Is this a cover?
Is this a cover or not? I suppose it depends on what we count as a cover. I guess there are some specific rules (or we could decide on our own, e.g. who's getting which royalties, etc). In the end, I don't really care when we're talking about this particular song. It's different enough from the original to count, but also similar enough to count.

Aerosmith
It's odd to look back at a band that's become famous for writing ploddy softrock ballads over the last couple of decades. But before that, they were a much rockier band.

I like the original. It has a shuffle to the beat resulting in add odd groove for a rock song. Early Aerosmith (pre-90s) songs often had some shuffle going on, made them different to a lot of rock bands at the time. Also made their songs easy to dance to rather than headbang. That groove probably helped a lot in their acceptance by the masses.

The backing vocals only really come in for the chorus "Walk this way, talk this way". And depending on the version you listen to, they can be a bit out of tune. Hopefully we can put the faults in live versions down to bad monitoring.

Run DMC ft Aerosmith
The story goes that Run DMC approached Aerosmith for the collaboration. I think this collaboration was one of sheer genius, right from the conception all the way through to producing the video. The only issue I remember was that it was impossible to buy as a single when I found out about it a few months after its release. But that's probably me looking for it under Aerosmith rather than Run DMC. D'Oh.

There's great interaction between the artists with Run DMC accentuating lyrics, actually making them stand out more than in the original. The guitar has a more processed tone with more chorus and more delay. It's less of a raw rock sound and this comes out more in the guitar solo.

I love the way that the video introduces the screams of Steve Tyler as the Run DMC banner comes down on stage. Listen to just the audio without the video and the screams just sound like the Steve ad-libbing over the guitar solo as he often does on full Aerosmith songs.

More important than just the bands themselves was the crossover. This track brought together rap and rock in a way that hadn't been seen to this extent before. Featuring two of the best acts in their own genres, this introduced listeners on both sides of the divide to a group on the other side.

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