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TL;DR:

  • Aerosmith’s “Rag Doll” got its title from a songwriter associated with Pat Benatar.
  • The tune makes some lyrical choices that don’t really work.
  • On the other hand, Aerosmith’s weirdness is part of the band’s appeal.
"Rag Doll" band Aerosmith in black-and-white
Aerosmith | Gems / Contributor

Some classic rock songs are just weird. For example, Aerosmith’s “Rag Doll” makes a very strange lyrical choice. That didn’t stop it from becoming a hit.

Joe Perry explained how Aerosmith’s ‘Rag Doll’ came to have its title

Joe Perry is the lead guitarist of Aerosmith. In his 2014 book Rocks: My Life In and Out of Aerosmith, Perry discussed the origin of “Rag Doll.” “‘Rag Doll’ was born out of another collaboration,” he said. “Steven [Tyler], [songwriter Jim] Vallance, and I had the song written except for the title,” he wrote. “Holly Knight came in and named it.” Knight is a songwriter most known for co-writing Pat Benatar’s “Love Is a Battlefield.”

“Again, we willingly shared credit evenly, not only because Holly earned it, but because the machine was humming along so efficiently,” Perry recalled. “If you had something to do with the writing of the song, it was split evenly. That took the pressure off any credit disputes and let the creativity flow. And since the band would ultimately play the song, no matter how it started, it always ended up sounding like Aerosmith.”

Aerosmith comparing a woman to a certain type of toy was a bad lyrical idea

Perry recalled the reaction to the “Rag Doll” music video. “‘Rag Doll,’ another high-priced Marty Callner video from [the album] Permanent Vacation, had us winging down to party in the bordello-happy ambiance of New Orleans,” he wrote. “MTV played the s*** out of the video, and thanks also to ‘Dude [Looks Like a Lady]’ and the perpetually popular Run-DMC/Aerosmith ‘Walk This Way,’ we were on TV screens all across the Western world.”

Aerosmith are a fun band and it’s good that “Rag Doll” helped keep them relevant in the 1980s. But is it a bizarre tune. Perry said Knight decided it should be called “Rag Doll.” I can understand why people used to call women “dolls” (and I can understand why that slang went out of fashion. But what on earth is flattering about calling a woman a rag doll? No woman wants to look like Raggedy Ann, unless she’s wearing a Raggedy Ann Halloween costume.

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‘Rag Doll’ sounds a little bit like Elvis Presley’s Las Vegas years

Musically, “Rag Doll” is a little strange. Aerosmith was often compared to The Rolling Stones, but “Rag Doll” echoes Elvis Presley during his Vegas years. That horn line is probably supposed to sound like New Orleans jazz, but it’s more reminiscent of Elvis’ “Suspicious Minds.” A lot of rockers thought that sound was passe in the mid-1970s, so it’s jarring to hear Aerosmith attempt it in the 1980s. On top of that, who knows what Perry and company meant with that line about “the back door.”

“Rag Doll” is a weird song but that strangeness is part of what makes Aerosmith endearing.

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