On April 14, 2012, the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame will be inducting it’s first hardcore band. They started out playing at A7, Max’s Kansas City, The Mudd Club, CBGB’s, Gildersleeves and Tompkins Square Park, then released two records on Rat Cage. No, it’s not the Neos or Agnostic Front, it’s the Beastie Boys. Everyone has an opinion on the Beastie Boys – they were controversial before they even began their transition to hip hop, in fact I can’t think of a band that has polarized more people in the last 20 years. Here are some of my thoughts along with some of their early songs and video footage. No matter what your opinion is, please keep in mind that this is the first (and probably the last) time that any hardcore band will be allowed anywhere near the Hall of Fame.
Holy Snappers – Polly Wog Stew EP (Rat Cage)
In 1982, Beastie Boys recorded their first 7” EP, Polly Wog Stew at 171A Studio in New York City. Later that year, Rat Cage repressed the EP on cassette and as a 12” in France. During their rise to fame these songs were not available commercially, in fact it took twelve years for them to be re-released. In 1994, Beastie Boys included the entire EP on their Some Old Bullshit compilation, which they released on their now defunct record label, Grand Royal.
Riot Fight – New York Thrash Compilation (ROIR)
Apparently the only requirement to be nominated into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame is that you have a discography that is at least 25 years old. 80’s hair metal legends Guns N’ Roses are also included in this round of inductions, who also have a minor footnote in punk with bassist Duff Mackagan’s stint in The Fastbacks and as drummer in The Fartz. It is kind of weird to think that GnR has anything in common with the Beastie Boys, especially considering that the later took part in dethroning the former.
Ode To… – Polly Wog Stew EP (Rat Cage)
In 1980 Jerry Williams opened his rehearsal space 171A at 171 Avenue A. They used the space for everything: they put on shows, recorded bands, showed movies and let punk kids crash there without asking questions. According to Jerry in American Hardcore, the space had no permits for live music or liquor, and basically existed in a legal black hole. They charged $6 to $8 per hour for bands to rehearse and had a gigantic PA system. A year later, Dave Parsons opened a record store and hangout beneath 171A called Rat Cage Ltd. Rat Cage was actually the first advertiser in The Big Takeover, way back in issue #8 from December 1981. Their ad described some of their services: “T-Shirts, import records, sold & traded clothes, fanzines, badges and local shit.”
Cookie Puss – Cookie Puss 12” (Rat Cage)
In my mind, the most important year for the Beasties was 1983. At that time they were both a hardcore band and a dub outfit. That year, they opened for Marginal Man, Necros, Bad Brains, and Reagan Youth. Not to mention Swans, Antidote, Dead Kennedys and Live Skull. They also started playing shows at Danceteria, a dance club that frequently hosted dub / funk / trash disco parties. By the summer of 1984, they were regulars at the club, playing parties with Afrika Bambaata and Kool Moe Dee. As strange as this song-based-on-a-commercial for Carvel Ice Cream is, it is still widely recognized as one of the best hip hop singles of 1983. If you didn’t grow up in metro NYC and have never seen the commercials that inspired this song, I would stop reading this immediately and watch this.
Live on the Scott & Gary Show
Taped in Jan 1984 at Metrovision in New York. The Beastie Boys only played 11 or 12 shows in 1984, they went through several transition periods that started as far back as 1982, when original drummer Kate Schellenbach left to start her own band.
Rock Hard – Rock Hard 12” (Def Jam)
After meeting Rick Rubin and playing a string of successful shows around the country, the Beastie Boys got signed to Def Jam records. In 1984 they began recording with Rubin and put out two twelve inch records, She’s On It and Rock Hard. The later’s title song, Rock Hard, featured an unlicensed sample of AC/DC‘s Back in Black. AC/DC took legal action against the Beastie Boys and the record was quickly pulled from shelves. According to the internet (which is never wrong), this particular battle of intellectual property rights is still being ironed out.
Beastie Groove – Rock Hard 12” (Def Jam)
The Beastie Boys rise to fame was pushed along with the help of several other 80’s superstars. In early 1985 they were hand selected by Madonna to be the opening band of her Like A Virgin tour, which began in April of that year. The Beasties were given a 30 minute slot and were frequently booed off stage. You have to understand how extremely lucky the Beasties were to go on this tour, this would be like Lady Gaga asking Iceage to open for her. Audiences are still fickle, and unfortunately musical crossovers of this magnitude are few and far between.
The Party’s Getting Rough – Rock Hard 12” (Def Jam)
The Beastie Boys were (and still are) pioneers in mash ups and re-appropriations. But this didn’t come without a price. One of my least favorite words in our modern vernacular is the term “Hipster”, but I’m not above picking it apart. I would make the argument that the Beastie Boys inspired the entire hipster era. After all, the Beastie Boys were the first white group to appear on the hip hop charts. They were also the first group of kids to admit to liking both rock and rap. Before the Beastie Boys, these two groups of music fans did not intermingle. You simply liked one or the other, the idea that you could enjoy (or create) more than one type of music in the mid 80’s was insane. The modern hipster that we all love to hate is therefore a disciple of Beastie theory: Listen to what ever kind of music you like, wear whatever you want, and feel free to mix styles together.
Rhymin’ & Stealin’ – Licensed To Ill (Def Jam)
Over the years, some critics have accused the Beastie Boys of being misogynistic. It’s kind of hard to defend them against that charge while they are on stage with cage dancers in lingerie. I can remember hearing License To Ill for the very first time, it was the summer of 1986 and I was eleven years old. It was the first time I’d heard rap and rock mixed (except for Walk This Way, which still sounded like rock to me) together. Songs like “Girls” certainly don’t help their case, but show me a 21 year-old male who isn’t a brash, sex-crazed asshole and I’ll let you hold the thousand-dollar bill I keep folded up in my wallet. It’s unfair to label them as sexist because as the audience we had the advantage: We did our growing up behind closed doors. The Beasties had to do theirs in front of millions of people. Could they have been more sensitive to women? Sure they could have. In my mind they offset their discretions in the 90’s by getting involved with politics. They got thousands of frat boys to think about Tibet, what could be punker than that?
The New Style – Licensed To Ill (Def Jam)
The New Style was the world’s introduction to the world of the Beastie Boys. A world where it was perfectly normal to smash people’s reading glasses or steal their bike for a minor offense. A world where you could smoke weed with six girls in a Lincoln Continental after eating at White Castle. And all of this was happening at the beginning of an economic boom in America, a time before AIDS and crack. I guess what I’m saying is that it is wrong to sleep with twins and then shoot their father. But. You can certainly understand why so many teenagers loved that idea, especially when put forth by dudes walking down the street in head-to-toe Adidas with beepers and 40’s.
