Like lots of people my age, I spent the weekend listening to the Beastie Boys: considering the huge impact they’ve had on music, remembering them as the soundtrack for much of my youth, and thinking with sadness and regret that it won’t be the same after Adam Yauch’s death on Friday.
Honestly, every time I listen to them, I think “wow, who knew in the late 80s what they’d become”.
On a sunny summer vacation day in 1987, the summer between elementary and middle school, my friend Evelyn and I were just finishing a successful few hours of collecting empty pop bottles in the ditches around our little village. (I’m not making this up for quaintness, that’s really what passed for fun for us then). Evelyn was much cooler than I was. She wrote plays and poetry, made her own clothes and called her parents by their first names. That afternoon, just before I went home she said, “No, wait. You HAVE to come over to my place. My dad rented the coolest video for us last night. It’s called Fight For Your Right to Party.” (Yes, rented, on VHS.) It was love at first sight. The song rocked and the video was hilarious. I stayed over and we watched it over and over all night. A few months later, my older cousin convinced my aunt to buy me Licensed to Ill on cassette, saying “Trust me, she’ll like it.” And I did.
Over the next few years though, my taste wandered. I became dedicated to thrift store vinyl and didn’t listen to much new music. So while the Beastie Boys were busy developing into influential artists, I kind of forgot about them. I’d heard their 1992 Check Your Head was good and 1994’s Ill Communication was on non-stop rotation at the pub where I worked. For me though, it all fell into the category of “pretty cool, but not my thing.”
That is, until another friend was there to change my mind. My university roommate Jenn was a dedicated and enthusiastic Beasties fan. We shared the attic of an old three-story house, so I heard everything she played. She came by room one day to tell me about their instrumental compilation album The In Sound from Way Out! and said, “Seriously, I know you’re not really into the Beastie Boys, but I think you’ll like this. Just give it a chance.” It sounded like it was worth a listen at least.
The album is a mix of instrumental tracks from Check Your Head and Ill Communication plus a few B-sides, and it sounded like a 70s jazz record that had traveled through time and into my hands. It was awesome. I suddenly heard everything they’d been doing, but heard it differently. It was complex and deep and way more musical than I’d imagined. I fell in love with them all over again and never looked back.
This song of the week* is one of those gems, a track first released on Check Your Head and then on The In Sound. It is almost as far as possible from Fight For Your Right but that’s completely fitting for a band that is surprising, diverse and has challenged musical boundaries from day one. A very important part of that was Adam Yauch, seen here playing bass, but also a talented writer, director and producer. He will forever be on my list of musical legends that set the course of popular music over the past few decades. So sad that it had to end so soon.
*Sorry, no science today, but their first greatest hits anthology is called “The Sounds of Science”, which is cool. For anyone looking for an intro to the band, it’s a great place to start.
The Finch and Pea 