RIP Adam Yauch/MCA of the Beastie Boys

Here's an interesting thought: was Yauch the first of his peers (hip-hop, alt-rock, whatever) to let himself go dramatically grey?

I had a cassette dupe of "License to Ill" on one side and "Invisible Touch" on the other. I used to listen to it on a boom box on canoe trips down the Brandywine River.

Maybe they weren't alone in this, but they were also central to a huge rekindling of interest in Led Zeppelin (outside of just classic-rock stations) when they sampled "The Ocean"; Schoolly-D and others followed in short order, and it went from there.

In the US, it was Bon Jovi.

― Tarfumes The Escape Goat, Friday, May 4, 2012 3:20 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the later collab, "beastie jovi," was pretty great IIRC.

Eh, the Zep stuff was Rick Rubin's doing.

listening to the audio commentary vid for 'check your head', pretty great (from a production nerd standpoint anyway). still love how integrated the samples + live instrumentation is on that record, massive drum sound too. apparently yauch was the one who came up with the led zep-style cardboard tunnel for the kick drum.

bboys were just one musical vector of a number for me but they specifically unearthed a few dope artists/beats i dunno how long it would've taken me to find otherwise

I'm sure that's true, but of the thousands of teenagers who may have been found out about Led Zeppelin via Licensed to Ill, my guess is that they almost gave credit to the Beastie Boys rather than Rick Rubin (if they even knew who he was). (xpost)

(drop the "been")

things the Beastie Boys introduced me to:

Idris Muhammad
Lee "Scratch" Perry
Wild Style
Black Oak Arkansas
Kool Moe Dee vs. Busy Bee
Eddie Harris
The Turtles

remember this being a total HOLY SHIT moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC-gRQh_pFw

From Tim Sommer.

Here's an interesting thought: was Yauch the first of his peers (hip-hop, alt-rock, whatever) to let himself go dramatically grey?

Toss up between him and Lee Ranaldo?

things the Beastie Boys introduced me to:

Idris Muhammad
Lee "Scratch" Perry
Wild Style
Black Oak Arkansas
Kool Moe Dee vs. Busy Bee
Eddie Harris
The Turtles

add The Meters to that list for me

i think yauch was super gray back when lee was just getting some salt and pepper (xpost)

I thought he was getting better. Fuck this shit.

yeah i hadn't been following what was going on but when they finally released the album i assumed he was gonna be okay! so sad. i didn't even realize he missed the HOF induction last month.

i lost my grandmother a few weeks ago, and have felt really numb to celebrity passings since, but feel really sad about MCA. he seemed like such a decent, hilarious and talented guy, and was always my favourite beastie boy. they were the exact definition of cool to me at a certain age, and probably still now - i started wearing puma suedes because of them, and lookit i'm wearing a pair right now. and they pointed me in the direction of so much amazing music. SO much. a decade or so ago, backstage in glasgow, i got to meet him and even held his baby for a few minutes, and he was as cool as you could ever have wanted him to be.

after he didn't make it to the rock and roll hall of fame a month or so back, i feared the worst. such a shame. listen to those beastie commentaries if you haven't already. they are awesome.

this one made me laugh: http://www.criterion.com/explore/57-adam-yauch-s-top-10

When I was in college in the 90s my group of friends often disagreed about what should be playing on the stereo at any given times. Usually it was a fight between Grateful Dead and Classic Rock vs. Rave music. Beastie Boys seemed like the one thing that made everyone happy.

I still have a couple of the Grand Royal magazines. They seemed like the coolest thing in the world when they first came out. B-Boys were definitely ahead of the game with the whole unearthing of retro culture.

It's hard to even think of all the stuff I was intro'd to by the beastie boys. I definitely checked out Lee Perry because of a name drop in a Beasties song, and their instrumentals got me into 60s/70s Soul Jazz breaks.

damn, rip. didn't even realize he was still sick. ;_;

iirc remy bean has a great story concerning yauch, not sure he posts anymore tho?

oh he's around

I slept in his bed once, and barfed in his mom's commode (he wasn't there). RIP duder.

― Olivia Newton John Justen Bieberheimer Schmidt (remy bean), Friday, May 4, 2012 1:24 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Wanna hear this story sometime.

Apologies if this has already been posted but it cracked me up:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/20/arts/l-ch-check-it-out-one-goat-on-account-996904.html

I slept in his bed once, and barfed in his mom's commode (he wasn't there). RIP duder.

― Olivia Newton John Justen Bieberheimer Schmidt (remy bean),

oh ha

the version i got in person was longer and funnier

I still have a vivid memory of this guy Peter I worked with at a record store right when Licensed came out. He was quite large, wild red hair, horn-rimmed glasses, and (no exaggeration) he had the album memorized word for word within days of its release. Working the floor on a packed Saturday afternoon, with Peter on cash lip-synching to "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn" (with lots of corny hip-hop moves thrown in), was really something. Also remember him describing and quoting from the Joan Rivers appearance the following day in great detail: "Do I detect a note of jealousy?"

other things the Beasties introduced me to:

Lee Dorsey
Richard Pryor's standup
Eddie Harris' "Silver Cycles"
Led Zeppelin (to some extent, heard Rhymin and Stealin before I heard the Ocean for ex.)

Rod Carew

yeah, i got lee dorsey & eddie harris from them, too

The Beasties basically introduced me to late seventies sitcom pop culture.

they also made me think there must have been some minor Knicks player named Evan Bernard

this is the only time i've ever really felt bad after hearing a celebrity died. fuck...

ooh also Les McCann and Eugene McDaniels

xp

i missed their heyday but in 98 every time i turned on mtv i hoped to see the "intergalactic" video

I think the Whatcha Want video and the Sabotage video had a similar pull for me.

Intergalactic is a great one too!

I went to Space Camp between 4th and 5th grade. To shuttle us between our dorms and the giant warehouse that Space Camp was in, we had this bus driver who seemed really old at the time but was probably about 20 and basically like Otto. We were a rowdy bunch of kids and you could smell your back sweat getting stank against the 90-degree interior seat cushions of the bus, but he knew how to keep us quiet -- "If you all sit down, shut up, and don't throw anything out of the windows, I'll playLicense to Ill each time you get in." It had come out the winter before but I mean that shit was a rare, hot currency among 9- and 10-year-olds. So we did as told and he popped the tape in and we all felt like the coolest, most rebellious little shits that week.

whoa

Yauch's mom talks to the NYT briefly about his passing:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/adam-yauch-of-the-beastie-boys-dies/?hp

ha Dare, that is great

RIP
Fuck you, cancer.

the beastie boys are the three stooges of rap. moe howard died may 4, 1975.

When I was in college in the 90s my group of friends often disagreed about what should be playing on the stereo at any given times. Usually it was a fight between Grateful Dead and Classic Rock vs. Rave music. Beastie Boys seemed like the one thing that made everyone happy.

A guy I knew in high school was an obstinate Beatles/Robert Fripp/Richard Thompson/early blues fan was also the very first person I knew who had a copy of License To Ill. I remember visiting him in his dorm room and we'd blast that and Psychocandy like a couple of idiots.

The Mets are all using Beastie Boys as their walkup music tonight

Super bumer. Wrote some thoughts here.

i saw them at the ritz for the first show (i think?) of the licensed to ill tour and its still one of the best shows i've ever seen. but i was in high school and probably really drunk. i was up against the stage and got my picture in newsweek magazine. i was bruised from head to toe. skinheads, jocks, b-boys, it was friggin' mayhem. packed to the rafters.

http://a1.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/93/a6b56de2761e1153caa43a0650994202/l.jpg

jon pareles review of that show has a great headline: ROCK: THE BEASTIE BOYS, RAP-METAL GROUP

http://www.nytimes.com/1986/12/29/arts/rock-the-beastie-boys-rap-metal-group.html

I am now listening to Hello Nasty and am about to open my second beer.

RIP once more for good measure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJAGJ8ckmZY