FEATURE:
(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)
IN THIS PHOTO: Beastie Boys’ Michael Diamond (Mike D), left, and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock)/PHOTO CREDIT: Brad Ogbonna for The New York Times
Celebrating Beastie Boys’ Ad-Rock at Sixty
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ONE of the great music tragedies…
IN THIS PHOTO: ‘Mike D ‘(Michael Diamond), ‘Ad-Rock’ (Adam Horovitz) and ‘MCA ‘(Adam Yauch) in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Freeberg/Mediapunch/Shutterstock
Is that Beastie Boys cannot reform and do another album together. The trio of Adam ‘Ad-Rock’ Horovitz (vocals, guitar), Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch (vocals, bass), and Michael ‘Mike D’ Diamond (vocals, drums) formed in New York in 1981. We mark forty-five years of Beastie Boys. Their debut album, 1986’s Licensed to Ill, turns forty on 15th November. Before then, on 31st October, Ad-Rock turns sixty. I have published a feature about Licensed to Ill, which will be shared soon. Adam Horovitz died in 2012, which then meant the disbandment of Beastie Boys. It would have bene incredible having the trio together to all share their memories of their debut. However, rather than it being a sombre post, I did want to highlight the brilliance of Adam Horovitz. I shall call him Ad-Rock for the sake of this feature, as I am concentrating on his role in Beastie Boys. This year saw Mike-D release his debut solo album, Thank You. I do wonder whether Ad-Rock will follow suit. I am surprised that has taken this long for a Beastie Boy to go solo as it were. Maybe Ad-Rock does not want to record at the moment. He was in Beastie Boys for so long, and it can be hard stepping out solo. He was obviously hugely important in the trio’s success and legacy. In terms of his songwriting and distinct vocals, I think my favourite performance is on Sabotage. That song appeared on their 1994 album, Ill Communication. Although Beastie Boys were this tight unit and so close, I do feel that Ad-Rock and his incredible vocals brought something extra to the music. Rather than compile a mixtape of key Beastie songs, I did want to drop in some interviews.
It ids heartbreaking that the legendary MCA is no longer with us. An irreplaceable member and brother for Mike D and Ad- Rock, perhaps we might not hear music from him. He is also this incredible actor, and there were some interviews in 2015 with him when he featured in Noah Baumbach’s While We’re Young. It is worth bringing them, as he does mention Beastie Boys. Let’s start with an interview with The Guardian. Talking about his role in the film, Ad-Rick also states (incorrectly) how cassettes will never be cool. I would strongly disagree on that:
“In the film, the younger, cooler couple reject Netflix for VHS tapes, and choose to work something out rather than Google the answer. Do you understand that nostalgia?
I’m not saying that kids today have everything, but with the internet it’s like: you have it there so use it! I know a bunch of kids who are into cassette tapes now. Cassette tapes suck! Why not use your iPod? The iPod is the shit!
Isn’t that them trying to recapture some magic?
All generations think the present moment is the greatest, but also have this fascination with before their time. I do the same thing. I see old British movies. I’m like: “Man, I would love to be in London at that time.” But then I wouldn’t be able to watch The Walking Dead, I wouldn’t have cable and my pizza options would be limited.
How are you dealing with not being a Beastie Boy?
It’s definitely weird. For over 25 years, that’s all I did. It was who I was. I’m trying to figure out what that is.
Adam “MCA” Yauch died in 2012 (2). Do you think the band would still be going if he was alive?
What I’d hope would happen was that the band would be on the backburner and Adam would make movies (3). That would have made sense to me. This doesn’t make sense.
How are you dealing with it?
I have no idea. I’m not? I’m in denial? I don’t know. How do you deal with it? It’s fucking depressing. He was one of my best friends. We were 14 and we went through everything in life together.
Foo Fighters’ Dave Grohl once said new generations of fans were coming up to him and didn’t know that he was in Nirvana … Is there something freeing about that? That someone might come up and say they love To the Five Boroughs (4), but have never heard Paul’s Boutique (5)?
That’s never happened before. I would be so happy. But 95% of the time if somebody stops me on the street, they don’t know that we’ve put out records other than Licence To Ill. I’m telling you. They’ll talk about when they had it on tape. People are like: “What have you guys been doing since then?”.
In 2018, Loud and Quiet spoke with Mike D and Ad-Rock. They talked about the music influence of Bad Brains, Madonna, and Run-D.M.C. I am not including all of it, but there were parts that caught my eye. I do wonder whether Ad-Rock and Mike D will unite and collaborate for something soon. Especially as Beastie Boys are forty-five this year and their debut is about to turn forty:
“In their manager’s office in downtown LA, it’s weird to think that Adam Horovitz and Michael Diamond are both guys in their early 50s. Talking over each other as they attempt to be the first to crack a joke or get their version of a story across, my conversation with them feels more like talking to two excitable teenagers than a couple of middle-aged men. The pair’s ability to derail any serious music conversation into one about iPhones and lukewarm hotel shrimp is certainly impressive, but it’s also really funny to listen to these two massive stars bickering like real friends do.
It’s kind of fitting that it feels unlikely that these two guys were two-thirds of one of the most iconic acts of the last forty years, because the Beastie Boys have always been one of the unlikeliest success stories in modern music. In between forming in Manhattan in 1981 to founding member Adam Yauch’s untimely death in 2012, the group metamorphosed from a group of obnoxious bratty punks into a real force for musical and social progression. More than just shaping the zeitgeist, for a generation of kids they defined what music could be. From bringing hip-hop to the suburbs to inspiring acts like Fugazi, Rage Against the Machine and N.E.R.D., and the theft of millions of VW radiator medallions, if you got your musical education in the nineties, then it was hard not to think that the Beasties were the coolest band on the planet.
Michael Diamond: “I’m not sure how I can bring any excitement or flair to it, but the story behind us and the Bad Brains starts because, as a kid, I wouldn’t buy lunch. I’d get some lunch money from my parents, but instead of spending it on actual lunch I would just buy a cinnamon toasted bagel with butter and save the rest of the money so I could buy records on the weekend. I can’t remember who turned me on to it, but one of the first things I bought was the ‘Pay 2 Cum’ 7 inch by the Bad Brains.
Adam Horovitz: “I definitely remember you and those cinnamon bagels…”
Mike: “Anyway, I get this record home, put it on and I was like, ‘OK, I’ve gotta see this band.’ Literally about a week later, I’m hanging out at this record store and saw an ad saying that they were playing. I thought they must be like this huge band like the Clash or whatever, but instead they were playing this little bar in Chelsea and there was maybe like twelve people there.”
Adam: “That was the cool thing about New York at the time – you had to go out. You couldn’t just stay home if you wanted to hear new things, you had to head into the city and find it. I remember having to walk around and actually ask people what they were listening to. Things really didn’t come to you.”
Adam: “We’ve never really known Madonna. We didn’t know her then and I still don’t know her. I mean, when she took us on tour back in ’85 we weren’t actually with her that long. It was like just a couple of months, really. It feels like it was this big major thing, but in actuality it was only a summer. We only really hung out a couple of times, but even then she was a big, big deal doing big things.”
Mike: “Yeah, even now that whole tour seems crazy to me. At the time she was like the biggest thing on the planet and we were like these three bums from New York who got to go on stage and piss everyone off. I think we got booed off every night.”
Adam: “Even so, it was significant because it was the first actual tour we ever did. It, like, set the gold standard for touring. We got to watch Madonna every night and be on this big stage with a massive superstar without even a real record out. It was like, this is school, right there.”
Mike: “It was like we got to see what a real professional musician looked like. We never really got to that point, we never got to write anything as good as ‘La Isla Bonita’. It could still happen, but I sort of doubt it at this point.”
Adam: “‘La Isla Bonita’?”
Mike: “Don’t front, Adam, that is a good fucking song. Have you ever heard it come on at a wedding, people go crazy.”
Adam: “I’ve always been more partial to ‘Lucky Star’…”
Mike: “‘Las Isla Bonita’ kicks ‘Lucky Star’s ass.”
Adam: “I’m still not sure how it all happened. We were basically these three pimply douchebags who were only concerned about where the nearest White Castle was so we could get burgers and she was thinking about private jets to Greek islands. I mean, I wouldn’t have liked to hang out with us back then. I think the only reason she kept us around is because Madonna was kind of punk…”
Mike: “I don’t know, man. If this was my game show appearance I would say ‘no’. It seems bold, but Madonna was zero punk. There were a couple of photographs where she looked like Siouxsie Sioux but that was about it.”
Adam: “Oh man, I can still remember first hearing Run-DMC’s ‘It’s Like That’ back in ’83. That song was like a massive hit in New York. I mean, it was a real game-changing record in the history of hip-hop, so we were completely in awe when we first met them.”
Mike: “We first met them through Russell Simmons, who is Run’s brother and owned Rush, which was ours and Run-DMC’s management company. We used to hang out in his office or at Rick’s [Rubin] dorm room a lot. You might think, who would even want to hang around an office or a dorm room, but we were psyched. It gave us somewhere that wasn’t just a record store or a street corner to hang out on.”
Adam: “I mean, we were nineteen at the time and we really had nowhere else to be. We had to be somewhere…”
Mike: “Exactly, we were just finishing high school and I used to think it was super exciting to be able to hang around with all these college kids. Like, Rubin’s room had this big PA at one side of it where he’d play all the Def Jam stuff he had coming out and it was super exciting to even be there”.
It might be unlikely that Ad-Rock and Mike D will work together. As we discover from this interview, Mike D wanted to make his own album and wanted it to be solo. He did collaborate with others, though Ad-Rock was very happy for him. Even so, as Ad-Rock is sixty on 31st October, I wanted to write about him. It would be awesome if he released his own album. People will always talk about Beastie Boys. Their music being handed down through the generations. I can appreciate that Ad-Rock does not want to release music yet. Or at all. He has appeared in T.V. and film through the years. I believe he is appearing in a Netflix film, Time Out, alongside Adam Sandler. That film is based on the French thriller, L'Emploi du temps. Of course, when there is a Beastie Boys anniversary, then he is happy to mark that. I spent a lot of my teenage years listening to Beastie Boys. One of my introduction groups to Hip-Hop, there will never be anyone like them again. One major draw was the power and brilliance of Ad-Rock. That amazing voice and what he brought to the group. Such a seminal and life-changing group, many happy returns to Ad-Rock. There might be people who have not heard the music of Beastie Boys. I would advise you to listen. Start with their 1986 debut, Licensed to Ill. Even if some aspects have not aged well – aspects of sexism and homophobia that they have since apologised for -, it is hugely important. The reason Ad-Rock and Mike D were interviewed together in 2018 for Loud and Quiet is that is when the Beastie Boys book came out. You can order it here. Co-authored between Ad-Rock and Mike D, I would advise any fan of Beastie Boys to buy it. I would love to read an Ad-Rock memoir. The period before the group started and those earliest experience. His path into music. Or bringing things up to date slightly (I guess that would make the book an autobiography rather than a memoir?!). Ahead of his sixtieth birthday, I wanted to share my appreciation of…
THE brilliant Ad-Rock.