I saw Hey Ladies every morning before school for a while.
― how's life, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:20 (twelve years ago) link
haha I always forget that about Run DMC. I habitually associate Def Jam with that early Rick Rubin style, what can I say
def saw the Hey Ladies video a couple times when it came out
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link
I remember the premiere of Hey Ladies being a huge deal on MTV, but I don't think I saw any of the other Paul's Boutique videos until well into the 90s.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:23 (twelve years ago) link
with no word of mouth and nothing on radio/TV what was going to fuel sales?
Robert Hillburn!
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:26 (twelve years ago) link
of course!
Maybe if Hey Ladies hadn't had to compete with Love Shack for America's retro kitcsh dollars that fall.
― how's life, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:28 (twelve years ago) link
regarding tougher than leather, it was weird how in '88 that run DMC style of rapping suddenly sounded so old and played out. eazy-e and NWA were huge at this point, I remember having a compilation w/ them and the world class wreckin' cru on it and the latter's "I did THIS then I did THAT" flow sounded so corny.
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:31 (twelve years ago) link
Shadrach got some nominal daytime rotation on MTV iirc. I didn't hear Shake Your Rump until I bought the album years later, tho - that just seems kinda frankly insane!
― fishermen are coveted by whores & stoners (Pillbox), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:32 (twelve years ago) link
also I saw tougher than leather, in the theater, while tripping
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:34 (twelve years ago) link
― how's life, Wednesday, May 9, 2012 1:20 PM (13 minutes ago)
that explains it, I was in college, mornings did not agree with me
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:35 (twelve years ago) link
if I'm remembering this right, wasn't capitol expecting a huge LTI-style blockbuster, got handed this bizarre mishmash, and when it didn't take off immediately they just threw up their hands? frankly they needed some marketing ninjas to sell PB to middle america.
in hindsight PB prolly would've moved more units initially if "looking down the barrel of a gun" was the lead single.
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:42 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, the Beasties getting out of the CBS/Def Jam contract was a hassle iirc and Capitol treated them to a huge contract as their reward...so then they were handed Paul's Boutique and had no clue what to do with it.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 17:45 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, Capitol record held a big shindig on the roof of their building with (no joke) a dixieland jazz band, skywriting, the Cap records president gushing about them ....they even flew the capitol records-style Beastie logo flag over the building. Captiol clearly thought this was going to be massive.
There's even video: http://vimeo.com/26077924
― city worker, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 18:02 (twelve years ago) link
That video is nuts! It all came back to me as soon as I saw the flag being raised and the three of them interviewed on the roof (saw a bunch of that footage on MTV).
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 18:57 (twelve years ago) link
it's going to be hard not to do a 100% paul's boutique / ill communication ballot
― the late great, Wednesday, May 9, 2012 9:21 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
relistening to Ill Communication and DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN!
― Thoughts? You must have loads. (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, May 9, 2012 10:08 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
on relistening i've warmed slightly to ill communication, but it's still clearly a weak sister to check your head. great up through "sabrosa", don't get me wrong, but it loses serious steam after that. i mean, i'm considering voting for five IC tracks, but they all occur within the album's first seven. it's got two short punk jams, neither a tenth as good as "time for livin'", and a bunch of smoked-out instrumentals, none as memorable or inviting as "something's got to give" and "in 3's". though it's only six minutes longer than check your head, the back half of the album feels like a trudge in comparison.
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 18:59 (twelve years ago) link
lol contenderizer that DAAAAetc. happened about a 1/3rd of the way through and i got kinda bored of the end.
― Thoughts? You must have loads. (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:02 (twelve years ago) link
Those instrumentals are pretty great, imo! "Eugene's Lament" , "Futterman's Rule", and "Rickey's Theme"? I cut them from my ballot, but if it had been a bigger ballot, I wouldn't have. Also, you got "Do It" and "The Scoop", which are fresh as fuck.
― how's life, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:03 (twelve years ago) link
actually, maybe the instrumentals work better in the context of "In Sound From Way Out".
In 3's is great, I don't care what anyone says.
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:06 (twelve years ago) link
"Do It" was my highest ranked track from Ill Communication
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:11 (twelve years ago) link
also, i don't think that paul's boutique failed commercially because no one was interested in the beastie boys anymore, or because no one heard it. it was a massive curveball, delivering basically none of the party tantrum rap-metal that had made licensed to ill such a huge hit. "fight for your right to party" fans were bound to be disappointed, and paul's boutique didn't have the kind of immediately accessible, guaranteed crossover hits that could instantly attract a comparably huge new audience. kid buys a copy, wants smash stuff up parent-hating insanity music, is bummed, tells his friends not to bother = bad sales out of the gate. "hey ladies" was a minor hit at best, and that's the only track that comes close to duplicating the LTI vibe.
just watched the LTI video. would have been a huge hit in the early 90s, but nobody was rocking that self-mocking loser/slacker 70s throwback shit in '88, at least not on MTV. as mentioned upthread, they were just a little to far ahead of the curve.
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:14 (twelve years ago) link
^ the "hey ladies" video, i mean
it is, it is! that's what i was saying. guaranteed a spot on my ballot.
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:15 (twelve years ago) link
i'm kind of amazed by the huge steps taken by the BBs over their first five albums. each represents a distinct phase that other acts might have spent several albums exploring (or just going through).
License to Ill - fresh style, massive hitsPaul's Boutique - radical divergence, baroque experimentation, audience lostCheck Your Head - assertion of artistic identity, muso seriousness, audience rebuiltLicense to Ill - artistic stagnation, hits from the rutsHello Nasty - self referentiality, "old school" nostalgia, dance music
of course, part of the reason for this is probably that they took so damn long between albums. the BBs put out just five albums in their first 12 years on major labels. a couple decades earlier but over a similar period, the rolling stones released 14 (give or take, depending on how you count them).
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:51 (twelve years ago) link
you want to call everything Licensed to Ill today, don't you?
― how's life, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:55 (twelve years ago) link
License to Ill represents artistic stagnation? Really? Best album ever released by a "stagnant" group then.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:58 (twelve years ago) link
Sorry Ill Communication LOL mind control.
duh, and i keep calling it license to ill. fuck a brain cell.
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:01 (twelve years ago) link
but yeah, ill communication is the "stagnant" one, imo
Ill Communication only really adds the drone-y and Tibetan-drummy bits sonically. I guess it adds Yauch's interest in Buddhism too. Both of these are added in the back-half of the album. It does feel... I think it's harsh to say stagnation - let's say a consolidation - from Check Your Head. What it does have is a handful of stone cold 100% genius pop smash hits - Sabotage, Sure Shot, Get It Together, Root Down - which really lift the record. Nothing else on it is 'bad', but it doesn't feel as new and fresh and unexpected as CYH.
― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:09 (twelve years ago) link
feels just like a continuum of awesomeness to me.
― i will show you fear in a handful of nuts (how's life), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:16 (twelve years ago) link
Ill Communication always seemed like a more stoned version of CYH, more fuggy. Still a great album though, yeah.
Listening through to Hello Nasty now, seems a lot better than it sounded last time I listened to it (probably about eight years ago). 'Intergalactic' can do one though, the sole BBs song I'm sick of hearing.
― Gavin, Leeds, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:16 (twelve years ago) link
man I love the second half of Ill Communication, a thing in itself, stoned I guess but def reaching for something else, cosmic, the kind of thing you can get lost in. It's their best album imo.
― Euler, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:20 (twelve years ago) link
for the record re PB's reviews; in the 33 and a 3rd book about it there's a quote from TIME magazine(!) that says 'this album is as important to 1989 as Blonde On Blonde was to 1966'. it was raved about in the UK; even the likes of Q magazine went majorly mental about it and they ignored almost all rap.
― piscesx, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:22 (twelve years ago) link
this is entirely my fault for trading too many phish tapes in the 1990s, but half the time I listen to sabotage and it gets to the wwwWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAUUuuuuuuuuuuugggggggghhhh part, i keep expecting to hear Trey from Phish singing it. but it says something about the song and about phish that it got a bigger response out of the crowd than anything else I ever saw them play.
― i will show you fear in a handful of nuts (how's life), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:34 (twelve years ago) link
one aspect of Ill Communication that I definitely get tired of is all the distorted vocals.
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:37 (twelve years ago) link
nothing you can say about Phish can ruin Sabotage for me, no sir
― Peppermint Patty Hearst (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:37 (twelve years ago) link
yup, it's a good trick, served CYH well, but they really run it into the ground on illco
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:46 (twelve years ago) link
wonder how many more votes this gets than the all-time hip-hop poll. i'm gonna say 25-30.
― Thoughts? You must have loads. (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:50 (twelve years ago) link
it doesn't ruin it for me, exactly. god, i was rolling when i saw them do that too. it was a really faithful cover. just a different vocal timbre.
― i will show you fear in a handful of nuts (how's life), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:53 (twelve years ago) link
otm a hoy hoy, that poll's popularity was ridic disappointing
like Ill Communication, the second half of Hello Nasty is open-ended & spacey, a monolithic groove with lots of rooms to get lost inside; really loving HN on this relisten
― Euler, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:54 (twelve years ago) link
always hear a lot of complaints that HN drops off in the second half but I dig it, it's structured like a party where the beginning's all wild and exuberant and by the end ppl are sleeping on the lawn or staring contemplatively at the fishbowl or giving incomprehensible shout-outs and listening to lee perry albums
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 21:04 (twelve years ago) link
but end up quietly reflecting on their own mortality
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 21:05 (twelve years ago) link
ha! yeah, i love that shout-out track. also the one that's like "ravers of the world - UNITE!"
― i will show you fear in a handful of nuts (how's life), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 21:07 (twelve years ago) link
I think I like that aspect of the Beastie Boys, the reclining into self-awareness in the second halves of their albums (after LTI, I guess); but it's especially vivid in their three 90s albums. I recognize the switch but it's a turn-on for me after the boom of the singles.
― Euler, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 21:09 (twelve years ago) link
this goes out to..... NEWCASTLE.... where VENOM come from
― diamanda ram dass (Edward III), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 21:10 (twelve years ago) link
idk just listened to Ill Communication and was really feelin' that second half. Stoned jammy murk forever. This poll is impossible.
― Badmotorfinger Debate Club (MFB), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 21:17 (twelve years ago) link
yeah that side is the best
― Euler, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 21:24 (twelve years ago) link
― Thoughts? You must have loads. (a hoy hoy), Wednesday, May 9, 2012 1:50 PM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Euler, Wednesday, May 9, 2012 1:54 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
well, it's a lot easier to get your mind around a handful of albums than three decades of history in one of the most vibrant and active pop genres. plus ILM rap, R&B & dance music heads are super territorial and dismissive of incorrect/inexpert opinions. takes the fun out of those genres for me (at least as they exist on this board).
― 10. “Pour Some Sugar On Me” – Tom Cruise (contenderizer), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 21:27 (twelve years ago) link
Having that Beach Boys thread up at the same time as two important Beastie Boys threads is fucking up my game a little.
― i will show you fear in a handful of nuts (how's life), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 22:30 (twelve years ago) link