(THIS) POLL REVERE(S) — ILM Artist Poll #19 — Beastie Boys VOTING THREAD

like satanic majesties, paul's boutique was a game-changing and aggressively psychedelic album that initially "underperformed" but fans eventually came around to. that's about as far as the analogy goes, though...

is paul's boutique really psychedelic tho?

Compared to LTI, I'd say yeah!

I think so. In a different way to Eight Miles High or Sgt Pepper, obviously. I'll explain why later.

If the beasties have an 'acid album,' it's totally paul's boutique

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0aY2MrOue8E

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Gfqu_HqqeaU/TT9xs1ahHbI/AAAAAAAAEKc/eSbPm1ARS2Q/s1600/42_beastiesInner.jpg

We're at 39 now, my ballot will make 40. Who hasn't voted?!!!

eugenia

Kinda obvious, but I always mapped them onto Winston Churchill's career myself. LTI = snotty, punk-nosed brat with some questionable decisions (for 'Girls' read Gallipoli, for the stage show the gold standard). Then the visionary period in the wilderness (PB = crazy guy ranting about Hitler all through the 30s), with the public starting to get back on board with CYH/the ousting of Halifax. IC is the phoney war not-entirely-successful building of momentum (Dunkirk = Grand Royal?), before HN is D-Day onwards. Then with TT5B he gets kicked out of office even though he's still putting out the same work.

hard to argue w that

Is it too late to get my ballot in?

nah, deadline extended through tomorrow

I cannot believe that there was a time when I thought Bodhisattva Vow was an embarrassing throwaway. It's fantastic.

i still haven't voted. def. will though! only two more records to go, and they are ones i've never listened to before. (the mix-up and hot sauce).

Those Rolling Stone analogies are good. The one I'd change (it completely loses the chronology, so it doesn't work in that sense) is Paul's Boutique = Exile on Main Street. I love one and didn't get much out of the other, but a lot of Christgau's Exile review would seem to apply just as well to Paul's Boutique, and there's also the way that neither was immediately and universally acclaimed--it took a few years. (I always thought the problem with Satanic Majestie's Request was that the Rolling Stones were blatantly playing catch-up, not that the world wasn't ready.)

I always thought the problem with Satanic Majestie's Request was that the Rolling Stones were blatantly playing catch-up, not that the world wasn't ready.

yeah, i don't expect the analogy to hold up perfectly. alfred was right that, while time may have been kind to their satanic majesties request, it hasn't been retrospectively recognized as perhaps the band's finest hour. and you're right that the stones stumbled jumping onto an established psychedelic pop bandwagon, while the beasties/dust bros. more-or-less invented their version of psychedelic rap.

re: PB being "psychedelic" - the first vinyl copy I ever saw of PB was at the UCSC radio station and in the comments box on the sticker of the front one of the DJs had written "forget the 60s, this is our OWN psychedelic music!"

3 feet high and rising came out months before, it was a pretty sampledelic year. i doubt the timing works out (someone who knows their beastie history in detail can confirm or deny) but tone loc had hit the previous winter and spring w/ 'wild thing' and 'funky cold medina' and i could imagine the beasties, having ditched their label and the prominent producer responsible for their sound on their big huge hit album they now had to followup, knowing they were viewed understandably as a fluke novelty act, looking at a hip-hop scene that had moved on from rock box to rakim and public enemy and knowing that because of either their limited skillset or their race they couldn't really attempt to make a go of those styles, hearing 'wild thing' w/ its van halen sample and thinking 'the delicious vinyl guys, that's who we need to work with'. what i can remember is that w/ the native tongues and the bomb squad and 'paid in full (seven minutes of madness remix)' that by 89 licensed to ill felt like eons ago and the beasties definitely appeared to be a joke that was on the wrong side of the divide so when the new album flopped no one was surprised but when you heard it and the thing not only held its own w/ what prince paul and hank shocklee were doing but arguably advanced it? it was hard to believe what you were hearing and i knew alot of ppl who just wouldn't, they couldn't deal w/ this thing having the beastie boys name on it. the density of it was somewhat novel though part of the progression of the times also - fear of a black planet feels more sample dense than nation which feels way more sample dense than yo! bum rush.

just sent my ballot.

3 feet high and rising came out months before, it was a pretty sampledelic year.

yeah, good point. for some reason, i remembered 3ft coming out a few months after PB, and didn't think to wiki for confirmation. it's not like the beasties were alone in going wild with it. otoh, they weren't following the obvious pop trend of the moment, either.

great post btw

well De La were new artists when the album dropped and it seemed to build slowly with "Me Myself & I" being the third single

boy, it's been a while since I've had a chance to think about Randee of the Redwoods.

oh, I forgot "sampledelia" was a thing. I guess in that context Paul's Boutique is psychedelic. but, pretty much none of my (admittedly limited) experience with psychedelics is evoked when I listen to Paul's Boutique

About four more hours of voting left. We're over 40 now, so everything that comes in now is gravy!

Things that are psychedelic about Paul’s Boutique:
-“A Year and a Day”
-Late-period Beatles samples throughout “Sound of Science,” and the beat-less section between the song’s two main parts.
-The “dubby” feel of “3-Minute Rule”
-The heavy breathing laid over the Eagles sample in “High Plains Drifter”
-Maybe the “chorus” of “Shake Your Rump” (the squelchy bass sound after the title sample is played)
-The “Shadrach” video
-That underwater photo posted above

That said, I don’t think psychedelia is the dominant thing on “Paul’s Boutique.” As balls said, it came out at the same time as PE and De La were also creating these “chop up the past 30 years of music” sample collages that were far denser than the rap music of 3 years earlier. Psychedelia is in the mix just like funk, soul, and hard-rock records are, but it’s far from the only thing there; it’s not like “Hey Ladies” is reminiscent of listening to Barrett-era Pink Floyd.

^ also sampled bong hits

This is somewhat obvious, but there's a clear similarity in the careers of the Beasties/Beck/Eminem. They begin as clowns/novelties (not an aesthetic judgement--those early records are my favourites by them), release a second album that critics write about very seriously, and after that, it's up and down.

A little than an hour left to vote. If you're on the fence, get off it and send me a ballot.

A little *less

FIN.

Albums unveiled tomorrow.
Top 50 tracks over the course of the week.
Videos after tracks.

mmmmmmmmmmmmm

DROP

Forgot this, on the psychedelic tip: "59 Christie Street" has the Hendrix sample, and "Car Thief" as a whole has a certain elements that I think qualify it.

Again, I think psychedelia is just one element in the mix, but I think it's there.

Here's a playlist I made a few years ago: all the Paul's Boutique samples I could find on Spotify.

http://open.spotify.com/user/nathanwoolls/playlist/2lqepdfazLKllqynRPQBSL

(also if anyone's interested - Nation of Millions samples: http://open.spotify.com/user/nathanwoolls/playlist/3CUxIrGEInLzlVZeaiLLhR and 3 Feet High & Rising samples http://open.spotify.com/user/nathanwoolls/playlist/3lcfUhB2hHcvWGE3RzPfJk

Awesome thanks. This stuff, I lap it up.

Spotify suddenly now worth every penny, ty nate.

Things that are psychedelic about Paul’s Boutique:

and the riff at the end of "looking down the barrel of a gun", and overall, randomness embraced as an aesthetic approach

LTI was a good alb for drinking, but I know when my friends and I started listening to paul's boutique, certain substances made it a much richer listening experience, as good as spacemen 3 or monster magnet or w/e we were jamming at the time

so in that sense, if it wasn't psychedelic it was at least psychedelic-friendly

Ill Comm is the true psychedelic beasties album.

^^^^ this guy knows what's up

great playlists sir!