With a slightly different line-up the Beastie Boys released a few Hardcore Punk E.Pās in the early 1980ās. Cooky Puss would follow in '83, which the New York outfit would oppose being used in a sample for British Airways. Rock Hard, a single that would indicate the direction of their debut album was their sole release in '84. None of these records sell in any notable quantity. This is where things begin to get interesting. Slow and Low, another single (1985), would precede their debut albums release also and charted in the U.S. Same for Hold It Now, Hit It, and also Paul Revere and finally The New Style which was released in early November 1986.
Then they dropped it, Licensed To Ill would sell over 10 million copies in the U.S. It took a short while to gain traction in the U.K. and was no doubt helped along with two Rock orientated (singles) tracks, (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) and No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn. Kerry King from Slayer providing guitar on the latter (Reign In Blood precedes Licensed To Ill by a single month). Like Slayer the Beastie Boys would have an established production sound provided by Rick Rubin, it would be their last time of working with the producer and cited artistic differences before parting ways from his distinct production sound. A final single from Licensed To Ill, Girls was released in '87, but the main draw was the album itself.
A Boeing plane wraps around both sides of the albums sleeve, with the gatefold opened out it looks akin to a spliff almost certainly intentionally. The Beastie Boys would become household names just one album in. Riotous tours and tabloid outrage propelled the Brooklyn 3 to stardom, but it was the music that really mattered. Licensed To Ill took Hip Hop overground, an album selling like a Classic Rock album, better even. Lyrical interjections and interruptions, words that would embed in your mind, rhymes that would make you feel the fun and just embrace the whole thing.
Welcome, to the Beastie Boys Listening Club. Feel free to leave your jacket at the cloakroom. Week 1: Licensed To Illā¦
Iām down for this, never really listened to any of their albums in full other than Licensed to Ill and have been meaning to remedy this for a long time without actually doing anything about it.
Had to check out Cooky Puss, which I havenāt heard in years, maybe decades. Licensed To Ill is certainly a big step up, but it (Cooky Puss) isnāt without its own charm.
I gather the cash from legal stuff with British Airways was used to buy equipment back in '83 / '84, so without that fuck up Licensed to Ill may never have happened the way it did.
Awesome! I bought Licensed To Ill years ago after already being a fan of some of their other records. Didnāt get on with it at the time apart from No Sleep Til Brooklyn, thinking the rest sounded like tinny novelty songs, especially compared with the big bassy beats of Check Your Head, swapped it at Vinyl Exhange and assumed from then on they didnāt get good until Paulās Boutique.
Always wondered if it was better than my initial dismissal, but never got round to a reevaluation. Great excuse to finally do so this week!
ooh we did a Boyz Beast listen-along on another forum, I might just paste my takes over and dodge the flying cutlery later.
Beastie Boys 1: Licensed to Ill remember when their gimmick was āweāre annoying frat boys with a massive inflatable penis?ā this is the sound of that basic idea distilled into 13 songs that never rise above decent. rinky-dink novelty samples with annoyingly thin drum loops, hard rock classics eviscerated for their most basic sonic elements, and tonnes of crass jokes. the rapid shifting of the vocals between three different voices is an impressive feat of co-ordination when you pin it down but it wears thin against such a musically uninteresting backdrop. hip-hop moves on at a quick pace between this record and their next. i hope they do. 3
The second album I ever owned. My mate Andyās older brother (Ray - RIP) was a punk and we were all fascinated by him. He had a mad record collection, which contained no rap music apart from āCooky Pussā and āLicensed to Illā. He hated that his little brother and all of his scrote mates then got into them. My Mum confiscated my copy after (I think) The Mirror ran a story about them being mean to kids in a Montreux hospital, a story I was delighted to hear was in fact bollocks. Loved it even more after reading the book last year and learning about some of the techniques they used to make tracks like āPaul Revereā which still sounds amazing today. It canāt be overstated how massive this album was - even in my backwater Essex hometown people were ripping the badges off VWs and wearing them on crappy chains around their necks.
Some of the album is a little cringe now but I feel that ā even at the time ā they were hipster Manhattan kids trying to lampoon the US frat culture that existed outside where they grew up. I donāt feel embarrassed about it in the same way as a lot of Beastieās fans. Although they must be very glad they were talked out of going with the original album title.
Interesting the influence this album had. Hereās Ice-T talking about how it inspired one of this classic tracks. (skip to 10:50)
Not my first Beasties album (that award goes to Hello Nasty and I canāt wait to talk about that), but probably the second one I owned. Just a really fun album. Sure, it hasnāt dated that well in places musically, but itās still an album with some stone cold Beastie Boys classics on it. Finding out later in life that it was an album with itās tongue firmly in itās cheek made me love it even more because itās exactly what iād do if I were in their position! I would also get just as annoyed as they did when the frat boys they were lampooning didnāt realise the joke was on them haha
Listened to it last night and may very well give it another listen tonight. Not a perfect Beasties album, but probably one of their most important. 4/5
Oh nice. I got The Book last year and I have moved from a casual to dedicated fan.
Love this album, just insanely fun. Like the argument that it may be the first gangsta rap record. Listened to it in full recently on a very long drive back from Bristol. Really kept the spirits up.
Also think this period is their best look, style-wise.
