BORN AND BRED BROOKLYN, U.S.A.: When it was noted that Adam Yauch was unable to attend the Beastie Boys' induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month, I feared the worst. And it's the worst, as
salivary gland cancer has claimed him at age 48. Damn.
Ugh. RIP, MCA. Guess I know what I'm listening to today.
ReplyDeleteTrying not to cry in the office. My first concert was mom taking me to the "License to Ill" tour when I was in second grade. Cancer sucks!
ReplyDeleteThat's just not right. I was never a huge fan of them in the Licensed to Ill era, but when The In Sound From Way Out! came out I fell in love with the sound and just the leap they made in execution.
ReplyDeleteOh, awful. That is really just awful.
ReplyDeleteOhhhhh so sad. They remain the best concert I ever went to. Hands down.
ReplyDeleteThis really sucks. Just last weekend I was trying to get my six year old to rap Shake Your Rump with me. Loved his creativity, and his self-awareness and honesty in talking about responsibilities as an artist.
ReplyDeleteAlso - LisaJunior, your mom took you to a License to Ill show when you were in second grade?! That's more than a little bit awesome.
Too, too young. Cancer sucks.
ReplyDeleteOnly saw the Beasties once in concert, at Lollapalooza in FDR Park here in Philly -- 1994, guess it would have been, 'cause it was the summer after Kurt Cobain died and Courtney Love made an emotional appearance -- and they were tremendously good. Today, 1994 seems like an impossibly long time ago.
UGH. Oh, man this sucks. Here's a clip of them being absolutely amazing with the Roots on Fallon. This is hard to watch because it's clear that he was sick, but seriously- what an incredible performer:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGrYeNVteUI
Lisa, did your mom have to explain things? I believe the only time my mom ever turned off something I was watching was a BB backstage tour video from back then. And I was, what, twelve?
ReplyDeleteNo band better symbolized the joy of rebelling against adults, and then grew up without ever losing that spirit.
Let me just chime in with some completely random thoughts:
ReplyDelete1. Back in that incredible Spin oral history, the Beasties talked about how, when they had matured a little bit, they talked about how they had essentially divided responsibility for the major segments of the Beasties' organization. Horowitz was in charge of the administrative aspect of the production of the music (coordinating production and musicians, etc.), Diamond was in charge of the business of Beastie-ness, and Yauch was responsible for the charitable arm of the organization. That this was a coequal Beastie branch was a testament to Yauch. I know nothing about the depth or consistency of Yauch's Budhhism over the years, but you can't fault his commitment to causes like Tibetan independence.
2. Informally, I always thought that Yauch also was the Beasties' chief tastemaker. He and Ad-Rock had struggled from the outset with whether Mike D was even "Beastie down," and Horowitz was always more cartoonishly a-la-mode than stylish. Yauch was just cool -- detatched, a bit aloof, with the kind of swagger that people follow.
3. I feel weird saying this, because of the way that he died, but Yauch had the best voice of the Beasties. I don't think that people could have taken the screechy staccato of Ad-Rock and Mike D without Yauch's behind-the-beat rasp to balance it out.
So sad. What I've always loved about them is how the three of them were such good friends on top of being bandmates. I'm sad for Mike D and AdRock.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure this is sad on some objective level. But to paraphrase . . . The Beastie Boys were a hero to most (of my race/age/social stratum/dorm etc) but they never meant s____ to me. I just don't get it. I watched Goghaway's clip and, like a 55 year old listening to rock n' roll in 1959, I almost couldn't turn it off fast enough. What a headache of sound, a groove that does nothing for me, and an idiotic guitar riff. (I did enjoy the video for Sabotage.) I know, there's no accounting for my tin ear, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI guess this is where we find out if the Beastie Boys get the Whitney Houston treatment or not.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I think it's only you who gets yelled at for having an opinion. Although I would note that you didn't question whether WH's death itself was sad or not, just whether her SSB was the greatist evir.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I don't have any problem whatsoever with Chuck's opinion, or with him expressing his opinion, even in this thread.
ReplyDeleteHBO is airing this year's Hall of Fame induction tomorrow night--wonder if they will insert a notation of his untimely passing into the broadcast. I recognize the Beasties as highly significant to popular music, even if I'm not the biggest fan of all of their stuff--they were the first to really fuse punk and rap in a way that didn't sound artificial or manipulative.
ReplyDeleteThe Beasties were never really my cup of tea, either, as I said on the twitter, but since cancer is slowly picking off every single member of my immediate family (current tally: all 4 grandparents, my dad, his sister), I can wholly get behind any "cancer sucks" sentiment, as it only ever steals people who are loved. And he was so young! Fuck cancer, man.
ReplyDeleteOh, me neither. What I have a problem is that if you'd said the exact same thing, you'd have a bunch of angry complaints, most of them from "Anonymous." Spacelady calls bs on that.
ReplyDeleteLisaJunior was in second grade, and I was a freshman in college. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad. And yes, cancer sucks in every way, shape, and form. I'm dealing with it in my family now. All those advertisments with people smiling and wearing t-shirts that say something clever about beating cancer...they don't really give you a full picture. Cancer doesn't discrimate; you can't buy your way out of it; it doesn't matter if you are young, rich, pretty, ugly, go to the gym, sit on the couch. It seems to randomly pick an undeserving list of victims. Maybe one day we can all comment on how we remember when people used to get cancer.
LisaJunior was in second grade, and I was a freshman in college. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteIt's too bad. And yes, cancer sucks in every way, shape, and form. I'm dealing with it in my family now. All those advertisments with people smiling and wearing t-shirts that say something clever about beating cancer...they don't really give you a full picture. Cancer doesn't discrimate; you can't buy your way out of it; it doesn't matter if you are young, rich, pretty, ugly, go to the gym, sit on the couch. It seems to randomly pick an undeserving list of victims. Maybe one day we can all comment on how we remember when people used to get cancer.
Guest = me. And, oh my Becca, I'm so sorry for you. I can't even imagine the strain this is putting on your family. One family member is more than enough for this family to handle. But cancer seems not to give anyone any choices either. Totally sucks.
ReplyDeleteAs a tribute, all the Met starters are using Beastie Boys songs as their walk up music at CitiField tonight.
ReplyDeleteWhat would you use? Me, either High Plains Drifter or Gratitude. YEAH THAT'S RIGHT.
ReplyDeleteBig ups for bringing in the tuba.
ReplyDeleteI respect the Beasties, and agree that Yauch had the voice that balanced them, centered them, and made them appealing. Still, I sypathize with Chuck to a degree. Paul's Boutique is the only album of theirs that I really need. For whatever reason (the fans? yeah, maybe.) the rest of it got really tiresome really fast.
ReplyDelete<span>Yeah, just that bass throb from High Plains Drifter with the shotgun slide sound would do. Maybe the opening bars of Sounds of Science. I'd take one of the Bad Brains samples, but that would be a Bad Brains sample. </span>
ReplyDelete<span>Okay, pretty much any instrumental segment from Paul's Boutique. 5-Piece-Chicken-Dinner? Yes, sure.</span>
Oops here's a link to the whole album on youtube. Don't tell my IP counsel.
<span>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKNmLMs7ugw</span>
Can't thank you enough for that. Wish I'd heard it in 1996. Or, you know, sometime before right now.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it crazy-pants awesome? Just great solid move your booty instrumental funk.
ReplyDeleteSigning in from Brooklyn.....
ReplyDeleteI'm a big Beastie Boys fan - always have been, half because they came up while I was in high school and half because they represented NYC so well. My mom was noticing a lot of FB posts about them and looked them up - even my 70-something mom who is not a music fan at all realized that she knew some of their songs.
On a side note - any who ever challenges the Roots as to why they have the M-F gig....stuff like this (and everything else they do) is the answer.
Who challenges the Roots as to why they have that gig? I thought pretty much everybody recognized that they have elevated the whole concept of a show band to an unprecedented level.
ReplyDelete