was also the tape i had in my walkman when i was travelling and all my shit got stolen, so for a good 6 months its all i had, still have memories of being up cherry trees in Switzerland blasting that shit, picking Avocadoes on a kibbutz blasting that shit, driving through the desert in egypt, baked on desert weed, blasting that shit. Pauls Boutique is my shit.
I remember being at Tower records and seeing shelves and shelves filled with "Paul's Boutique" cassettes. The album practically tanked, even though everyone in junior high knew the lyrics to "Paul Revere" by heart. I got drunk for the first time with that tape playing on repeat at a house party. I'm stoned, and thinking back that far is right now.
I didn't really get into "Paul's Boutique" until a couple years after it dropped. My tastes started to change by then (I was graduating from high school), and I started to get into funk. I appreciated PB considerably at that time. PB was really the album that turned me on to funk. I was desperate to know the samples on that album, and I had never even considered sample sources for any album before. I wanted to hear that music in its original state. Too bad there was no internet back then and it took so fucking long. I didn't even know the Beatles' Abbey Road sample. Never heard the B side of Abbey Road until college.
I asked the owner of the local record shop, way back in 1991 or so, for some funk recommendations, and I ended up with a reissue 45 of "Cissy Strut" and a copy of Herbie Hancock's "Man-Child" LP, which now hangs framed on my wall. "Hang Up Your Hang Ups" was my joint for a long time.
But yeah, PB definitely has a spot in or near my top ten, for at least partially nostalgiac reasons.
Top 10? Possible. But I never thought of the sampling as all that innovative--they were label mates with PE and I'm sure they talked about different kinds of production. Its like having Picasso in your art class and doing your own version of the same thing.
Technically, the way the Dust Brothers sampled things was pretty rote-- as much as they layer, they never approach the chaos of PE's "Nation of Millions" from the previous year.
I'm sure i've read in a few interviews that a lot of the Dust Brothers tracks were done in 87/88 as instrumental tracks in their own right, the Beasties then took them as they were and rhymed over them, I don't think it was as much the Bomb Squad influence as the fact the the Dust Bros. were stoners with a lot of records
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
I was a college student working part-time in a record store when this came out. The Beasties had not long found themselves on the dirty end of a UK tabloid hate campaign which culminated in a mini-riot at their show at Liverpool's Royal Court Theatre, and by this time a lot of people over here had written them off as a novelty act. Anyway, the regional EMI sales rep came into the store one afternoon, bemoaning the fact that he couldn't get any stores to carry the new Beastie Boys album. We took a few, though, one of which I copped myself (I'd already got the "Love American Style" EP a little earlier), and it completely blew me away. I even got fired from a DJ gig at a local bar for playing the whole of side 2 from end-to-end one evening. It's still my absolute favourite record of theirs, although one or two of the subsequent ones are pretty good, too.
The main reason I still like it because it's indicative of a time when, creatively, rap music was still wide-open and could throw up genuinely surprising records like this on a regular basis. It's clearly influenced by the Bomb Squad, although they took some of the Bomb Squad's ideas and ran in a different direction with it. I remember reading an interview with Hank Shocklee where he said they used to have two or three copies of "Paul's Boutique" lying around the studio, and they'd go over it trying to figure out where they got one half of the beats from. And, for the life of me, I still can't figure out how they managed to sample the Beatles and get away with it.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
I have the 'Paul's Boutique' demos if people want to hear them.
Yeah, I'd be up for hearing them - does it sound wildly different from the end product?
Essential album. The Beasties can??t really rap and I personally don??t like their voices very much. However, the production is simply great and - nobody mentioned that yet - the gatefold cover is cool.
Essential album. The Beasties can??t really rap and I personally don??t like their voices very much. However, the production is simply great and - nobody mentioned that yet - the gatefold cover is cool.
I actually like the voices; there are distinct personalities in there. Yes, lyrically or technically they are not pusing the verbal envelope but it's done honestly for the love of the music, and for me, it works most of the time.
I am coming from the "3 MCs and 1 DJ / Check It Out" angle though. Search YouTube.com for beasties and check the 3 MCs video. At least they can do it live and entertain.
It's great reading other people's fond memories of this LP. Mine are the same. Bought the EP not expecting much but thought it was amazing. (I think the UK media had just created this evil monster and it was difficult to get excited about their next LP). Held off from the LP for a month or so and got it cheap in a second hand record shop (presumably someone was expecting Licenced to Ill 2) so their loss was my gain. I was totally blown away by it.
Partly because 'innovative' is the most boring and largely innaccurate thing to say about it.
C'mon dood.....
I had the tape forever. The cassettes came in all different colors. It took me a bit to get into it as a youngster, of course I was expecting LTI Pt. 2.
And, for the life of me, I still can't figure out how they managed to sample the Beatles and get away with it.
didnt the label get into serious troubles after the record dropped. I believe they had to fire alot of people...beasties got a huge advance and then the label couldnt promote the record or something...someone on here must know the story...
I remember getting a promo tape before the LP dropped. I also remember picking it up the day it came out and soon after there were major
As I recall, alot of critics really liked the album, but most of the people that bought LTI were upset that it wasn't another "Beer, Sex & Party" record. And sales weren't really great.
It wasn't til a few years down the line that PB became known as a "classic"
Also, I believe there were 3 singles rls'd off the LP. Not 100% sure if it was 3. But Hey Ladies wasn't the only 12".
Oh, and like Phill, maybe not Top 10, but top 20 4sure.
i love bars that have cd jukeboxes where you can pick album songs. i always look for spottieoatiedopalicious and beastie-boy bouillabase....thats right, my dollar is gonna hold shit hostage for an hour!!!
reminds me of a vacation in Hungary some years ago - my crap ass camping woke up to 'jump around' on repeat for a few hours every day. Who puts a jukebox outside at 8 in the morning anyway?
Somehow a lot of my rock/metal friends listen to paul's boutique btw - no idea why..
A great album. I wish they would have broke it up into a 2xLP instead of cramming it all on one.
There is a 2xLP version--I don't know if it's a reissue or what because I didn't buy it on vinyl until well after it came out. My assumption is that it's a reissue, though.
Anyway, I cosign with Doc McCoy. A great part of the nostalgia for that album is that it's part of a time when music seemed to be wide open. Put it in context with 3 Feet High and the Bomb Squad shit, and it seemed like a part of this movement to really push sampling to its apex. But nostalgia aside, it still stands as a remarkable album. Probably not Top 10 to me, but close to it.
DocMcCoy"Go and laugh in your own country!" 5,917 Posts
And, for the life of me, I still can't figure out how they managed to sample the Beatles and get away with it.
didnt the label get into serious troubles after the record dropped. I believe they had to fire alot of people...beasties got a huge advance and then the label couldnt promote the record or something...someone on here must know the story...
It's the kind of thing that you'd expect to turn into some kind of legal nightmare at some point, but I don't remember ever hearing that it did. 'Sound Of Science' is still on the record, so there obviously wasn't any 'Grey Album'-type cease-and-desist business. The only thing I can think of was that it all happened around the time Michael Jackson got control of the Beatles publishing. 'Revolution' was licensed for a Nike ad around the same time, so maybe someone thought they could do what they wanted with the catalogue. Perhaps the Beasties somehow managed to get it approved without their consent, and for whatever reason the Beatles just charged it to the game. Even if you consider that the wider industry knew little or nothing about sampling back then, it still seems unusual.
Essential album. The Beasties can??t really rap and I personally don??t like their voices very much. However, the production is simply great and - nobody mentioned that yet - the gatefold cover is cool.
Didn't Redman or Method Man do a cover of one of the PB songs? Was it Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun?
I too love bars with CD jukeboxes with whole albums on them...if they have the "White Album", before I leave I always leave the patrons enjoying "Revolution #9". he he.
And, for the life of me, I still can't figure out how they managed to sample the Beatles and get away with it.
didnt the label get into serious troubles after the record dropped. I believe they had to fire alot of people...beasties got a huge advance and then the label couldnt promote the record or something...someone on here must know the story...
The samples were cleared... which is probably why there was no budget for promotion. I remember when Check Your Head came out they were saying they spent so much money on samples for PB that was part of what inspired them to go into the studio and create their own breaks live from then on out.
And, for the life of me, I still can't figure out how they managed to sample the Beatles and get away with it.
didnt the label get into serious troubles after the record dropped. I believe they had to fire alot of people...beasties got a huge advance and then the label couldnt promote the record or something...someone on here must know the story...
As I recall there was some kind of power struggle or management change at Capital Records and they either thought they could float this album on the success of LTI or simply tried to bury it. Hey Ladies was the obvious choice for a single but I think it's the weakest effort on the album. Still, while every song is excellent it's one of those albums that succeeds incredibly as a album but doesn't have anything that jumps out as a powerful single to drive sales. The trade off is that it's shelf life is long and kids are always rediscovering it with each new Beastie Boys single. With all it's samples maybe it's best that it was never a huge hit. I think it avoided lawsuits entirely. Did they clear any of the samples on it even?
A great album. I wish they would have broke it up into a 2xLP instead of cramming it all on one.
There is a 2xLP version--I don't know if it's a reissue or what because I didn't buy it on vinyl until well after it came out. My assumption is that it's a reissue, though.
Anyway, I cosign with Doc McCoy. A great part of the nostalgia for that album is that it's part of a time when music seemed to be wide open. Put it in context with 3 Feet High and the Bomb Squad shit, and it seemed like a part of this movement to really push sampling to its apex. But nostalgia aside, it still stands as a remarkable album. Probably not Top 10 to me, but close to it.
Grand Royal put it out about five years ago. Double gatefold sleeve and double vinyl.
A great album. I wish they would have broke it up into a 2xLP instead of cramming it all on one.
There is a 2xLP version--I don't know if it's a reissue or what because I didn't buy it on vinyl until well after it came out. My assumption is that it's a reissue, though.
Anyway, I cosign with Doc McCoy. A great part of the nostalgia for that album is that it's part of a time when music seemed to be wide open. Put it in context with 3 Feet High and the Bomb Squad shit, and it seemed like a part of this movement to really push sampling to its apex. But nostalgia aside, it still stands as a remarkable album. Probably not Top 10 to me, but close to it.
They started pressing a 2lp UK version.. don't know if it was official or not but I assume that it was licensed. I think this was around 93ish maybe.
I pondered this whole question of 'great or not' and 'ahead of its time or not' last night and I definately say it is both great and ahead of its time...
I think you could make an argument that it was the most conceptually complete rap album to date (the elaborate packaging, the multi-sample/cut n paste aesthetic which fit the idea of an assemblage of found beats and samples - thus the nyc thrift store motif). It seems they intended to make a masterpiece in the mold of Abbey Road which is what they did. Scratching on the moog on Shake Your Rump.. using 'them shoes' for Car Thief.. Shadrach.. Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun.. every song on the album was a revelation. A few years later when odelay came out it was hailed as a big landmark album by everyone but to me is sounded like they had just re-hashed a lot of the production of Paul's Botique.
Some internet dorks got together on usenet and figured out all the samples. That seems to exist today as:
Pretty good read to see just how many and how varied the samples were on each song. Always wondered if the various labels found this a useful resource in trying to recoop on the uncleared samples.
A few years later when odelay came out it was hailed as a big landmark album by everyone but to me is sounded like they had just re-hashed a lot of the production of Paul's Botique.
Yeah, I remember that, too. People were creaming themselves over Odelay, and while it was a well-produced album, I couldn't help thinking, "It's just a less rappy Paul's Boutique." I wasn't mad, though--hearing more Dust Brothers tracks was certainly a welcome thing.
I was always assumed the Beatles samples were easily cleared because they were on Capitol, who originally released the Beatles LP's, even if they didn't own the publishing.
Comments
was also the tape i had in my walkman when i was travelling and all my shit got stolen, so for a good 6 months its all i had, still have memories of being up cherry trees in Switzerland blasting that shit, picking Avocadoes on a kibbutz blasting that shit, driving through the desert in egypt, baked on desert weed, blasting that shit.
Pauls Boutique is my shit.
and demos?... Blighty, c'mon mayne, PM me PLAESE!
I didn't really get into "Paul's Boutique" until a couple years after it dropped. My tastes started to change by then (I was graduating from high school), and I started to get into funk. I appreciated PB considerably at that time. PB was really the album that turned me on to funk. I was desperate to know the samples on that album, and I had never even considered sample sources for any album before. I wanted to hear that music in its original state. Too bad there was no internet back then and it took so fucking long. I didn't even know the Beatles' Abbey Road sample. Never heard the B side of Abbey Road until college.
I asked the owner of the local record shop, way back in 1991 or so, for some funk recommendations, and I ended up with a reissue 45 of "Cissy Strut" and a copy of Herbie Hancock's "Man-Child" LP, which now hangs framed on my wall. "Hang Up Your Hang Ups" was my joint for a long time.
But yeah, PB definitely has a spot in or near my top ten, for at least partially nostalgiac reasons.
Technically, the way the Dust Brothers sampled things was pretty rote-- as much as they layer, they never approach the chaos of PE's "Nation of Millions" from the previous year.
I'm sure i've read in a few interviews that a lot of the Dust Brothers tracks were done in 87/88 as instrumental tracks in their own right, the Beasties then took them as they were and rhymed over them, I don't think it was as much the Bomb Squad influence as the fact the the Dust Bros. were stoners with a lot of records
The main reason I still like it because it's indicative of a time when, creatively, rap music was still wide-open and could throw up genuinely surprising records like this on a regular basis. It's clearly influenced by the Bomb Squad, although they took some of the Bomb Squad's ideas and ran in a different direction with it. I remember reading an interview with Hank Shocklee where he said they used to have two or three copies of "Paul's Boutique" lying around the studio, and they'd go over it trying to figure out where they got one half of the beats from. And, for the life of me, I still can't figure out how they managed to sample the Beatles and get away with it.
Yeah, I'd be up for hearing them - does it sound wildly different from the end product?
I actually like the voices; there are distinct personalities in there. Yes, lyrically or technically they are not pusing the verbal envelope but it's done honestly for the love of the music, and for me, it works most of the time.
I am coming from the "3 MCs and 1 DJ / Check It Out" angle though. Search YouTube.com for beasties and check the 3 MCs video. At least they can do it live and entertain.
IMHO of course.
Top 10 LP for me without a doubt.
I had the tape forever. The cassettes came in all different colors. It took me a bit to get into it as a youngster, of course I was expecting LTI Pt. 2.
didnt the label get into serious troubles after the record dropped. I believe they had to fire alot of people...beasties got a huge advance and then the label couldnt promote the record or something...someone on here must know the story...
As I recall, alot of critics really liked the album, but most of the people that bought LTI were upset that it wasn't another "Beer, Sex & Party" record. And sales weren't really great.
It wasn't til a few years down the line that PB became known as a "classic"
Also, I believe there were 3 singles rls'd off the LP. Not 100% sure if it was 3. But Hey Ladies wasn't the only 12".
Oh, and like Phill, maybe not Top 10, but top 20 4sure.
reminds me of a vacation in Hungary some years ago - my crap ass camping woke up to 'jump around' on repeat for a few hours every day. Who puts a jukebox outside at 8 in the morning anyway?
Somehow a lot of my rock/metal friends listen to paul's boutique btw - no idea why..
There is a 2xLP version--I don't know if it's a reissue or what because I didn't buy it on vinyl until well after it came out. My assumption is that it's a reissue, though.
Anyway, I cosign with Doc McCoy. A great part of the nostalgia for that album is that it's part of a time when music seemed to be wide open. Put it in context with 3 Feet High and the Bomb Squad shit, and it seemed like a part of this movement to really push sampling to its apex. But nostalgia aside, it still stands as a remarkable album. Probably not Top 10 to me, but close to it.
It's the kind of thing that you'd expect to turn into some kind of legal nightmare at some point, but I don't remember ever hearing that it did. 'Sound Of Science' is still on the record, so there obviously wasn't any 'Grey Album'-type cease-and-desist business. The only thing I can think of was that it all happened around the time Michael Jackson got control of the Beatles publishing. 'Revolution' was licensed for a Nike ad around the same time, so maybe someone thought they could do what they wanted with the catalogue. Perhaps the Beasties somehow managed to get it approved without their consent, and for whatever reason the Beatles just charged it to the game. Even if you consider that the wider industry knew little or nothing about sampling back then, it still seems unusual.
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=0FC81C8909166150
Thanks
Didn't Redman or Method Man do a cover of one of the PB songs? Was it Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun?
The samples were cleared... which is probably why there was no budget for promotion. I remember when Check Your Head came out they were saying they spent so much money on samples for PB that was part of what inspired them to go into the studio and create their own breaks live from then on out.
As I recall there was some kind of power struggle or management change at Capital Records and they either thought they could float this album on the success of LTI or simply tried to bury it. Hey Ladies was the obvious choice for a single but I think it's the weakest effort on the album. Still, while every song is excellent it's one of those albums that succeeds incredibly as a album but doesn't have anything that jumps out as a powerful single to drive sales. The trade off is that it's shelf life is long and kids are always rediscovering it with each new Beastie Boys single. With all it's samples maybe it's best that it was never a huge hit. I think it avoided lawsuits entirely. Did they clear any of the samples on it even?
Grand Royal put it out about five years ago. Double gatefold sleeve and double vinyl.
They started pressing a 2lp UK version.. don't know if it was official or not but I assume that it was licensed. I think this was around 93ish maybe.
I pondered this whole question of 'great or not' and 'ahead of its time or not' last night and I definately say it is both great and ahead of its time...
I think you could make an argument that it was the most conceptually complete rap album to date (the elaborate packaging, the multi-sample/cut n paste aesthetic which fit the idea of an assemblage of found beats and samples - thus the nyc thrift store motif). It seems they intended to make a masterpiece in the mold of Abbey Road which is what they did. Scratching on the moog on Shake Your Rump.. using 'them shoes' for Car Thief.. Shadrach.. Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun.. every song on the album was a revelation. A few years later when odelay came out it was hailed as a big landmark album by everyone but to me is sounded like they had just re-hashed a lot of the production of Paul's Botique.
Some internet dorks got together on usenet and figured out all the samples. That seems to exist today as:
http://www.moire.com/beastieboys/samples/songs.php
Pretty good read to see just how many and how varied the samples were on each song. Always wondered if the various labels found this a useful resource in trying to recoop on the uncleared samples.
Anyways, top 10.
Paul's Boutique
recommended.
Yeah, I remember that, too. People were creaming themselves over Odelay, and while it was a well-produced album, I couldn't help thinking, "It's just a less rappy Paul's Boutique." I wasn't mad, though--hearing more Dust Brothers tracks was certainly a welcome thing.
they were on Capitol, who originally released the Beatles LP's, even if
they didn't own the publishing.