Beastie Boys - "Licensed to Ill"
By The Bear[Rated 7x]
Ever since 1980, when Blondie became the first white group to have a hit single with a rap in it (the single was “Rapture” and it appears on the Autoamerican album) it was inevitable that eventually an all white group would make a successful hip-hop album. That finally happened in 1986 when the Beastie Boys, under the watchful eye of Rick Rubin and Def Jam Records, released the now legendary Licensed to Ill. Jimmy G. of Murphy’s Law, the band that opened for the Beasties during the early part of the “Ill” tour, told me that the album blew up so fast that a tour that had been scheduled for bars and clubs had to be hastily moved to theaters and arenas.
There’s not much I can say about this album that hasn’t already been said elsewhere (and probably better than I could say it), but there is this: a through-line can be drawn from this record to the records that the Beasties did BEFORE this one, and they all have one very important thing in common: they were all meant to be fun. 1982’s Pollywog Stew, made when the band was still a hardcore punk band, and 1983’s transitional Cooky Puss e.p. were records where the artists were obviously not taking themselves seriously, and didn’t expect their listeners to do so either. All that was demanded was that the fan have a good time. Licensed To Ill, regardless of what detractors may say, is exactly the same in that regard, especially when you consider tracks like "Rhymin & Stealin," "The New Style," "She's Crafty," "Girls," "Brass Monkey," "Time to Get Ill," and especially the ever popular "Fight For Your Right." Musically, this album is fun, just fun, and lots of fun. Lyrically this record is very silly indeed — and that’s why it works even after all of these years. In hindsight it’s quite obvious the boys were joking and playing, and yet in 1986 there were a lot of people who were incredibly offended by a lot of this album. If that seems hard to believe now then the question must be asked if the album is still worthwhile? The answer, as I’ve already made clear, is yes. It’s fast, fun, funny, loud, and, believe it or not, still dangerous because quite a lot of the lyrics have gotten quite politically incorrect since the 1980s (case in point: what band would dare release a track like “Girls” (#6) today?)
Yes, the Beasties were accused of being white plunderers of rap, and all of that, and yes, “Fight For Your Right” set off a million frat parties and spawned a host of bad imitators. For the Beasties themselves, however, it seems pretty obvious that when they made this album it was party time. It’s still party time today.
Before the pompadoured wonder Morrissey graced the stage as a solo act, he belonged to the band The Smiths. Say the name The Smiths, and someone, at least someone with good taste in music, will raise an eyebrow and smile. What about this band would cause anyone to do anything but smile? Morrissey and Marr are an even better combo than PB&J or chips and dip. The songs and sounds of The Smiths may have left a mark on the landscape of the 80’s music scene, but deeper than that, the lyrics to their songs can evoke a variety of emotions. On the surface, a Smiths song may sound like a fun little ditty, but a deeper listen will milk the core out of the brilliant lyrics and masterful musicianship. Take “Girlfriend in a Coma” for instance. The title is tragic, but the tune is lively. The lyrics are heart wrenching, but the delivery makes you want to snap your fingers and tap your toes. Who else could make a song about impending death so multifaceted? Only the Smiths.
Songs to learn, sing, and love: Echo and the Bunnymen
By Dallas[Rated 7x]
Album Review: Echo and the Bunnymen/Songs to Learn and Sing
Echo and the Bunnymen, in my opinion, is one of the most underrated bands of all time. Oh these kids today, too bad many of them wouldn’t know cool music if slapped them in their emo hairdos. This album, containing such melodic wonders as “Rescue” and “Killing Moon”, has been one of my favorites since I was in jr. high, looking to define myself amongst my punk rock peers. Echo and the Bunnymen’s claim to underground fame came when they covered the Doors hit “People are Strange” on the 80’s vampire film the Lost Boys. After that, the Bunnymen faded into the darkness while only the true fans stood by their side. This album, in my humble opinion, contains some of the best songs that the band offers. The songs vary from upbeat rhythms such as “The Cutter” to more somber songs such as “Bring on the Dancing Horses”. Anyone with an affinity for 80’s music would like Echo and the Bunnymen as would anyone with an affinity for good music in general.
Germs - (MIA) The Complete Anthology
By The Bear[Rated 29x]
In light of the release of the movie What We Do is Secret, the dramatization of the Germs’ history, it seems appropriate to go back and see if the Germs’ actual music still holds up 30 years after the first wave of Los Angeles Punk. The Germs, of course, were known for being one of the most outrageous bands in the early L.A. scene and it’s been said that they rarely got through a full show without it turning into riotous chaos. Lead singer Darby Crash would encourage the audience to throw food at the stage and then various and sundry bizarre things would happen – well the written histories of L.A. Punk are full of stories about the Germs’ antics. And of course it all tragically ended when Darby overdosed on heroin in December 7, 1980, a death that would be overshadowed one day later when John Lennon was assassinated.
But the point of all this is ask the question “does the Germs actual work still hold up today?” The best place to find that out is by listening to (MIA) The Complete Anthology which collects all of the officially released Germs tracks, including their one full-length album GI in its entirety, as well as the later tracks recorded for the Cruising soundtrack, and other gems. Upon listening to the album one time you will realize that the Germs’ work is still available for a reason; it’s really good and it doesn’t sound dated or tame by today’s standards. In fact it still crackles with an energy and an anger that a lot of bands today can only dream of.
You might not think that from the album’s first two tracks: the Forming single made up of “Forming” and a live version of “Sex Boy.” “Forming” simply drones on and on in a seemingly endless manner (actually it’s three minutes), something that Darby himself is aware of even though he keeps (relatively) in time on his vocals, because at the end of the track he insults the song, the band that made the song, and anyone who would buy it. Interestingly the very last track on MIA is a re-recording of “Forming,” dubbed “Forming 2," which is only half as long as the original. Is it better? That’s a matter of opinion.
“Forming’s” B side, “Sex Boy,” is even more bizarre. It was recorded live at an early Germs show and is by far the most hilarious track on the record. It’s only two minutes and fifteen seconds long, but wow! Almost from the start Darby can be heard swearing at the audience and apparently trying to attack people. You can hear bottles breaking and at one point someone in the audience is heard yelling “Stay away!” Somewhere around one minute and ten seconds Darby stops even trying to sing and one can only wonder what exactly he was doing after that, although you can sometimes hear him yelling, and then the occasional scream from an audience member. Somehow the rest of the band continues to play and when the song ends there’s loud applause mixed in with people yelling “Boo!” and “Get off the stage!”
If that was all there ever was to the Germs they might still be remembered today since their antics were legendary. Nicole Panter, their own manager during the bulk of their existence as a group, writes in the album liner notes that “no matter how hard we tried, not once in that time did we have a live show come off without some major disaster happening” (Nicole Panter, from the MIA liner notes). However it isn’t the whole story to the Germs. Somehow they went from being a joke band to being a real band. They got much better at playing their instruments and singing, and they tightened up so much as a unit that one almost wouldn’t have known them for the same band at the end by the time, GI, their one full-length album, was released in 1979.
The first signs of this can be heard in tracks 3, 4, and 5, which make up the Lexicon Devil e.p., consisting of the title track, “Circle One,” and “No God.” From the first notes of this earlier version of “Lexicon Devil” (which is longer than the GI version) the band is markedly better as musicians, and Darby is keeping much better time on his vocals with the music.
However the full revelation of the band’s quality finally comes with track 6, “What We Do is Secret,” which kicks off GI. All of GI is included here, going from tracks 6 through 21 on MIA. The Germs’ best known classics are all here including, in addition to “Secret,” such gems as “Communist Eyes,” Richie Dagger’s Crime,” the faster version of “Lexicon Devil,” “We Must Bleed,” “Media Blitz,” “Let’s Pretend,” and “Shut Down (Annihilation Man)” to name some of them.
Musically GI still packs a powerful punch; from the very first you can hear the hard-charging energy and anger of it. You can hardly hear the first notes of any of these songs and not feel a powerful urge to start running towards a mosh pit into which you will then take a flying leap with legs and fists stretched out ahead of you to do damage. There are riffs here that still have bite – most notably the famous opening riffs of “Richie Dagger’s Crime” which strongly resemble an overly caffeinated person trembling from trying not to explode. The underlying rhythmic pace on a lot of the songs is of someone running really fast, and, considering the lyrical content, probably trying to run away from something rather than towards it.
The lyrics of the GI songs have a lot of elements in common. A running theme in Germs’ songs was of lies and pretense. The image of someone lost in a world in which a lot of things are not real crops up again and again. Nowhere is this more true than in “Let’s Pretend” one of the oldest songs on GI (it’s the only song from GI to appear on the hilariously awful Germicide record of the Germs’ first performance in 1977, but that album is a whole other story). The chorus of “Let’s Pretend” says it all:
Then there’s “Media Blitz” which lyrically anticipates the digital age of surveillance and the passive viewer. And the reaction to all that can be seen in “We Must Bleed” with the song ending with the Darby repeating “I want out” over and over again, eventually stopping while the music continues for another minute, as if he got lost in currents he couldn’t control.
This, of course, brings me to the other big theme in the Germs’ lyrics, which is of impending death, although that doesn’t really come front and center until we get to the tracks that were made after GI, mostly for the Cruising soundtrack, although only one of these songs, “Lions Share,” actually made it on to that record. The other five songs recorded in those sessions are “My Tunnel,” “Throw It Away,” “Not All Right,” Now I Hear the Laughter,”, and “Going Down.” These songs are even darker than the Gi tracks, and with the 20/20 vision of hindsight one can well believe that Darby was predicting his own demise here.
Whether he was or not the Germs certainly did create a body of work that has stood the test of time, at least in Punk Rock. After all these years the songs are still raw and gritty, even a bit shocking at times. They haven’t dated; they don’t sound “70s” Punk. Neither do they sound as if they were recorded later on. They’re basic enough to have been created at any time, and hard enough to continue to pack a punch even now. That’s why the collected work of the Germs remains a vital part of Punk Rock today, and this album shows it. An important record for any Punk to have, it also makes you wonder what the Germs might have achieved if Darby had lived a longer life.
(ADDENDUM: Of course the other test of the quality of a song is how it well stands up in performance, even long after the original singer is gone. This article was started before I went to the 2008 Warped Tour on Aug. 17. At that time I had not seen Shane “Wreck” West who plays Darby Crash in the Germs movie and who has since been inducted into the Germs by the surviving original members of the band. They were playing that day and I made a point of seeing them. For a perspective on that, and how it relates to the quality of the Germs’ work, I refer you to my review of that show over on the Show Reviews page.)
My Girl has the beat and lyrics you can’t resist to smile or maybe even sing about. If this song doesn’t make you do a thing then I don’t know what would. The song is how a guy expresses his love about his girl and all the great things he thinks about her on a daily basis. I bet his girlfriend’s heart melted when she heard this song, because what girl could resist true feelings along with great music.
The truth is out, Beauty Is Only Skin Deep, even though guys do like a good-looking women when it comes down to the nitty gritty of a serious relationship it’s the personality that wins the race of emotion. Not always does the pretty face alone win. There are many of us that are lucky to find a woman with both a gorgeous appearance and the best personality so we should cherish that.
I’m Loosing You is showing how things are changing in the relationship, lips cold, touch is plain, the sense of another man in her life. Things that would make a guy think of things and to try not to think of it they make themselves assume it’s not true. I would think everyone has gone through this misfortune at least once in a single lifetime, it happens, its life.
America the Beautiful makes me proud to be an American shows what we have done and what being an American is all about. We should all love where we live and show our support.
Imagine asks what if there was no heaven; imagine all the people without God imagine life without the moral base on which all of us base our daily living on. John Lennon also sang this song which was always my personal favorite.
In the song My God and I, no matter what Ray went through, the everyday of life’s hardships as well as the war he expresses how he overcame everything because of his God.
Overall this album brought up my American spirit, making me think more wonderful thoughts about where I live, what people have been through just to make it this way. Yes not everyone has this optimistic point of view but as long as I know I do and try to make others see it then I’m doing my job. Life’s gifts and pleasures are all around us we just need to open our minds, our hearts, and our view about other people. Make friends, make laughter, make your life better.
In the early 1990’s a copy of a copy of a cassette tape made its way from Long Beach to Las Vegas. It was grainy, it was sun warped, but it sounded sublime. This tape became an underground secret. It was copied again and again until its original origin was untraceable.
Soon the entire Vegas Valley was singing along to the songs “Scarlet Begonias”, “Don’t Push” and many others off of Sublime’s latest EP. The reggae infused rock paired with the lead singer Bradley’s smooth vocals brought a little taste of sun, sand, and sea to the arid Sin City desert.
As the sacred tape made its way through the valley and as copy after copy was made, a fan base grew. This Vegas fan base was lucky enough to not only listen to the songs on 40 oz. to Freedom, but to see them played live.
The first visit from Sublime was a North Las Vegas Elk’s Lodge. Five bucks for live music…what a bargain. Fans got exactly that. Discount music. The band had spent a few to many hours enjoying .99 margaritas that day and could barely stand up to play the show. Needless to say, after the drummer threw up, the show was over. Was Sin City’s fascination with Sublime over? Not hardly.
The 2nd visit from Sublime redeemed the first one and made everyone fall in love again with the songs of 40oz. to Freedom. Playing a small, standing room only venue, a sober Sublime brought down the house with “Waiting for my Ruca” and the Bad Religion cover, ”We’re Only Gonna Die…”. Every member of that audience ditched their dubbed copy for their very own genuine copy. Vegas fans weren’t the only ones. Sales of the album were up all over the West Coast. Sublime had arrived.
Its been 16 years since I got my copy of 40oz. to Freedom, and to this day it is still a road trip and house party favorite. Cassettes have been upgraded to ipod downloads, but the music is still the same. Mellow, poetic, and full of California dreamin’. Sublime is exactly that.
