I had a very similar experience. By '87 I was out of college but hanging out with some college Ultimate frisbee players. One woman was into License to Ill, which I thought was completely ridiculous. She was also smart as **** so eventually I reconsidered. I bought Paul's Boutique and it didn't take long for it to grab me. Love it!
Their best album. Me and my friends immediately loved it. We were teenagers at the time. Even to this day we quote it!
It's a masterpiece for sure. Their best for me is still Licensed...love the attitude and energy, gets me psyched up.
I'd been buying Beastie Boys records since Cookie Puss came out, and I was a senior in high school when Licensed To Ill was released — the perfect age for that album, I think. My friends and I didn't just love that album, we adopted the Beasties as kind of spiritual older brothers. Summer of '89, I was getting ready for junior year of college. I'd matured a little and so had they. Paul's Boutique blew my mind and blew my friends' minds — it was the soundtrack of the summer, fall, and got regular spins into winter. I got that people were tired of the "Fight For Your Right" schtick, but I was still mystified that it didn't do better sales-wise. I guess it was just the right album at the wrong time, or something.
I was a fan of the Beastie Boys from the Pollywog Stew days. I bought the EP around 1983, and it was a favorite. The next time I heard anything about them was a small mention of them in Spin magazine circa 1984. It called them a rap band, and there was a picture of them in Adidas track suits. I was completely confused and not sure it was the same band. I was aware of the Cooky Puss 12”, but didn’t buy it. Since it was on Rat Cage, like the first EP, I concluded that it was the same band, but I wasn’t really interested in hearing them rapping. By the time License to Ill came out, I was a little more open. I still mainly listened to punk, but I did own Raising Hell. I liked Licence to Ill. It was stupid, but in a very fun way. They were very big around this time. They played the Mtv New Years show (which was a big deal) and opened for Madonna. Then (to my memory, at least), they dropped off the map. I don’t remember much stir at all when Paul’s Boutique came out. I remember hearing it in a friend’s car. I thought it was fun enough, but I was not interested enough to buy it for myself. It was “Sabatoge” that pulled me back in. Great video and a great song. I enjoyed everything they did after that, but I was never a huge fan. I am in the small minority of people who still mainly think of them as a snotty hardcore band, and their entire rap career still seems strange to me. I have owned Paul’s Boutique since then, but honestly, I have never really bonded with it that much. Maybe I should try again…
I was 10 when Paul's Boutique came out. That summer, my best friend got the blue cassette tape, and I made a dub of it. Here was my "playlist" from July-September 1989: 1. "Batdance" recorded off the radio (parents would not let me buy the tape because it sounded like it had the "f" word) 2. Paul's Boutique (dubbed from friend's tape) 3. Paul's Boutique 4. Paul's Boutique 5. Paul's Boutique 6. Paul's Boutique 7. UHF Soundtrack 8. Paul's Boutique 9. Paul's Boutique 10. Batman Soundtrack (also dubbed from a friend's cassette) 11. Paul's Boutique (finally bought my own cassette with a white shell) 12-25. 3 Feet High And Rising Neither me nor my best friend at the time had any idea what "critics" were saying, nor did we care. In our group of friends, we all loved Paul's Boutique. Personally, I wasn't much into License To Ill, but PB completely blew my mind.
I was 12 when Licensed To Ill came out. I loved it after taping it off a mate. Played it loads. It was THE tape for any journeys in my parents' car for some time. The Stone Roses' debut took the same accolade in '89 but there were some much less cool albums in between. Can vaguely remember my dad driving and singing along to the Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves part which was completely out of character for him. I completely skipped Paul's Boutique. Purchases at the time were limited and funded by pocket money or record tokens. Hearing singles on radio or tv played a part in influencing which albums I got. It was always a mystery to me what Paul's Boutique sounded like as I didn't hear anything from it. Heard and enjoyed the subsequent albums then 2 years after the 20th anniversary edition of Paul's Boutique was released, I finally bought it. By that time my music collection was much bigger, and unfortunately albums rarely got the repeat plays they deserved. I'll pull it out as a reminder to revisit it soon, but it didn't have the impact on me in 2011 that it might have done back in the day. I do regret not hearing it in '89. Curious to know what I'd have made of it then. I most likely bought some absolute rubbish music in its place.
I was astonished by Paul’s Boutique in a good way. I didn’t buy License to Ill but PB was practically a requirement to own among my art school friends. During long studio classes and work sessions there were often opportunities to play each other our favorites on our jam boxes. Once Paul’s Boutique was brought it seemed like almost all the art students bought it. We thought highly of the lavender swirl plastic of the cassette too. It was the epitome of cool at the moment! My brother bought License to Ill a little later and I warmed to it a bit as a nostalgia thing, but when it was new it didn’t appeal to me. A couple of other cassettes that I bought which had a similar enthusiastic welcome on campus when we first heard them were It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back and 3 Ft High and Rising. Edit- reading some of the other responses, brings back a vague memory - did the cassette come in different colors? Is my memory of comparing colors that’s starting to come back to me real? Is it possible one of my friends got a lime green and another got orange? I was very pleased with my lavender swirl as I recall.
I can't even imagine the look on my face when I first heard them rapping over the guitar trio from Abbey Road. It must have been obvious tho because someone asked me what was wrong. I told them. Which was a mistake because whenever I got that look again I was inundated with "Who is this? What song is it?"
I was mildly bemused by it at the time. I liked the retro 70's aspect of the Hey Ladies video which foretold the 70's nostalgia craze of the 90s. Once again Beasties were ahead of the curve. It took time for it to grow on me and now it is my second favorite album of theirs. I gave them a lot of credit for not just doing License to Ill part 2 but I'd be lying to say I loved it on first listen. But I thought it was neat and OK. Like others mentioned I was for sure caught off guard by the Abbey Road/The End guitar solo sample. Still jarring (in a good way) to this day.
The Beasties were basically considered over at the time. It was pretty much a given that Beastiemania was going to die and they'd just disappear. I think people forget just how huge they were and how quickly they got there. They were getting in trouble everywhere they went, they left Def Jam, lawsuits, Ad Rock made a movie, now they were making an album with the guys who did Tone-Loc. It wasn't looking good. MTV did a news bit covering their return with the album and the Hey Ladies video. In it was a brief clip of them from '86 predicting that there was going to be a big 70s revival, which sounded ridiculous at the time. The video was hilarious. The album cover was crazy. The album title was weird. They were talking about how their new heroes were Bob Dylan and The Eagles. Rolling Stone gave it four stars. Then on the day of release I went to my local record store and they only had three copies: two CDs and one cassette. They only had the Hey Ladies 12" on vinyl. The album was not on sale like other new albums were. It was just sort of there. I couldn't afford the $8.99 for the tape (I was 15) but my friend stole it. It was orange. He eventually lent it to me and at first it was really hard to comprehend. I liked how the songs all seemed to run into each other, no pauses. I REALLY liked that they sampled The Beatles. The other samples I was too young to get. The closest music I could compare it to was 3 Feet High and Rising and Fight The Power, which had also just come out. It was in heavy rotation for a while but then Jane's Addiction, etc came along and I sort of forgot about it. By the time the Shadrach video came out the album was already dead. Nearly three years later they showed up seemingly out of nowhere with Check Your Head and because all the kids who loved Licensed To Ill were now in their late teens/early-20s (and CYH was just GREAT) the Beasties were welcomed back with open arms and Paul's Boutique was suddenly a great lost album that everybody slept on. I think Check Your Head saved Paul's Boutique.
I liked it as a member of the MTV generation. Beasties have been in my collection a long time, I haven't been into them for awhile, used to listen a lot in the 2000's. , but I just picked up Paul's boutique on viny LP, the remaster 180g I think , but I look forward to cranking it up as I seem to have lost the CD.
I never quite got it, even though I loved Licenced To Ill. By the time I heard Paul's Boutique, I was listening to De La Soul the Jungle Brothers. I only got back into the Beatsies with Ill Communication.
If it helps the same dude ripped me (and most of our friends) off big time a few years later. I'm sure he sold the tape for crack ages ago. I feel I should also mention that discovering the 12" singles from Paul's a few months after Check Your Head came out was kind of revelatory, especially the An Exciting Evening with Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego EP. Good lord, it's great. Sealed the geniuses deal for me.
Oh, absolutely. I should ALSO mention my Paul's Boutique collection, mostly sealed (except for two of the tapes). The early days of eBay were quite amazing. The second pic is of the entire cover on photo stock that was part of the 20th Anniversary release.
My friends and I loved License to Ill in high school of course and saw the tour in Buffalo...Murphy's Law and Public Enemy (before It Takes A Nation...)? Come on. It blew me away ad I never looked back re my deep dive int hip hop and countless shows in Rochester, Buffalo, Cleveland...Saw some legends and my one friend who braved to shows with me knew that these artist were amazing. Saw Eric B and Rakim during Paid in Full and Stetsasonic and Biz and Big Daddy Kane and MC Lyte etc etc etc. Amazing life changing times for me. Own a Cooky Puss cassette! Dropped my folks off at the airport in Buffalo for their yearly trip to San Francisco to see my sister and I stopped at a record store and grabbed the CD which was released that day. Friends came over and we drank a few beers, had a great time with great hip hop records and I produced the CD. Everyone was excited and I was the only one still in the room halfway through. I knew it was amazing and tried to convince my friends to really listen but no dice. I still listen to my original CD often and grabbed the 09 vinyl reissue. It never gets old. Still love the records that followed except Ill Communication believe it or not...never loved it and never purchased a copy in any format, but this is a go to.
At that time, I wasn't really a fan, but liked the Hey Ladies video. I didn't buy the album, and haven't heard it to this day.
I expected a somewhat frivolous bit of fun when I saw it in Our Price records and bought it unheard. I expected a sort of natural follow-up to Licenced to Chill. Lightweight but enjoyable. What I got instead was a mind-blower and still, imho, a masterpiece of hip-hop. It felt like years until it caught on and got it's 'props' with a wider audience. I still love it and still know every word.
