Which made sense; at a moment when hip-hop was being absorbed into the musical mainstream,
Paul’s Boutique
represented, as writer Angus Batey contended, a trip “back to the roots of hip-hop music in an attempt to find the inspiration needed to move the art form forward.”
The inspiration for “Hey Ladies” came not in the studio, but during one of Matt Dike’s weekly DJ sets. The Beasties, he recalls, would frequently come clubbing to get ideas from his dancefloor mixes. “That’s how a lot of those hooks developed,” he says, “and then we’d put it down the next day.” One night, when Adam Horovitz heard Dike juxtapose “Party Time” with the “Get funky!” chant from the Supreme Team’s “Hey DJ,” “he said, Aw, man, this’d be great!’”
For some reason, Capitol Records decided to market “Hey Ladies” with a unique promotional tool: a gold cowbell emblazoned with the song title. This gimmick surprisingly failed to send the single to number one, but the cowbells have become sought after collector’s items. Equally odd is that while “Hey Ladies” was one of the handful of tracks slated for live performances in 1989, it has apparently never been attempted in concert since.
5-Piece Chicken Dinner
An Ad-Rock suggestion, according to Mike Simpson, that begins Side Two with an unexpected burst of Beastie yee-haws and hillbilly rowdiness. “5-Piece Chicken Dinner” is simply a needle drop onto Eric Weissberg’s version of the banjo feature “Shuckin’ the Corn,” which wound up as part of the soundtrack for
Deliverance
. The most notable (and original) thing about these 23 seconds is the title, one of the best jokes on an album full of good ones.
Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun
How, after hearing whatever
Paul’s Boutique
demos were circulated, could Capitol executives have possibly thought they were getting another
Licensed to Ill?
This track might provide a partial, if ultimately unconvincing, answer. “Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun” is the one tune similar in style to the hugely successful rap-metal of the Beasties’ debut; it is, in fact, a funkier, more sophisticated doppelganger of the first album’s “Rhymin’ and Stealin’.”
The thunderous drum sample comes courtesy of the Incredible Bongo Band, a jazz-funk ensemble led by MGM Records executive Michael Viner. The group had long been a favorite of breakbeat aficionados, thanks to a 1973 cover of “Apache” that became an essential building block of hip-hop. But there was plenty of other sample-worthy material on the Bongo Band’s two albums, including “Last Bongo in Belgium.” Mike Simpson remembers this beat had been stored in the Dust Brothers’ sampler for some time, “long before we met the Beasties,” waiting for the right opportunityto use it.
That chance came one day when Dike was experimenting by scratching the chiming clock from Pink Floyd’s “Time” atop the “Last Bongo” drum loop. “Yauch said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this bassline,’” says Dike, “and that started it.” The song features two segments of drumming—with and without a phase effect applied—which are slowed down to add a John Bonham-esque weight. The result, when combined with Horovitz’s metallic guitar riff and Yauch’s heavily treated bass, is suitably Led-en.
It is also the song cited most frequently by reviewers to demonstrate that the Beasties were dangerously antisocial, thanks to its pair of
A Clockwork Orange
references and a mention of David Berkowitz, aka the murderous Son of Sam. Yet there is also a more personal, and ultimately more poignant, name-check: of Horovitz’s best friend Dave Scilken, who made a cameo in the song’s video, but would die of a drug overdose in 1991.
If Capitol executives ever believed this tune might recapture some of
Licensed to Ill’s
multiplatinum luster, that impulse was apparently short-lived. By 1991, Beasties fan Catherine Lincoln had become the label’s product
Paul’s Boutique
represented, as writer Angus Batey contended, a trip “back to the roots of hip-hop music in an attempt to find the inspiration needed to move the art form forward.”
The inspiration for “Hey Ladies” came not in the studio, but during one of Matt Dike’s weekly DJ sets. The Beasties, he recalls, would frequently come clubbing to get ideas from his dancefloor mixes. “That’s how a lot of those hooks developed,” he says, “and then we’d put it down the next day.” One night, when Adam Horovitz heard Dike juxtapose “Party Time” with the “Get funky!” chant from the Supreme Team’s “Hey DJ,” “he said, Aw, man, this’d be great!’”
For some reason, Capitol Records decided to market “Hey Ladies” with a unique promotional tool: a gold cowbell emblazoned with the song title. This gimmick surprisingly failed to send the single to number one, but the cowbells have become sought after collector’s items. Equally odd is that while “Hey Ladies” was one of the handful of tracks slated for live performances in 1989, it has apparently never been attempted in concert since.
5-Piece Chicken Dinner
An Ad-Rock suggestion, according to Mike Simpson, that begins Side Two with an unexpected burst of Beastie yee-haws and hillbilly rowdiness. “5-Piece Chicken Dinner” is simply a needle drop onto Eric Weissberg’s version of the banjo feature “Shuckin’ the Corn,” which wound up as part of the soundtrack for
Deliverance
. The most notable (and original) thing about these 23 seconds is the title, one of the best jokes on an album full of good ones.
Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun
How, after hearing whatever
Paul’s Boutique
demos were circulated, could Capitol executives have possibly thought they were getting another
Licensed to Ill?
This track might provide a partial, if ultimately unconvincing, answer. “Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun” is the one tune similar in style to the hugely successful rap-metal of the Beasties’ debut; it is, in fact, a funkier, more sophisticated doppelganger of the first album’s “Rhymin’ and Stealin’.”
The thunderous drum sample comes courtesy of the Incredible Bongo Band, a jazz-funk ensemble led by MGM Records executive Michael Viner. The group had long been a favorite of breakbeat aficionados, thanks to a 1973 cover of “Apache” that became an essential building block of hip-hop. But there was plenty of other sample-worthy material on the Bongo Band’s two albums, including “Last Bongo in Belgium.” Mike Simpson remembers this beat had been stored in the Dust Brothers’ sampler for some time, “long before we met the Beasties,” waiting for the right opportunityto use it.
That chance came one day when Dike was experimenting by scratching the chiming clock from Pink Floyd’s “Time” atop the “Last Bongo” drum loop. “Yauch said, ‘Hey, I’ve got this bassline,’” says Dike, “and that started it.” The song features two segments of drumming—with and without a phase effect applied—which are slowed down to add a John Bonham-esque weight. The result, when combined with Horovitz’s metallic guitar riff and Yauch’s heavily treated bass, is suitably Led-en.
It is also the song cited most frequently by reviewers to demonstrate that the Beasties were dangerously antisocial, thanks to its pair of
A Clockwork Orange
references and a mention of David Berkowitz, aka the murderous Son of Sam. Yet there is also a more personal, and ultimately more poignant, name-check: of Horovitz’s best friend Dave Scilken, who made a cameo in the song’s video, but would die of a drug overdose in 1991.
If Capitol executives ever believed this tune might recapture some of
Licensed to Ill’s
multiplatinum luster, that impulse was apparently short-lived. By 1991, Beasties fan Catherine Lincoln had become the label’s product
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