “filthy” meaning of a classic Aerosmith song
American hard rock outfit Aerosmith have many classic tracks to their name. Whether it be early highlights such as ‘Sweet Emotion’ or later hits like ‘Love in an Elevator’, their oeuvre is brimming with highlights that confirm the reason why they are so adored.
One of the finest songs they’ve produced is ‘Walk This Way’, the second single taken from the 1975 album Toys in the Attic. Famously, the track was given a second wind in 1986 when hip-hop pioneers Run-DMC covered the material in collaboration with the band, featuring frontman Steven Tyler and guitarist Joe Perry.
Reportedly, when Tyler heard Perry playing the distinctive riff for the first time in Honolulu in December 1974, he “ran out and sat behind the drums and [they] jammed”. The frontman explained how, at the time, he scatted “nonsensical words initially to feel where the lyrics should go before adding them later”. It would be a while before they finished this number, though.
In early 1975, Aerosmith took a brief break from recording Toys in the Attic at New York City’s Record Plant. They were halfway through the process but struggled to write new material for the album, meaning they had to write in the studio. To partially solve their problem, the band tried the tune Perry had conceived in Hawaii. However, it didn’t have lyrics or a title.
During their recording break, the band and producer Jack Douglas went to Times Square and watched Mel Brooks’ latest comedy, Young Frankenstein. Reportedly, they were beside themselves with laughter at the scene where Marty Feldman’s character, Igor, tells Gene Wilder’s Dr. Frankenstein to follow him, saying, “walk this way”, but hobbling with a limp. Douglas thought this line would be an apt title for Perry’s track, but the quintet still needed lyrics to bring it together.
That night, Steven Tyler composed the lyrics for the song, but in an unfortunate twist of fate, forgot them in the cab on the way to the Record Plant the following morning. He told the Wall Street Journal in 2014: “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”.
The vocalist continued: “I grabbed a few No. 2 pencils and went up to the Record Plant’s top floor and then down a few stairs of the back stairway so I wouldn’t be disturbed. The lick Joe had written was so groovy, and I was scatting with the headset on. When the words started coming, I realized I had forgotten to take paper. So I wrote them on the wall. It took two or three hours. When I finished, I ran downstairs for a legal pad and ran back up and copied them down.”
This is where it becomes fascinating, and the song stands out in Aerosmith’s oeuvre. The lyrics have nothing to do with Young Frankenstein. Tyler’s words are, by his admission, “filthy”, and tell the story of the self-professed “high school loser” losing his virginity to a promiscuous cheerleader. A heavy emphasis is placed on rhyming lyrics like “chance” and “dance” to augment Perry’s guitar.
Whilst the sexual inferences are relatively straightforward, Tyler subtly packaged them to get airplay. This proved a miraculous decision, as it became one of their most successful singles. Explaining the “filthy” meaning of ‘Walk This Way’, the lyricist told Songfacts in 2012: “‘Walk This Way’ came out all at once. If you listen to the words, they’re all really filthy. If you listen closely you’ll hear that I disguised it quite cleverly.”
In his 1999 autobiography, Walk This Way, Tyler explained just how “filthy” the song really is. He said the opening phrase, “backstroke lover”, describes the protagonist masturbating. He is caught in the act by his father, who tells him his life will change when he finally experiences sex. The older gentleman says: “You ain’t seen nothing / ‘Till you’re down on a muffin / Then you’re sure to be a-changin’ your ways”.
Outlining the fantastical parameters of the lyrics, one day, the protagonist comes across the cheerleader, who, along with “her sister and her cousin”, gives him a sexual experience to remember. Elsewhere, according to Tyler, the “walk this way” refrain is a metaphor for the cheerleader showing the boy where to put his finger. For this section, the frontman was inspired by make-out parties, where this would often occur. Interestingly, Tyler was also keen to acknowledge that despite the sexual nature of the lyrics, it is the girl who has control of the situation.
