Beastie Boys, Clearance, etc....

[max cooper]

I've been listening to "Paul's Boutique", "Check Your Head" and "Ill Communication" a lot these last few weeks.

One thing I find amazing is that they use "Abbey Road" pretty freely on "Paul's Boutique". I know they're on Captol, but still, it had to cost a fortune to get that.

But there's a great kind of loose-ness on these three albums. I'd like to know more about the production of these albums.

I would guess that the Dust Brothers had a lot to do with the sound of things because the Beasties didn't sound much like that before hooking up with the Dust Bros.

Then when I listen to "Hello Nasty" the loose-ness is almost totally gone; and a lot of the songs are kind of square. The Dust Brothers/Beasties records play like little movies. there's not a lot of repetition in the orchestration. It's like a crazy patchwork collage of junk.

How much would you like to have been a fly on the wall at those sessions?

Another thing I noticed is that Mike D is credited with playing the drums except for the hardcore songs. But I've seen him play drums and there's no way in hell he played some of those grooves. It was really, really obvious. I know others have noticed this too. So why isn't that the same as Milli Vanilli?

Just wondering!

[XSergeantD]

From my understanding, Paul’s Boutique has all uncleared samples. This was way back before all the lawsuits over samples, that’s the only reason they got away with it. This album would never fly nowadays, which is too bad cause that was an awesome album using samples in a very artistic way, not just some way to get a kick start to a hit song

[Psyko/Acoustics]

I did some searching and dug up a Dust Brothers interview in SOS from last year...They discuss some "Paul's Boutique" in there.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may05/articles/dust.htm

Good read! I really enjoy their work.

Additional:

There are 3 other records with crazy samples all over them which for me are also in that "never gonna hear sh!t like this again" category! All Bomb Squad.

In no order:

"It takes a Nation of Millions..."
"Amerikkka's Most Wanted"
"Fear of a Black Planet"


-Walls of sound! Damn lawyers.

[littledoodler]

Originally Posted by Psyko/Acoustics

I did some searching and dug up a Dust Brothers interview in SOS from last year...They discuss some "Paul's Boutique" in there.

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may05/articles/dust.htm

Good read! I really enjoy their work.

Additional:

There are 3 other records with crazy samples all over them which for me are also in that "never gonna hear sh!t like this again" category! All Bomb Squad.

In no order:

"It takes a Nation of Millions..."
"Amerikkka's Most Wanted"
"Fear of a Black Planet"


-Walls of sound! Damn lawyers.

And De La Soul "Three Feet High and Rising"...

[Psyko/Acoustics]

Originally Posted by littledoodler

And De La Soul "Three Feet High and Rising"...

You caught me out there...May as well add "De la Soul is Dead" too. Prince Paul is a master.

Ahhh, love the loops.

[max cooper]

Hey, great reading. Thanks. So I guess the sample on "Paul's Boutique" were cleared, but due to the lax environment of the time, they got a great deal.

Can you imagine trying to clear Abbey Road for a hip hop album today?

Wow.

[mattssons]

Paul´s B was after the James Brown samples era, so a lot of record companies started realise that sample clearance was a way to make money and made sure they protected their rights..


"After we did Paul’s Boutique we realized we had spent a lot of money in the studio. We
had spent about a $1/4 million in rights and licensing for samples. $1/4 million in studio
costs! Just a ridiculous amount"

Interview with Mario Caldato, Jr. – March 2001

www.makeshiftstudio.com/pdfs/tapeop_mario.pdf


Hard work for the people taking care of Norman Cooks creations;) by the way