In the ’80s, Aerosmith pulled off one of the most successful comebacks in the entire history of rock ’n’ roll. But the band couldn’t have done it on their own – and one of their key collaborators was songwriter Desmond Child.
Aerosmith’s career was in disarray in the early part of that decade. Drug and alcohol problems had affected the band’s live performances and personal relationships, leading to the departure of guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford.
1982 album Rock In A Hard Place featured two new guitarists, Jimmy Crespo and Rick Dufay, alongside the band’s three remaining founder members – singer Steven Tyler, bassist Tom Hamilton and drummer Joey Kramer.
Rock In A Hard Place was the first Aerosmith album to fail to reach the US top 30 since Get Your Wings back in 1974. And even when Perry and Whitford returned for the band’s 1985 reunion album Done With Mirrors, their struggles continued. That album also peaked outside the top 30.
It was in 1986 that Aerosmith’s fortunes turned around – when their classic 1975 track Walk This Way was covered by hip-hop trio Run-DMC with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry as guest stars.
The revamped Walk This Way was a worldwide smash hit, reaching No 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. And in its wake, the post-rehab Aerosmith worked with three songwriters from outside of the band to create the 1987 album Permanent Vacation.
Those three songwriters were Jim Vallance (Bryan Adams’s collaborator-in-chief), Holly Knight (co-author of Pat Benatar’s Love Is A Battlefield and Animotion’s Obsession) and Desmond Child (the so-called ‘hit doctor’ who had worked with Bon Jovi, Cher, Bonnie Tyler and Kiss).
Child ended up co-writing three songs for Permanent Vacation – Heart’s Done Time, Angel and Dude (Looks Like A Lady). And he discusses the latter song in a new interview for Rock & Roll High School with Pete Ganbarg.
As Child recalls it, his introduction to Steven Tyler and Joe Perry happened as they were already working on this song.
He tells Pete Ganbarg: “I walked in, not even a hello, and Steven called me over to this corner where Joe was recording this backwards guitar that had like a boogie woogie kind of ‘na na’. Then Steven started singing ‘Cruisin’ for the ladies.’ And then they stopped and he said, ‘What do you think of that?’ I said, ‘That’s really bad.’ I don’t know why I was so bold that I said this: ‘I don’t think Van Halen would put that on the B-side of their worst record.’
“Steven said, ‘Well, when I first started singing that hook, I was singing ‘Dude looks like a lady.’ And I said, ‘That’s a hit title.’”
Child says that Joe Perry disagreed about the title.
He recalls: “Joe kind of crossed his arms looking at me sideways. And he said, ‘Well, we don’t know what that means.’ And I said, ‘Don’t worry about it. I know what that means.’”
And as Tyler then revealed, that title was inspired by a chance meeting with a fellow superstar rock singer.
Tyler said it happened when the newly teetotal band members went to a bar where they would relax drinking soda.
As Child tells the story: “It was an empty bar and there was this long row of bar stools and at the very end was this vision of loveliness. Teased-up platinum hair, ivory skin, all curvy with black nails.
“They were like drawing straws. ‘Who’s going to say hello? Who’s going to go up to her?’ And suddenly she turns around and it’s Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe!
“So that’s when Steven said, ‘Oh, that dude looks like a lady.’ That’s how he came up with it.”
Dude (Looks Like A Lady) was the lead single from Permanent Vacation, released on 22 September 1987. It reached No 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, their first top 20 hit since Walk This Way in 1976. And with that, Aerosmith were very much back in the saddle again.
