On Facebook I was asked to list my top ten all-time albums that most influenced me. Since I can't list anything without a huge explanation, this is it. Not only that but I'm writing about my Top 19 instead of my Top 10.
Here's what I wrote on Facebook today, "Here's another quick story: right this very second, the Beastie Boys are my favorite band. Not that you asked, but if you did, that's what I'd say. And this is my favorite album by my favorite band. I've liked the Beastie Boys a lot since when I first heard "License to Ill". Like most kids my age, I wore that tape out and memorized all of the songs. When Paul's Boutique came out, I remember seeing the video for "Hey Ladies" on MTV and not quiet understanding what I was watching. This doesn't sound or look anything like "Fight for Your Right (to Party)" or "No Sleep till Brooklyn". Why were the BBoys wearing 70s clothes? Why weren't they rapping about partying? I didn't like it. At all. It took me a few years to understand and appreciate "Paul's Boutique" but once it sunk its hooks into me, it never let go. I've probably heard this album 10,000 in a variety of places: blasting through the speakers of my friend's 1973 Impala as we cruised through Amesbyry, on a CD through a pair of headphones before I fell asleep in college, over an Alexa speaker while washing the dishes and just about every time I hear something brand new. The sound pastiche that the Beasties created can never be replicated again (the sample budget alone would be astronomical), this album is really one of a kind. If you haven't heard this in awhile, revisit it now."
My wife, oldest daughter and I watched the Beastie Boys documentary on Apple+ on Saturday, which I think is what got me thinking about this album. I'd say that I listen to this album at least once a month, it's one of the few that I go from beginning to end, but I haven't really thought about it in a long time. But "Paul's Boutique" shaped me in a way that was not only musically, but in the way that I look at how other people like things.
Everyone likes the Beastie Boys, but at one point, no one liked "Paul's Boutique", it was too esoteric, too out-there, not enough like "Licensed to Ill" and like I said, I felt that same way. For awhile at least. Then a friend of mine told me to listen to it again, really listen to the lyrics and the music and he was so effusive about how awesome the tape was, I went home and listened to the copy of PB that he dubbed for me.
And he was right, it was fucking mind-blowing. The jokes per minute on this album was off the charts, the layers upon layers upon layers of sound was like a painter using different colors, one on top of another over and over again, until something beautiful formed. It didn't happen over night, there were a few songs that I latched on to right away, "Egg Man", "Johnny Ryall" and "Shake Your Rump" were the first three songs on the tape and the first three that I really enjoyed. It didn't hurt that "Egg Man" was a song that my buddy chose for the annual high school lip sync and he did an awesome job choreographing a story to that tune.
But like I said, once I got it, I became a snob about whether you understood the Beasties the "way I did", which looking back wasn't very much at all*. I thought that if you liked LtI but didn't like PB, there was something fundamentally wrong with you. I never understood that I was in the same boat myself until someone was cool enough to tell me what my problem was.
* The Beastie Boys worked with producers the Dust Brothers on making this album. They and another guy, Matt Dike, were the ones who supplied a lot of the beats that made "Paul's Boutique" "PAUL'S MOTHERFUCKING BOUTIQUE". For some reason, when I heard that the Dust Brothers worked on the album, I thought that the Beasties were all on Angel Dust when they made this album, which is why it sounds so fucking weird. So the lesson, is that I really shouldn't be questioning anyone's intelligence when it comes to liking or disliking things.
Anyway, this album has been with me for a long time. And I've moved beyond just liking the first three songs. To me, this is one of the best and most influential hip-hop albums ever made. So many people have called it the "Sgt. Peppers" of rap and I think that they're right. But it's much more than that. When Sgt. Peppers landed, even though it wasn't like anything that the Beatles did, it was still a big hit. For "Paul's Boutique" it took a long time for it to become a classic. But it is. The Beasites were right, they usually always were, just took a long time for us to catch up.
Just writing about it makes me want to play it, really loud.
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