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High On Fire’s Matt Pike on why he really, really hates Aerosmith’s “Dude (Looks Like A Lady)”

by Marah Eakin

01.18.13




In HateSong, we ask our favorite musicians, writers, comedians, actors, and so forth to expound on the one song they hate most in the world.

The hater: Matt Pike has earned his place in the pantheon of metal gods as guitarist for the stoner-rock legend Sleep and frontman of sludge heavyweight High On Fire. On De Vermis Mysteriis, High On Fire’s latest record, Pike’s work is especially impressive, with the guitarist using his riffs to, as Jason Heller put it in his A.V. Club review, “summon yet another host of monolithic, archetypal licks from the jaws of eternity.” Pike has also endeared himself to fans by basically never wearing a shirt when he’s performing.

The hated: Aerosmith’s “Dude (Looks Like A Lady)” (1987)



Matt Pike: I’ve just always had this thing with Aerosmith. The guy sounds like a goat. [Bleating.] “Baaa, baaa, dude looks…” It just gets under my skin. I have this button called the off button or the mute button that I call the Aerosmith button on all my stereos. I just have this weird thing with Aerosmith, where I don’t even care what people say about their old shit. I think they’re the crappiest, most overrated shit band of all time. And I fucking can’t stand them. [Laughs.] And that particular song gets under my skin to where I want to stab people.

The A.V. Club: Why this song more than any of their other songs?

MP: I don’t know. Just because. The whole fucking theme to the song is retarded, and it sounds like someone scratching a chalkboard or putting a fork to a plate every time I’ve fucking ever heard it in my life. I can’t get through 30 seconds of it without fucking wanting to barf. [Laughs.] That’s pretty much where I’m at with that.

AVC: This song is also offensive. It’s gay-bashing in lyrical form.

MP: Yeah, it’s just… ugh. I don’t know. That was a ’70s cliché, singing about transvestites and finding out the hard way, and then on top of it having fucking Steven Tyler sing about it and do it in the most annoying way, where you just want to put the guy in a fucking chokehold. [Laughs.] Make him fucking tap out before he can get another word out of his mouth.

AVC: It’s supposed to be about Mötley Crüe, or Vince Neil in particular.

MP: Well, I don’t care. I love Mötley Crüe, because they’re fucking 10 times the band that Aerosmith is.

AVC: Aerosmith’s members haven’t done themselves any favors with their recent career moves, either. They aren’t making anyone think they’ve gotten any cooler.

MP: Oh God, I saw a live show. We played at some festival they played on. They were the headliner, of course, and Joe Perry had his little Guitar Hero videogame, and he did a guitar solo with his fucking videogame guy. It’s cartoon him and real him having a guitar-off. That made me want to puke, too. Then all I could think about was “Dude (Looks Like A Lady),” and then all I could think about was their vast career of bad fucking choices. The simpletons of society have just eaten it up and made them as big as they are. They’re just encouraging them to make bad music over and over again.

That band hasn’t done anything since the ’70s. And in the ’70s, which was their most redeeming era, they still fucking sucked. Two good tracks that just won everybody over, and the rest of their career has been a hot, heaping pile of dog shit. I’m just not into Aerosmith, I suppose.

AVC: You don’t even like “Crazy,” “Amazing,” or “Cryin’”? The great trilogy from the ’90s?

MP: No, I find it offensive, and I think they should be thrown out. I’m sure they’re in the [Rock And Roll] Hall Of Fame. [They are. Inducted in 2001. —ed.] The endless amounts of awards for a polished turd. Actually, that’s what they are: They’re a polished turd. You dress them up in clothes, but they’re still a piece of shit. They walk around smelling really bad, sounding really bad, and making millions of dollars.

AVC: People keep responding to it, so they keep doing it. They take it even further.

MP: Yeah, they’re just encouraging a bunch of shitty old men to play shitty music.




bennyhillifier

The Mastodon one was pretty good, mostly because Hinds' least favorite song is the same as mine.

Dude Looks Like A Lady is one of those songs I don't know anyone who EVER liked it, Ragdoll sucks too.

More recently, Aerosmith has consistently put out nothing but shit for almost twenty years, and not shit as in below par but shit as in unlistenable. That ballad that they didn't even write themselves which had zero guitar in the mix was when I was sure they would never do anything of value again.

I do have to agree with the interviewer on the 1993 stuff, though, I thought Amazing was really good, Cryin' was good, and I also thought Livin On The Edge was also really good. Dream On and Kings and Queens from the 70's still hold up well for me too, as do Janie's Got A Gun/Angel/What It Takes from 80's/1990 period. Most of their other stuff I could honestly do without.

Dream On is the song that proves everything Pike says correct. It was a great song... from 1973. They never came up with anything half as good in the (holy shit) 40 years since. All the songs from the 90's completely sucked and no one had a problem admitting that their only appeal was Liv Tyler in the videos.

The Patriots song Steven Tyler did was worse than Prince's "Purple & Gold"

And lol @ Steven Tyler writing a song to clown on Motley Crue or anyone looking like girls when he's spent the last 4 decades dressing like someone's lesbian aunt that runs an antique store.

"I have the tastes of a 14 year old girl from 1994."

Matt Pike's dislike for Arrowsmith is not news.

Matt Pike hates arrows and the men who make them.

stupid 0-level hirelings

But did anyone know about Aero's and the men who make them?

Reporting

Only "Last Child" is really needed when it comes to Aerosmith.

Fuck off sober days

Last child is the best hit they ever had.

Does anybody truly like Aerosmith? Srsly

shuttup spence

I like their old stuff. I saw them like 15 years ago and they were good live. But I do think they are over played and overrated.

This thread took an Aero to the knee

Get Your Wings was a good album, but yeah. This guy has a point. Too bad stoner rock blows.

Boston > The Cars > Aerosmith

Wait, was that dude non-sarcastically calling "Crying" part of "great trilogy"? Amazing.

Goatrider is MAD.

I'm kind of with him though, never really "got" Sleep/High on Fire.

Night in the Ruts>High on Fire

Eh.... People just need to shut up about all this indie rock (but with vintage amps, fuzz pedals and long hair) bullshit being "heavy" or whatever. I'm still not about to give Aerosmith's played-out act a break, though. Listen to the songwriting on any of their albums after the 80's lineup change, especially the new album, and you'll notice that literally every track was written in hopes of being a "hit single."

That's just how it is with a lot of bands from that era. It's too bad, but giving old rockstars special treatment only lowers the standards even more.

Great trilogy has to mean Alicia Silverstone Videos

Alicia Silverstone > Liv Tyler

Not that any of that has any bearing on music. Personally, I thought the best song on that album was Livin' on the Edge, and there was no Liv Tyler or Alicia Silverstone in the video for that.

But yeah, bottom line, forty years with a pretty bad track record of good songs to crap.

Mia Tyler>Liv Tyler

10/10 would feed two XXL Nachos from taco bell then bang

The Ruts > every other band mentioned in this thread

Everything up to draw the line smokes anything pike has ever done, but I'd take sleep and high on fire over most of the post 70s Aerosmith stuff.

I always thought dude looks like a lady was autobiographical.

Aerosmith better than Sleep?

Matt Pike is a really cool dude to hang out with and has some good stories. I also fucking hate Aerosmith so many better bands from that era.

As for sleep and HoF .. Sleep is great, and the first HoF record is also mighty, dont really dig anything after that.

He's spot on about that song. I'll never understand how it became one of Aerosmith's most iconic songs. It's just fucking annoying. Same goes for "Rag Doll" although that one gets unintentional hilarity points for when Tyler goes "YEAHBIBBITYBIBBITYBOOBITYBO!"

Proudly been playing indie rock with vintage amps and effects since 1994.

70's Aerosmith is fucking awesome

Awesome, we were all waiting to hear about you and how cool you are.

Toys in the Attic and Get Your Wings......and that's about it.

Live Bootleg and Rocks, too, fool!

The last thing in the world I ever want to be is cool.