The Beastie Boys
I once owned Licensed to Ill on vinyl. Then I had the CD. That disappeared into the void somewhere, probably at a party. The rest of my Beastie product follows. And, boring personal news of the “When it rains, it pours” variety.
Paul’s Boutique: Yes, I too hated it when it came out, only to realize later that it was actually pretty cool, only to then lose interest.
Alio E Olio: Trying to prove they can still rawk!
Check Your Head: Still gets heavy play.
The In Sound From Way Out: This gets the most play of all their discs. I actually use it at work sometimes. It’s not bad as background music in some classes. Just what the Beasties would want to hear, I’m sure, background music. It is enough to cover up the dead silence that nobody wishes to break, without overwhelming people. Plus, I enjoy it. Students tend to like it and often ask who it is.
Root Down: Cheap bootleg picked up in Hanoi.
Hello Nasty: Kinda all over the place, but what else is new.
As mentioned above, Licensed to Ill is conspicuously absent from this list. I had it. I don’t need to have it anymore. OK, that is a lie. I need to replace that disc, just for completion. I am a geek.
Even if I don’t have the disc anymore, I still remember the show. They played New Haven Coliseum on that tour, with Public Enemy and Murphy’s Law opening up. Who thought this was a good idea? This was way before Public Enemy had crossed over to the white suburban brat mainstream. The concert was not a showcase for peaceful coexistence and the power of music to break barriers.
I lived in New Haven for a couple years. It is a tough town, or at least it was. Frat boys out to see a giant inflatable penis and dancing girls in cages, sometimes racist skinhead hardcore fans of Murphy’s Law, and the at that time predominantly black Public Enemy fans made for a pretty screwed up mix. Everybody hated everybody else’s music, so why stop there? Things got pretty bruising at points. A hockey rink sized mosh pit free-for-all was not a brilliant idea. It was the last concert held at the Coliseum for many years. This narrowly beat a double bill of The Fleshtones and Black Uhuru as the most idiotic concert line up ever.
“When it rains, it pours.”
Hadn’t heard from my sister in a while, so when I got an e-mail I was less than overjoyed to hear that a close friend of the family had died suddenly in her sleep and one of my uncles tried to kill himself. Apparently he came pretty damn close, but a bad drug interaction kept him from kicking off. All this one week after my Mom lost her second brother to cancer. Cancer got the first one about six months ago. Oh, and the wife has finally admitted that she is ill. Guess what? That’s the good news. End of whining fit.
Off to work I go!
