The Back-Burner: Aerosmith Outtakes & Demos

“Love me like a Birddog” is an Aerosmith outtake from the initial Rick Rubin 1986 sessions produced for what would become their Permanent Vacations album. The exact date for these sessions is unclear as Aerosmith were on the Done With Mirrors tour from January-August 1986, especially as DWM wasn’t released until Nov 1985 (yet Steven and Joe recorded their parts for their 1986 Walk This Way remake with Run-DMC on March 9, 1986, and these sessions are rumoured to have taken place before then). There were apparently six songs in the Rick Rubin demo sessions which also included “Hollywood”.

On May 22, 2019 journalist Geoff Edgers, author of a detailed book about the making of the “Walk this Way” 1986 remake, who interviewed Rick Rubin for his book, confirmed via Twitter that Rick had a vague memory of trying to help the band in early 1986, but that the effort went nowhere and they run out of time. The Twit has since been deleted. His book speculates on the information provided in the bootleg of the same name.

Aerosmith had been one of Rubin’s favorites in high school. He followed them closely enough to go see the Joe Perry Project play live in 1979. He even made an aborted attempt to help the reunited band record a few new songs. (A bootleg of those sloppy demos, Love Me Like a Bird Dog, suggests they were done in early 1987, though everybody involved believes it was before “Walk This Way.” No records of the session seem to exist.)

Geoff Edgers, Walk This Way: Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the song that changed American music forever, 2019

Fan speculation had “Love Me Like A Bird Dog” listed as an apparent forerunner of Dude once it leaked on a bootleg of the same name during the late ’90s, but there is no evidence in the song structure or lyrics to suggest this.

Two mixes of the demo leaked; they are both basically the same, but one has an extra layer of guitar arrangements.

Production-wise it was well advanced and recorded, featuring a keyboard and background vocals, but while it’s a good jam, it’s somehow clear that it was not going to be as big a hit as the tracks on the final album. Tyler uses extended “uuuuu’s” as a vocal resource, similar to those used in the Devil’s Got a New Disguise chorus.

While we are unsure of the writing credits, it feels like a Tyler/Perry collaboration in terms of the rhythmic vocal delivery with raunchy fun lyrics over a guitar riff orientated structure that evokes the traditional style of the Aerosmith compositions up to 1985’s “Done with Mirrors”. Written in a very comfortable key for Tyler to sing, E, the song was still a work in progress on Tyler’s side, as apparent by the repetitive lyrics, and scating melody during the bridge. Lyrics are as usual for Aerosmith, fun and raunchy songs talking about sex, but don’t really tell a story, and rather just set up a scene. The title “Love me like a Bird Dog” must be one of Tyler’s inside sexual jokes comparing the bird dog exercise with a sexual one, or a play on bird hunting dogs in heat, either of which, being confusing enough, may have been one of the reasons for omitting the song.

The old aerosmith.com website circa 97/99 hosted the full lyrics to the song reportedly pulled from a notebook Steven gave the AF1 team.

Savin’ all your money
for a rainy day limousine,
Teenage baby
send you full friction magazine,
I don’t know how she do it,
Up down turnaround
four on the floor tonight,
When she did what she was doin’
she was rubbin’ me the wrong way right,
Push came to shove
give it one more try,
Don’t miss your water
until the well runs dry…

Love Me Like A Birddog
Never Learn to Fly…

Bareback baby
tell me what’s on your mind,
If it’s the same old same old
slap you on the back behind,
I don’t know how you do it,
Tell me one time
’bout how it used to be,
You got the judge and jury
swingin’ from the highest tree,
Push came to shove
give it one more try,
Don’t miss your water
until the well runs dry,

Love Me Like a Bird Dog,
Never learn to fly,
Ask me no questions,
I’ll tell you no lies…

(bridge scatting, chorus & guitar solo)

Bass drum beatin’
like a hot damn house on fire,
Love lover’s quarrels
always seem to make the body cry,
I don’t know how she do it,
Tell me one time
’bout how it used to be,
She got the judge and jury
swingin’ from the highest tree,
Push come to shove
give it one more try,
You don’t miss your water
until the well runs dry…