By TheChairmanMow
We cover some of this on the latest show, but I wanted to get the full text of what I wrote out there, as we tend to digress, especially towards the end of the show.
In preparation for the show, I started jotting notes about The Beastie Boys, and ended up with two full pages of a handwritten story:
The Beastie Boys (and later Beck, who owes a spiritual and production debt to them) are responsible for so much of our culture's ironic detachment/70s loving aesthetic, which informs far more than just music.
They were the first guys wearing mesh hats, ironic tshirts and name dropping 70s icons in their lyrics. An argument can be made that without the Beastie's influence, there are no movies like the Will Ferrell version of Semi-Pro (remember, there was a Beastie Boys t-shirt with the ABA red, white and blue ball as the logo) or even complete garbage like Ben Stiller's Dodgeball - at one point he throws a ball at two fans kissing in the stands and yells "Joanie Loves Chachi." Now, I don't think that's even mildly amusing, but I'm also not sure you see this type of "humor" without The Beastie Boys.
Licensed to Ill came out in 1986. Along with Run-DMC's Raising Hell, and 1987's Appetite for Destruction by Guns N Roses, and Bigger and Deafer by LL Cool J, it was the sound of the older kids who hung around the Ft. Leavenworth Youth Activities Center, known as "Patch." The first time I ever heard of Led Zeppelin was one of my brother's friends talking about the drums on Licensed to Ill. You can't underestimate Rick Rubin knowing how that would play in the later expansion of rap's fan base.
Paul's Boutique came out in 1989 - the week we were moving home from Korea. I don't know that I ever heard it, but I remember a weird kid named Brian who sat near me in 7th Grade science really loving "Hey Ladies," which combined with the lack of promotion from the label effectively killed it in my mind -- until Chris Krauth and our buddy Carson schooled me on it one long night in the summer of 1994.
When Check Your Head came out, I used to get mad when they played So What'cha Want on YO! MTV Raps. Not because I didn't like it (despite my public persona as a hardcore rap fan, I owned it, along with Nevermind, Ten and a few other gems) but because they also played it during regular hours - this was long before rap music became pop music - and I wanted to see Ice Cube, Public Enemy, EPMD, Redman, Wu-Tang and the rest.
Ill Communication was a part of the soundtrack to my senior year in high school - especially Sure Shot and the title track, featuring Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest. When I listen to it now, it seems like a Beggars Banquet/Let It Bleed style companion piece to Check Your Head - arising from the same basic head space or sonic exploration. Of course it is an amazing album by itself. (Ed. note - Chris says largely the same thing about Pauls and Check on the podcast)
I also love the rarities and B-Sides, the goofs and even the hardcore roots. I was listening to the career spanning compilation today, and had a good chuckle at songs like Boomin Granny (I'm 26 and you're 80) Hey There Lonely Girl, and The Biz Markie version of Benny and The Jets.
Even Hello Nasty got massive airplay at The Roadhouse later in college - though they were just as, or more, inclined to rock any of the first 4 albums.
It's hard to say that they, or anyone, defined their era, but they were on the forefront of so many of the sounds and styles of their era, that they certainly deserve the outpouring of love and respect that has come from the early death of Adam "MC" Yauch, and they're an inexorable part of my life, and my love and exploration of music.
No comments:
Post a Comment