Unusual Collaborations: Run-D.M.C. & Aerosmith

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Although I like to believe that I have pretty broad musical taste, I just don’t like rap music, with very few exceptions. And I don’t like Aerosmith, again with very few exceptions. And yet this pairing, which at the time was considered to be shocking, just works.

The original version of “Walk this Way,” by Aerosmith, is admittedly one of the few exceptions to my generalized dislike of the band. Not only is the title based on one of my favorite old rimshot jokes (the punchline being, “if I could walk that way, I wouldn’t need the talcum powder,” often referenced on Monty Python), it is a buoyant hard rock song with a great riff and clever, internally rhyming lyrics that made it a natural for a rap version. (And it actually sounded good in context the other night at my 35th high school reunion.)

Really, it is the video that really makes it work. The conceit is that Aerosmith (actually just Steven Tyler and Joe Perry—in a cost saving move, the rest of the band is impersonated by members of the band Smashed Gladys) is playing the song loudly in a room next to where the Run-D.M.C. crew is hanging out. The rappers are annoyed by the song, and yell for the band to turn it down. But when their pleas are ignored, Run-D.M.C. cranks up their turntables and drum machines, and the song begins in earnest.

Initially Aerosmith seems pissed off by the intrusion, and Steven Tyler breaks down the comically thin walls with his mike stand. Ultimately, everyone gets along, the two groups perform together in front of a rapturous (mostly white) audience and all is well with the world.

This version of the song charted higher than the original, and shot Run-D.M.C. to stardom. Not only that, it is credited with the dubious achievements of opening MTV up to playing rap, revitalizing the sinking career of Aerosmith and spawning the genre of rap rock. A great example of the Law of Unintended Consequences.

Offbeat Holiday Music: Christmas in Hollis

Run D.M.C.: Christmas in Hollis

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Sometimes it's hard to predict what malls will or will not play at this time of year. I know I've heard some musical detritus that I thought was utterly devoid of redeeming value (carol porn?). In fact, I finally had to shift my dental cleanings from December to January just to avoid yet another listening of Burl Ives' Holly Jolly Christmas, and I'd rather have that drill cranked up to drown out Elvis's Blue Christmas. Maybe these songs weren't terrible once upon a time, but they've worn out their welcome with me.

But this song may be a safe bet for this week's theme: No mall I shop at would likely play Run D.M.C. or any other hip-hop artist for that matter. Doesn't matter that this song is clean, cheery, and full of the requisite spirit. Not only that, it was released for charity, appearing on the first A Very Special Christmas in 1987.

Okay, I bet they play it in malls in Queens.

There's Something About Mary: Mary, Mary

The Monkees: Mary, Mary

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Run DMC: Mary, Mary

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Yes, The Monkees were definitely on the musical radar of my formative years - I was 12 when they appeared on the scene... and I bought the albums, watched the TV show and read the magazines (remember Tiger Beat?). Micky was my favorite - I still remember his favorite color (invisible... :-)

The Monkees (a.k.a. The PreFab Four) were an amalgamation of Beatles/Kinks/Hollies/Animals/Byrds sounds, writing very little of their own music but savvy enough to cover the compositions of Carole King/Gerry Goffin, Tommy Boyce/Bobby Hart and Neil Diamond - I only just found out that Michael Nesmith wrote Mary, Mary before he joined The Monkees. The tune was actually first recorded by The Paul Butterfield Blues Band a year before The Monkees released it, with Micky singing the vocals... and Nesmith always knew this jingle-jangle pop-rocker would be a hit - is it really about a stalker? (you decide...).

My sister Mari, on the other hand, was a product of the 80's - what comes to mind immediately: U2, Bow Wow Wow, The Motels... and any of the John Hughes movie soundtracks. I don't think she was a fan of Run DMC... but they were popular in her time period - how interesting to find they covered/sampled Mary, Mary 21 years later... changing quite a few lyrics in the process!

P.S. I discovered this photo in the Snapfish album of Mari's January 2007 Colorado trip she sent me upon her return - "Mari, Mari... you look cute muggin', it's so cold you could use a huggin' "(with apologies to Michael Nesmith, Run and DMC... :-)

Footwear: My Adidas

Run DMC: My Adidas

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Say you wanna be a B Boy? You need the proper accouterments: Kangol hat, Cazal shades, 3-stripe tracksuit, gold rope chains, boom box, but most of all - a pair of Adidas. Without them, you can't rock the beat.

1984: Sucker MCs (Krush Groove 1)

Run-D.M.C: Sucker M.C.s (Krush-Groove 1) [purchase]

Other than Purple Rain, I can definitively say there wasn't another new album I listened to more in 1984 than Run-D.M.C's self-titled debut. It's weird, too, because listening to it now is almost like unearthing a time capsule I'd long since forgotten about. Let me explain.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine of All Music Guide compares Run-D.M.C. to The Beatles, but I think that's terribly misguided. If anything, Run-D.M.C. was akin to Elvis on Sun Records, long before RCA got involved, when each side of the 45 was a rhythmic apocalypse like nothing you've ever heard before. Sure, there were antecedents ... there's always antecedents ... but you knew there was something entirely new being brought to the table. You can make this claim about The Beatles, to be sure, but the Fabs were also deceptively sophisticated masters of melody, even in the beginning. Other than maybe Elvis' voice or Scotty Moore desperately aping Chet Atkins on guitar, there wasn't a whole lot of melody or sophistication in Elvis' Sun arrangements. In fact, there wasn't a whole lot of anything. For the most part, those Sun songs were minimalist efforts, carried along by balls-to-the-wall attitude.

That is precisely what hearing Run-D.M.C. was like in 1984. You had a skeletal beat, Jam Master Jay scratching, and Run and D.M.C's voices cutting like electric guitars over the top. That was it. No melody, just a full-on collision of rhythmic elements, and it was totally unique at the time. Erlewine is correct when saying that, "Prior to this, rap felt like a block party -- the beats were funky and elastic, all about the groove." The reason it felt like that is because that's exactly what rap was until Run-D.M.C. blew up the joint. Hip-hop started out as dance music, born at the block party and raised up at the disco ... the Disco Fever, to be precise. But, it entered its adolescence with the arrival of this trio from Hollis, Queens.

And that was that. By their following album, King Of Rock, the stark, minimalist philosophy had changed, or rather, self-consciously evolved. Because of Run-D.M.C.'s massive success, the group, Rick Rubin, and Russell Simmons began to openly embrace the crossover potential of the pop market. Time has proven their savvy in this regard and it was probably inevitable that rap go large at some point. Not that I'm giving in wholly to the forces of historical determinism, but c'mon, there's a reason hip-hop is a global phenomenon. Nevertheless, there is something charmingly naive about Run-D.M.C.'s debut album. Before rap proved it had national appeal, before the genre's pop crossover, long before the gangsta front, The Chronic, complete and utter mainstream co-optation and an entire generation of watered-down, video-centric, bitch/ho-wielding sucker MCs, Run-D.M.C. was one of a kind and for your people's delight. RIP Jam Master Jay.

My First: King Of Rock

Run DMC: King Of Rock

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This was the first CD I ever bought. I got it used at Wazoo Records in Ann Arbor when CD’s were a brand new thing. I might not even have the player, but I could never pass up a bargain. And I figured a used CD was just as good as a new one, since the markering people at the record companies were saying that you could play frisbee with them and they would still play perfectly. Ha!

Its funny to hear this compared to the hip hop of today. It’s like comparing Buddy Holly to Jimi Hendrix.

Here are some of my favorite lines from the featured number:

I'm one def rapper, I know I can hang
I'm Run from Run-DMC, like Kool from Kool and the Gang

My name is Darryl, you can call him D
You can call me Darryl Mack, or you can call him DMC
People always ask, "DMC, what does it mean?"
D's for never dirty, MC for mostly clean

Every jam we play, we break two needles
There's three of us but we're not the Beatles