Listen to Life Mixed Tape
License to Ill by the Beastie Boys came out in 1986 and rose to #1 on Billboard 200 in 1987. How
come you never hear the Beastie Boys on the best of an 80's collection? "Fight for your Right" was played on the radio constantly It didn't appeal to me immediately. It didn't sound like most of the music I was listening to, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Peter Gabriel, and Sting. What can I say? I was a "cultured" 10 year old who was getting ready for the sounds of Adult Contemporary music. Glam rock and the new "Rap" thing seemed a bit jockish and noisy for my taste.
Yet, License to Ill grew on me. My brother listened to the cassette so often that he had to replace it. Chris, my best friend at the time loved the album as well. I can specifically remember him and my brother singing all the words to "Paul Revere" while we hoed the cucumber fields for my dad. Music helped us to survive those long summer days of working in the fields- singing- portable radios, and walkmans (walkmen??).
Looking back now, I realize how many songs from "License to Ill" crept into my bones and I enjoy them still. But the great thing about the Beastie Boys is they just kept getting better. When Paul's Boutique arrived in July 1989, no doubt my brother was first in line at Tower Records at the Beaverton Mall getting the CD. I don't remember listening to that album much when it came out, but I count it as one of my favorites now. A few year ago, KMHD in Seattle did an entire radio show playing ever song that was sampled in Paul's Boutique. It was amazing. Check out this fan site that seeks to document the many samples that makes this album dense and always enjoyable.
I don't think it was until college when I fully realized the excellence of the Beastie Boys. I remember specifically talking to this woman at Evergreen in Olympia, WA who I really respected as someone who knew everything about the Olympia music scene. By this time, I had a total crush on grunge, the northwest sound, and all things Olympia. I was shocked to find out how much she loved the Beastie Boys. I thought the rule of the Oly scene was to despise anything on the radio, anything popular, anything that had "sold out." But that was the genius of the Beastie Boys, they just kept evolving, and appealed to so many people in my generation. They were boisterous, creative and fun to listen to. I became hooked. By April of 1992 the B-Boys shared their punk rock roots with Check Your Head. A disc that I regularly listened to throughout college, and according to Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, " (it) turned out to be an alt-rock touchstone of the '90s, something that both set trends and predicted them."
So I, like so many of my generation, grew up with the Beastie Boys. We are thankful for their long, fruitful career as a band. And that is why it was such a blow to lose Adam Yauch at such a young age. We miss Adam (Rest In Peace) and the Beastie Boys. Now I am going to go post a bunch of Beastie Boys on my Life Mixed Tape.
Enjoy.
Notes: Picture #2: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wishbook/29289194112
License to Ill by the Beastie Boys came out in 1986 and rose to #1 on Billboard 200 in 1987. How
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| Masao Nakagami, Beastie-boys, CC BY-SA 2.0 |
Yet, License to Ill grew on me. My brother listened to the cassette so often that he had to replace it. Chris, my best friend at the time loved the album as well. I can specifically remember him and my brother singing all the words to "Paul Revere" while we hoed the cucumber fields for my dad. Music helped us to survive those long summer days of working in the fields- singing- portable radios, and walkmans (walkmen??).
Looking back now, I realize how many songs from "License to Ill" crept into my bones and I enjoy them still. But the great thing about the Beastie Boys is they just kept getting better. When Paul's Boutique arrived in July 1989, no doubt my brother was first in line at Tower Records at the Beaverton Mall getting the CD. I don't remember listening to that album much when it came out, but I count it as one of my favorites now. A few year ago, KMHD in Seattle did an entire radio show playing ever song that was sampled in Paul's Boutique. It was amazing. Check out this fan site that seeks to document the many samples that makes this album dense and always enjoyable.
So I, like so many of my generation, grew up with the Beastie Boys. We are thankful for their long, fruitful career as a band. And that is why it was such a blow to lose Adam Yauch at such a young age. We miss Adam (Rest In Peace) and the Beastie Boys. Now I am going to go post a bunch of Beastie Boys on my Life Mixed Tape.
Enjoy.
Notes: Picture #2: https://www.flickr.com/photos/wishbook/29289194112
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