The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique (33 1/3) by Dan LeRoy
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Book Reviews of The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique (33 1/3)
Book Review: fantastic
Summary: 5 Stars
poured through it in a couple of days, fantastic read during probably the most 'heady' times of the Boys. enjoy!Book Review: Excellent history of a rap masterpiece
Summary: 4 Stars
To this day, I'm still ashamed to admit that I didn't appreciate the Beastie Boy's iconic and classic rap album Paul's Boutique when it first came out. I'm afraid I followed the herd, scratching my head upon its release, wondering what they'd done with the rock/rap that I had loved so much on Licensed to Ill. (Hey, I was only 19 when it came out) I then followed the herd again years later, after the B-Boy's early and mid 90's revival, and found, like everyone else, I now got their point and loved nothing better than throwing on my headphones and getting lost in the intricate quilt the band built with the hundreds of samples used on the album. (Odd fact from the book: no one knows for sure how many samples were used. And another: sampling laws were changed after this album, ensuring there will never be another quite like it.) So it was with a sense of nostalgia and humility that I sat down to read Dan Leroy's take on Paul's Boutique for the 33 1/3 series.
LeRoy is a regular contributor to the New York Times and Rolling Stone, so you get a good piece of rock journalism here. He covers a lot of ground, interviewing almost everyone involved in the music, the bands' friends from that time, like Donovan Leitch and Ione Skye, and even Mike D. (Though not interviewing MCA and Ad-Rock were major misses.) A good chunk is devoted to the origins of the music, probably because there were so many people involved. Rap albums seem to be unusually dependent on producers, who often craft many of the beats and samples underneath the rap. Paul's Boutique was no exception.
LeRoy goes back to the mid 80's and the beginnings of the California DJ scene where Matt Dike and The Dust Brothers, the producers of the album, got their starts. He follows them through their discovery of sampling and the evolution of it as an art form for clubs and parties. The Beastie Boys got hooked into this scene when they flew out to California in 1988 to get away from the protracted legal battle with their first label, Def Jam. (A battle that LeRoy sheds some juicy nuggets about through the Capitol A&R guy who had run-ins with Russell Simmons over the matter) The guys were literally just hanging out at Matt Dike's apartment when they heard for the first time the music that would eventually end up on the album. Mike D offered to buy Dike's work on the spot. The first quarter of the book is so devoted to Dike and the Dust Brothers that one could be forgiven for wondering what the Beasties themselves actually did other than buy the music.
Thankfully the book gets to that, and it's here where we come to understand why the Beasties are the stars. The book, which will be slow going at first for anyone who isn't a fan of Matt Dike and the Dust Brothers, bursts forth with life once they jump onto the stage. LeRoy shows us their childish pranks and rock star lifestyles, their antagonism towards their record executives, and we remember why we loved them so much.
What LeRoy does best though is to show us what a risk Paul's Boutique really was. Everyone (I raise my hand meekly) expected more of the metal-rap that had made the band famous. Instead, The Boys, like all great artists do after a success, went another direction. They went back to their favorite music of the 70's, (not Zeppelin this time though) tore the songs apart, and put them back together into a musical stew centered on the work of their three unknown producers. It was a recipe for commercial disaster, but they were having fun, which was all they wanted to do. A particularly scary moment in the book for fans of the bands later work is when Mike D shares that the band really thought their careers could be undone by the album and wondered what they would do next.
Though the album got some great early critical reviews, the shock people got when they heard the work, the 70's aesthetic the Beasties prominently displayed in the first video, and the lack of a tour all ensured that Paul's Boutique would be a commercial flop. Luckily, time often renders great art great. Once the Beasties put out two more great albums, (Check You Head and Ill Communication) and once the times caught up with its own 70's nostalgia, Paul's Boutique finally got the credit it deserved.
This is one of the better installments of the 33 1/3 series. If you're a Beastie Boys fan, you'll want to pick this up.
Book Review: Quick, enjoyable bit of legit rock journalism
Summary: 4 Stars
Paul's Boutique may be my favorite album of all time, but I'd never known much about its creation. In this excellently written (and never over-written) little book, Dan LeRoy has constructed the most complete narrative we'll probably ever get regarding the Dust Brothers, the Beasties, and their once-in-a-lifetime creative synergy.
This is from a series of books by 33 1/3, each one devoted to a landmark album in the history of pop music. Paul's Boutique is the first I've read, and although I've heard mixed reviews on others, particularly those that emphasize the author's subjective theories and interpretations of the albums, this one is pure journalism-- lots of well-researched facts and entertaining memories from most of the people involved: the Beasties (mostly Mike D.), their producers, managers, promoters, and friends.