Songfacts®:

• When Aerosmith started off, there were plenty of uncomplimentary comparisons with The Rolling Stones, inspired in part by Steven Tyler's likeness to Mick Jagger. Frustrated and partly in denial, Tyler took out his frustration in his songwriting. This song's lyric: "Happy just to be in lust, never have to eat no dust," he explained to Rolling Stone, "is about what it was like to come out of the ashes." He continued: "It's about using what I've got, not thinking that I'll never be as good as the Stones. But if someone put me down about the Stones back then, I was a little afraid because I didn't want anyone to say I looked like Mick."
• The band was accepting contributions from outside writers at this point, and on this one Steven Tyler and Joe Perry got some help from the Canadian songwriter Jim Vallance, who co-wrote many of Bryan Adams' hits. The Pump album was recorded at Little Mountain Sound Studios in Vancouver. A few weeks before they started recording, Perry went to Vallance's nearby home trying to come up with a leadoff track for the album, something that "sounded like a dinosaur eating cars." He and Vallance developed this track, which did become the album opener with lyrics added by Tyler.
• According to Joe Perry, this song is about retaining your youthful exuberance and passion for music into middle age. The band was well into their 40s at the time.