Sydney, AU (EMI MUSIC AUSTRALIA) - The
Beastie Boys don't usually give interviews, and when they do, it's virtually impossible to gain much insight into their mission. But that's all done on purpose of course, because the mission is accomplished when you the listener starts to wonder what the hell is going on here? Essentially they create highly catchy party train hits held together by retro rap cuts. Here's what some of the members had to say about some of the songs which appear on Solid Gold Hits.
AN OPEN LETTER TO NYC
'It was kind of not that long after 9/11 when we wrote that. I mean it might have been two years after 9/11 but it felt close and was something we had to say, it was inspired by that,' says Adam Yauch.
ROOT DOWN
'All the music on this song comes from a Jimmy Smith song, usually we look up lots of different songs and chop them up but in the case of that song it is basically just a bunch of riffs from this one song,' says Yauch. Root Down captures the king of the Hammond B3 organ, Jimmy Smith, playing down and dirty R&B. It isn't that Smith had forgotten that he was one of the jazz greats for this 1972 live concert, but with an LA rhythm section, there is definitely a groove here.
SHAKE YOUR RUMP
'It is a great song, we love that song. It has a great introduction; it has that bass thing going on which is great,' says Yauch. The song samples everything from Bob Marley, Led Zeppelin and Jazzy Sensation.
INTERGALACTIC
'I don't really think of this as only a song, it's a club banger,' says Mike D. 'You can hear that song in your car, at a club or at home. It is something you can hear over and over. It is wide open. There is a robotic voice in there too which is nice, I heard that those who listened to this song also got into Brass Monkey.'
The latter part of the 1990s saw the Beastie Boys take a quieter approach to their songwriting, as well as taking a more political stance when they came out and played. In 1996, they released the hardcore EP Aglio e Olio and the instrumental soul-jazz and funk collection, The In Sound From Way Out! In the same year, Adam Yauch organised a two-day festival to raise awareness and money about Tibet's plight against the Chinese government; the festival went on to become an annual event. It was their fifth long player, Hello Nasty, which in 1998 also saw the band gain more commercial appreciation – it was up there in terms of sales and hits.
'When we make music we don't necessarily think about the commercial outcome of those songs,' says Mike D. 'For us it's about following something that we like, picking a sound here or there and going with it. Our music is about what inspires us, what makes us laugh, what makes us sick. We are the Beastie Boys and it's our job to shake up your conception of us.'
