In honor of the Beastie Boys’ new release, The Hot Sauce Committee Part Two, we’re listening to their first seven albums (in order) and blogging our thoughts.
Greetings. My name is J-Mazz and I've been brought aboard the Empty Reviews starship because I have a journalism degree and have always wanted to use my $70,000 education for blogging. Join us, won’t you, on a B-Boy Odyssey…
Check Your Head (1992)
1. Jimmy James
This next one is the first song on our new album…
Little did we know that this next one was actually the first song in the Beasties’ new sound. Calling them chameleon would be an understatement after their first two albums, the former a collection of guitar-heavy anthems and the latter an eclectic mash of samples that paved the way for contemporary artists such as Danger Mouse and Girl Talk. In addition to hard-hitting rhymes delivered with a never-before-seen intensity and purpose for the trio, Check Your Head (CYH) unveiled everyone’s favorite Jewish rappers as competent musicians, which is alluded to on the album cover. Most bands would kill for a career song catalogue as eclectic as what the Beasties cram into 60+ minutes. So while “Jimmy James” doesn’t stand out to me as one of the stronger tracks from this album, it sets the table for the Beastie Boys’ first (and some would argue, ultimate) masterpiece.
2. Funky Boss
Hello, musical instruments. Cut the guys some slack for their limited lyrics on this tune, as they were probably devoting all their attention to getting reacquainted with guitars and drums. Somewhere along the way, it became a secret anthem between coworkers everywhere who hate their boss (and that’s a lot of people). I sometimes wish I’d played it to my boss in DC every time he came into my office. Man, that guy was (and assuredly still is) a douche.
3. Pass The Mic
One of the classics, this is where the album goes into fifth gear. I’ve always loved each member’s ability to seamlessly follow another’s lines without missing a beat. Oh, and kudos to Mike D for attempting to use “commercial” in a rhyme, then aborting the mission and just repeating the word instead. On a side note, does anyone remember the video for this song? It sounded identical to the album version until Mike D’s final solo, which was remixed with some loop I’ve heard them use in concerts. Very nicely done, Mario C and/or DJ Hurricane.
4. Gratitude
The only quote I used in my senior yearbook quote came from this song:
What’s gonna set you free?
Look inside and you’ll see.
I’m still not sure what I hoped to convey by including this quote. Regardless, let’s hear it for the first rockin’ tune from our newfound (at the time) musicians!
5. Lighten Up
Music for studying when I was in high school. Oh, and the horn has always reminded me of a humpback whale’s mating calls.
6. Finger Lickin’ Good
Great collaboration between the business man (Mike D) and the philanthropist (MCA), capped with a Bob Dylan sample and shout-outs to Adrock and the supporting actors (Mario C and the Hurra). In high school, my friend and I were convinced this song had something to do with sex, yet we were never able to fully explain it. I still can't explain most things related to sex.
7. So What’cha Want
Is there anything that hasn’t been said about this song? It’s interesting how the simplest video in their vast MTV collection yielded one of their most recognizable songs ever. Much like Eminem’s “Whatever You Say I Am” was a direct response to his critics, I wonder if the B-Boys used similar fuel to build the fire in this song. The nastiness is palpable in Adrock’s voice when he first delivers the lines, “So what’cha, what’cha, what’cha want,” addressing critics and fans alike as they struggled to fit the B-Boys into a nice, neat musical category. This entire album only added to that struggle.
8. The Biz vs. The Nuge
Biz Markie versus… Ted Nugent?
9. Time For Livin’
One man’s theory on the general mood in the room while recording this track: “Yo America, some of us used to play in punk bands. So SUCK… ON… THIS!”
10. Something’s Got To Give
It’s sad that the obvious message in this song has clearly been lost to the world in the past 20 years or so. When released, the Cold War had just ended and America’s lower class and poor were still recovering from Reaganomics. Now we’re fighting two-and-a-half wars and recovering from what was perhaps the worst presidential administration this nation has ever seen. Of course, when I first heard this song in high school, I just thought it was good study music and a nice change from all the Rage Against The Machine I listened to.
11. The Blue Nun
I’ve got to find out what wine those people are drinking! Damnit, Peter, tell me!
12. Stand Together
MCA brings the thun-dah on this track! Perhaps this is the song that made him “known for my speed raps,” which makes To The 5 Boroughs all the more difficult to listen to. Seriously, Mike D carried that album with Adrock adding an occasional boost here and there when the lifting got too heavy. Our friend Adam Yauch? He showed his age faster than an overpaid designated hitter or a female porn star.
13. Pow
I love the ease with which the tempo builds in this song, followed by the climax (Pow!) and gradual slowing of pace. It’s almost a secret soundtrack for sex, and at two minutes and 14 seconds, the timing is perfect.
14. The Maestro
When I was a freshman in college, a senior (Grace Arbiza was her name) made me a sweet Beastie Boys mix tape. The cassette itself was blue, making it even cooler. In the spring, she approached me and another of her guy friends about starring in a music video for her final project in some video editing class. She’d decided on creating a Beastie Boys video, which led to one of the coolest projects (to this day) I’ve ever collaborated on. We spent an entire day in the Communications Building listening to “The Maestro” over and over and over and over and over again. The other guy and I would lip sync the entire song in one location, then change outfits and setting before filming again. I wish I had a copy of that video handy, or even better, a DVD (this was still in the VHS era, at least for everyday consumers). I watched it a few years ago and it still holds up. Seeing how I dressed as a 19-year-old only adds to the entertainment.
15. Groove Holmes
Not their strongest instrumental, but still quality. More study music, nothing more, nothing less. I’d apologize for the brevity in this song’s review, but it’s after midnight and I’m sick and exhausted.
16. Live At PJ’s
I remember dancing to this song in my friend’s room, channeling Adrock as I sang at the top of my lungs while the CD blasted on his ‘90s boombox (with dual tape decks!):
This drive-thru world, it just ain’t right.
Gonna run to Joe & Tony’s and get my hair cut nice, nice
(Yeah, get real nice, y’all)
Not really sure what the hell this song’s about, but it’s a fun beat that requires very little thinking. I like that. Fifteen years after first hearing this tune, I still smile when Adrock says, “Come back next week, (we’ll) have some cheese for ya.”
17. Mark On The Bus
This was on my answering machine* for a while when I was in college. I don’t think I even said anything in the message. People would call and after a few rings they’d hear “Good morning. Time to get up and go to work…” At the end of the song, they’d hear the beep. Thank God my friends in college were patient. The women’s soccer team, not so much. That’s the only reason I can think of as to why they never left me a message on my machine.
18. Professor Booty
I absolutely love this song, by far my favorite on the album. The first time my friend played it for me, I remember the two of us just looking at each other and laughing during the dialogue preceding the song. “Booty. Boo-boo-boo-booty. Booty.” I still pull lines from it for my bookface status, and always sing to myself whenever someone mentions “icicle” or “electric.” Mike D’s penultimate moment as a Beastie Boy may very well be:
You got the boomin’ system, but it’s blastin’out doodoo.
You think it’s chocolate milk, but it’s watered-down Yoo-Hoo
God, I wish I’d thought of that.
19. In 3’s
After 18 tracks, neglecting this upbeat instrumental is excusable. In fact, the old Beasties would’ve ended the album with Professor Booty, leaving listeners with a lasting taste of in-your-face beats as a backdrop for ingenious, and sometimes sophomoric, lyrics to tide them over until Ill Communication. But CYH isn’t simply another chapter in their sound, but rather a new testament. So it’s only fitting that the 19th track is a plump, crisp mesh of drums, bass, and guitar, a parting gift from three guys brave enough to present their fans with something completely different, unsure of the results. I’d say the gamble paid off.
20. Namaste
Staying true to the album’s unpredictability, the B-Boys decided to close their first album in three years with a philosophical lullaby. I can’t fathom how many times I drifted into slumber while listening to this song in high school, either in bed or on long bus rides home from basketball games. Like books and films, I view albums as texts with an underlying theme. I also pay close attention to the first and last lines of these texts, and love how CYH concludes:
And a voice spoke in my head.
She said, ‘Dark is not the absence of light; it’s the absence of it.’
And I thought to myself, she knows what she’s talking about.
And for a minute I knew what it was all about.
And as MCA’s voice trails off, we’re left to wonder, “What is it all about? And what the hell happened to the band that created Brass Monkey and Hey Ladies?” As all good texts should, the hour-long journey that is CYH leaves listeners with more questions than answers, multiplying with every listen.
*Answering machines were the predecessor to voicemail. Before cell phones, people couldn’t reach others whenever they wanted. Often, they’d call a person’s house and have to leave a voice recording on a tiny cassette tape in a machine attached to the telephone (now known as a landline). Obviously, this created challenges in emergencies such as a family medical crisis, car troubles, and booty calls.
Read all parts here.
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