MCA, where have you been? Packed like sardines in the tin

Adam “MCA” Yauch’s death was really a depressing piece of news. The Beastie Boys had always seemed so young to me since their music was full of vitality, making it startling to see one of them die at the (really, still young) age of 47.

I have been a Beastie Boys fan for years. This is a little out of character for me since I have never been a hip hop fan. I’m not sure why but I never really got into that genre. Maybe it’s because I miss the singing or because hip hop hit its stride after my tastes had already been firmly cemented. I’m not sure what about the trio appealed to me. Perhaps it’s the diversity of their material and the way they can blend hip hop with genres like rock like in my favorite track, “So What’cha Want.”

I suppose I’m not a super fan as I don’t have all their studio albums and there are a few songs that I only have because of greatest hits collections. I was not a fan in the beginning as I still don’t care for “Fight for Your Right.” It’s just too meathead for me and even though the Beasties were being sarcastic, it’s still not my thing. I remember when Paul’s Boutique came out but didn’t appreciate the insane density of its sampling. (Recently I heard “Shake Your Rump” on vinyl at the bar 1984 and it struck me again how that indescribable distortion effect in the song can fill the entire room and sound like the biggest thing in the world.)

What I find really fun about their songs is some of the clever rhymes and metaphors. These encompass things as diverse and weird as “Sam the Butcher” from the Brady Bunch, Chateau Neuf du Pap and rhyming “malaria” with “take care of ya.”

I came into Beastie Boys fandom rather late in 1998 with the release of Hello Nasty. It’s still one of my favorite albums; playful and colorful and cartoonish. I’m not sure what it is but I’ve always loved the opening salvo of “Super Disco Breakin’”/“The Move”/“Remote Control”/“Song for the Man”/“Just a Test” and “Body Movin’” culminating in the all-over-the-place “Intergalactic.” This opening of the album is like a suite where all the songs are in their own mini-genre but fit together anyway. Or maybe they’re just fun songs that bring me pleasure and there’s no need for further analysis.

The Beastie Boys have left me with one indelible memory. To this day, the opening notes of “Super Disco Breakin’” remind me of being at the shore house in the summer of 1998. Hello Nasty was brand new then and we played the album over and over again. This was before iPods so we had to actually put on the whole CD, which is probably what got me to appreciate the flow of the first seven tracks. Everybody at the house loved that album so nobody minded hearing it on a loop.

And with Yauch gone, as it is when any figure from your youth dies, you realize none of those people is getting any younger and neither are you. It’s a fact of life and the only thing you can do is keep listening to the music those people left us with and let it take you back in time a bit and make you smile.