Paul's Boutique

Beastie Boys' second album, 1989's Paul's Boutique, is in my mind an undisputed masterwork.  One of my all-timers.  The reasons may be too numerous to list.  As layered as anything I've heard.  A giant leap forward following Licensed to Ill - itself a classic, mind you, but awesomely juvenile.  That one was a smash hit, naturally.  Several of my high school classmates loudly proclaimed their fight for the right to party as they chugged some brass monkey.  I lost contact with of most of them by the time this record was released.  Wonder if they were they still proclaiming?

"Hey Ladies" was a minor hit.  Definitely could see the guys from Forest Hill High trying to rap along or at least lip synch to it.  It could've fit on the first album, but sonically it was far ahead.  The Dust Brothers, who produced, were an excellent fit for MCA (Adam Yauch), Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz), and Mike D (Michael Diamond). Paul's Boutique is a smorgasbord of sound.  The art of sampling taken to astral plains.  My favorite track is "The Sound of Science" which uses a few Beatles songs - "When I'm Sixty-four", "Back in the U.S.S.R.", "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (and its reprise), and "The End".  Genius.  As if the Fab Four had almost predicted hip hop.  "Science" continues Beastie Boy's hit and run fast rapping with lyrics that still may be called juvenile, smutty, and always interesting right to the final line - "Dropping science like Galileo dropped the orange."

"Shake Your Rump" and "Egg Man" could've been hits.  Still sport that lascivious energy from the first album.  The latter does have more socially conscious lyrics.   As the album progresses, the tracks get darker.  "High Plains Drifter", "Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun" and "Car Thief" play like down and dirty grindhouse movies. "Gun" very effectively uses a piece of Mountain's "Mississippi Queen". 

Many artists are sampled throughout the album.  Kurtis Blow.  Curtis Mayfield. Sly & the Family Stone. Cameo.  Afrika Bambaataa & the Jazzy 5.  It would take a lengthy paragraph to list them all.  Some of the deftest, most creative sampling to be heard.  Truly raises such an endeavor to an art form.   I read that most if not all the tunes were cleared for rights.  It's been said that this album could never be produced today; it would be prohibitively expensive if someone tried.  I'm grateful this happened when it did, a case of fortunate timing.

Paul's Boutique, which remains my favorite among the BB discography, concludes with "B-Boy Bouillabaisse", a medley of nine short pieces.  The Beasties may have taken a bid from Side Two of Abbey Road.  "Get on the Mic" indeed.   A capper to an astonishing album that reveals something new on every listen, even nearly forty years on.