Beastie Boys, "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn"

Baby I'm Not Fa-fa-fa-foolin'

THE VIDEO Beastie Boys, "No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn," Licensed to Ill 1987, Def Jam

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SAMPLE LYRIC "No sleep 'til / Brook-lynnnnn / No sleep 'til / Brook-lynnnnn / No! Sleep! 'Til Brooklyn! / (Brook-lynnnnnnnnnnnn!)"

THE VERDICT Yes, I'm switching the site to an all rap-rock theme, and starting off strong with the Beastie Boys. Of course, things will rapidly go downhill after this, what with Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, Linkin Park if they count, and whoever else is foolhardy enough to try blending rock and rap without the assistance of Rick Rubin. Sure all my posts will be scathingly negative, but that shouldn't get too repetitive, right?

Okay, okay. April Fools! Obviously I would never change the format of this blog. But in the spirit of the first of April, I decided to do something a bit different. Obviously, "No Sleep Till Brooklyn" is not a heavy metal video. It is, however, a pretty decent parody of one! So in honor of all this April Foolery, here we are.

I've heard various of the Beastie Boys comment that this video was inspired by situations they would actually come across as a bunch of white guys trying to play club gigs. In the video, they show up at a club and tell the manager they're the band. When he asks where their instruments are, Ad-Rock produces a record, which the manager promptly breaks over his head. They leave, but a few minutes later, return dressed as a heavy metal band (with exaggerated British and Californian accents) and are promptly ushered onstage.



Their fake metal costumes are pretty good. MCA is wearing a giant Vince Neil-looking blonde wig, though the rest of his outfit is more Tommy. Ad-Rock is more or less dressed as Theatre of Pain-era Nikki Sixx, with a Nikki-style wig, red and black leather pants, and a black and white zebra-striped fringed jacket. Mike D wins though. In addition to a pouffy Twisted Sister-style wig, he's straight up wearing a knight's armor for a very Armored Saint kind of look. He quickly collapses under its weight.

A security guard fails to hold back the four or so female fans (dressed in black, animal prints, and pink as per heavy metal video regulations circa 1987), and they run onstage and grab, among other things, Ad-Rock's wig. They then promptly disrobe all of the Boys, leading to the transition out of their metal outfits. (An especially crafty gal uses a can opener on Mike D -- helpful hint for all you Armored Saint and Grim Reaper fans out there.) The women run off stage with the clothes -- probably happy that since it's 1987, it's all stuff they can wear -- and the Beasties continue rhyming onstage in their underwear. Soon enough though, they've got their clothes on. This infuriates the club owner.

In a sequence that they surely meant to be symbolic, Ad-rock takes an ax to their stack of Marshall amps, Mike D smashes a guitar, and late MCA machine guns the amps for good measure. Yes, we've broken away from the conventions of rock. But have we? 'Cause next thing you know, a blonde who looks and dances very much like the dancing gal from Danzig's "Mother" shows up, dancing around in a silver bra and a very bizarre sort of high-waisted, sumo wrestling-looking belt thing that has a long, silver train.

Because yes -- if you're a youngster and thus only know the Beastie Boys in their "I want to say a little something that's long overdue / the disrespect of women has got to be through" phase of their careers, yeah, they were not always like this. The Licensed to Ill tour not only featured dancers such as this one (often caged, no less!) but also in case that was too subtle, a giant, veiny, 6-foot-tall inflatable penis right in the middle of the stage. Really. Really.



Can you imagine what all the little Madonna wannabes out there in the audience thought of that one? Oh yeah, because on this tour, they were opening for Madonna. Any doubts about whether the Beastie Boys have always been cuddly, vegan, woman-loving, Buddhists can be quickly dispelled by the video for "She's On It" (in which, by the way, we actually get to see Rick Rubin -- he's the guy with the beard who keeps giving them all their "missions" on the chalkboard).

Anyway, back to this video. The club owner/manager guy and some heavies come onstage to drag off the Boys. They have a long altercation that ends in the Boys reclaiming the stage. The next bits are mostly just them rapping onstage and long shots of the dancing girl, but I would be remiss not to mention the many excellent crowd shots. Whoever costumed the extras for this video, well done. It's definitely a more diverse crowd than you'd see at a metal show (I don't just mean racially -- they've improbably made the crowd an exact 50-50 of men and women), but it totally works. Also since it's the Beastie Boys, silly things happen. Mike D tosses a mic offstage and a woman catches it in her mouth, and at one point we see an Orthodox Jew headbanging. Another headbanger bangs his head right off.

Toward the end, this song actually has a guitar solo. At first, it's being played by a guy in a gorilla suit. But next thing we know -- boom! -- that guy gets pushed aside by the guy actually playing guitar on this track -- Kerry King from Slayer!!!!!! I've heard Kerry say they actually wanted him to do sillier stuff in this video (I think including either having the Boys blow him up or having the solo somehow cause him to spontaneously combust), but he wasn't down for that. Nonetheless, he does show up, and we do get to see him play a bit. Slayerrrrr!

The video ends with the Boys breaking into the club owner's safe and stealing bags full of money. Though this pleases them greatly, they are displeased that their exotic dancer leaves with the guy in the gorilla suit.



For me, this track stands up on its own, but let me also mention the many ways that it is a pretty legit metal track. The title plays off a Motorhead album (No Sleep 'til Hammersmith), and the guitar interpolation is a modified version of "TNT" by AC/DC. And lest we forget who's playing that guitar -- it's freakin' Kerry King from Slayer!!

See here's the thing I was getting at above with my little rant about Fred Durst et al. It's not impossible to do the whole rock and rap thing right. But in order for this to happen, you really need Rick Rubin to produce. He cut his teeth with Run-DMC and brokered the version of "Walk This Way" with Aerosmith. And at more or less the same time that he produced Licensed to Ill, Rubin also produced Reign in Blood.

And you can really hear that metal influence in a lot of what he does. I often feel like Licensed to Ill is his greatest statement -- it's got lots of really heavy beats in it (Led Zeppelin's "The Ocean" anyone? How about "When the Levee Breaks"?). Anyone familiar with the Less Than Zero soundtrack (which I highly recommend, allmusic doesn't know what it's talking about) knows that there Rubin puts together a bunch of great tastes that taste great together -- it's got Poison (covering KISS), Anthrax (covering Public Enemy), LL Cool J's best song ever, Slayer (covering Iron Butterfly), the Bangles (covering Simon & Garfunkel), etc. You can still hear this in the hip-hop he produces today though -- just listen to that hard and heavy beat in Jay-Z's "99 Problems."

I'm telling you, Rick Rubin, baby. He might have a weirdo Zakk Wylde beard, but I'm never going to stop with this. Though I am going to stop with the rap-rock. Don't worry, next week will be April Serious, and we'll be back to your regularly scheduled heavy metal videos.

P.S.: Come on, if you're reading this, don't even pretend you don't get the title reference.

Anthrax, "I'm the Man"

Nice Jewish Boys from New York Who Aren't Beastie

THE VIDEO Anthrax, “I’m the Man,” I’m the Man, 1987, Island/Megaforce

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SAMPLE LYRIC "I'm on your case / I'm in your face / kick you and your father back in place / step up sucker, understand / don't you know that / I'M THE MAN!!" (repeat as quickly as possible; use funny accent for "I'm the man")

EXCESSIVELY DETAILED DESCRIPTION The intensely hot Frank Bello grabs a mic (and grabs his head) and yells. Lovin’ it. A homemade Anthrax tribute on a stonewashed jean jacket. Also love. Anthrax fans yell “Not!” Charlie Benante bangs away. Another jacket Anthrax tribute (this one with the “Not” man). Dan Spitz busts into “Hava Nagilah” on the guitar, and Scott Ian jumps onstage in skater shorts, a Public Enemy t-shirt, and a fishing hat. Can it get any better?

Yes it can. This woman has the Anthrax logo tattooed above her right breast. Now I feel like I’m not even a fan! Charlie steps out from behind the drum kit (Joey Belladonna having temporarily taken over the sticks). An Anthrax fan goes nuts, and the creepy dude on the cover of Among the Living (who’s based on the character Randall Flagg from Steven King’s The Stand if I’m not mistaken) tips his hat.

Scott bounds around the stage rap-rockin’ his heart out, and Frank does the squeakier-voiced parts (the crowd does all the responses in this bleeped for home consumption version). This is interspersed with quick shots of Anthrax fans, Joey offering the camera a spoonful of something, and a scary skull thingy. While they say “Charlie beat-the-beats-the-beats-you-beat” we see Joey drumming, and for the “only thing harder's the smell of my feet” we see the boys backstage after a show with Scott proffering his armpit hair for the camera.



Can I mention again how hot Frank looks? So frickin’ hot!! He’s wearing wristbands, a hat turned sideways, a black wifebeater, and colorfully patterned skate shorts. So many hearts!!

For the chorus, all band members go nuts, interspersed with shots of the crowd going nuts. Frank gets to shriek the “I’m the man! I’m the man! I’m so bad, I should be in detention!” while we see overhead shots of Anthrax members signing autographs for fans. We also see them mugging with fans, and of course, Charlie making silly faces for the camera. In between more crowd shots, we see weird images of scary masks, including a damn convincing corpse head, then shots of the band backstage. This culminates with a crossover -- the band posing with Frankenstein.

The chorus has the crowd going bonkers, including a great shot of a kid who’s probably about the age I was at this point headbanging. Scott runs around the stage, Frank stays in place and yells, and Charlie looks slightly awkward. Did I mention yet that Charlie is wearing a black fedora-style hat, a sleeveless tee, particularly short shorts, red and white striped socks, and black low-tops? Maybe this is contributing to the awkwardness. Scott briefly grabs the camera then looks bashful, then we see him shirtless and backstage again (on a side note, Frank, why did you keep your shirt on?).

Of course, the whole “but all of them can suck our…” gets crazy censored, but fortunately for us it is replaced with some backstage stuff and a priceless shot of Frank grinding wildly. We then see more of Anthrax signing stuff, including Charlie signing a fan’s scarf and then sneezing into it.



With the chorus, everyone in Anthrax sings, and some crazy dude yells at the camera then pours a drink over his head. Everyone takes their turn singing on the last verse (even Joey gets to yell, “a festival!”). Frank gets Dan in a headlock, and fans go crazy. One of the last ones we see is holding a scarf like the one Charlie sneezed on before, which says “Anthrax European Tour ’87.”

THE VERDICT I always like when something is clearly the idea of half the band, and you thus get to see the rest of the band be good sports and go along with it (Van Halen's "Hot for Teacher" is a great example of this). In this case, Scott and Frank seem to be the most into this by far, with Charlie going along possibly to humor his nephew. Joey and Dan seem less enthused. Just wait till Scott meets Chuck D, guys.

Speaking of, my recap of "Bring the Noise" already extensively delves into the whole rap-rock thing, so let's set that aside for the moment and focus on one of the greatest points of this video: The clothes. The assorted members of Anthrax (excepting Charlie, who's wearing a genuinely bizarre outfit) display a marvelous melange of late 80s styles in this clip. The jam shorts, the tight shirts, the hats -- I love it all. And in case you didn't notice, I especially love it on Frank.

But okay back to the more serious stuff -- apparently this song was originally written with the intention of being performed with the Beastie Boys, and it shows. Oh, does it show. And not just in the sampled "yeah!" (which is lifted from "Fight For Your Right"). But they also pull from Run-DMC, lending further credence to my there could be no Anthrax as we know it without Rick Rubin theory. Long story short, I really like that Anthrax have a sense of humor and seem like nice guys, unlike some other thrash bands I might name (*cough* Metallica *cough). And given my love for all things Rick Rubin, including even things Rick Ruben-esque, I'm going to have to give the thumbs up to this one.

Anthrax feat. Public Enemy, "Bring the Noise"

Public Enemies

THE VIDEO Anthrax featuring Public Enemy, "Bring the Noise," Attack of the Killer B's, 1991, Island (also available on Public Enemy's Apocalypse 91…The Enemy Strikes Black, 1991, Def Jam)

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SAMPLE LYRIC "TURN IT UP! / Bring the noise! / [sound of record scratching]"

EXCESSIVELY DETAILED DESCRIPTION The video opens with many frenetic, panning shots of Anthrax and Public Enemy jamming amidst more speakers than Spinal Tap. They're beneath an unidentified Chicago bridge, and the crowd is going nuts. A pre-VH1-overexposure-victim Flavor Flav jumps down in front of the camera to kick off the song by delivering his signature "Yeah boyee!" while the camera flashes back and forth between him and the crowd.

Next we get Chuck D's booming "Bass! How low can you go?" which is sort of the if-you-don't-recognize-the-song-by-now… moment. Everyone is kind of crammed onto the tiny stage -- between the enormity and overabundance of the speakerage and the fact that between the five members of Anthrax and three from P.E. (only Flav and Chuck are presumed present -- unless the S1Ws are down working security in the pit) it's a bit crowded.

Anyway, Flavor Flav's additions to the song (if you're not familiar, he frequently punctuates the verses by saying the last word of each line along with Chuck or yelling a non sequitur) keep causing different stuff to happen onscreen -- for example, when he yells "D!" a large, red letter d appears onscreen, and when he yells "Freeze!" both he and Chuck D appear superimposed over Dan Spitz, who then is seen making a crazy face (p.s. check out that link -- kind of amazing).

All of the members of Anthrax are going nuts (at least the ones we’ve seen). Scott Ian has been frantically headbanging the whole time, showing off his scary Hare Krishna-style braid, the last vestige of his long hair (uh, actually of all of his hair. Not counting the ZZ Top goatee).



Charlie Benante, as always, has a smile for the camera when it comes around, and is sometimes caught singing along -- such a cutie! His long hair, though not long for this world, is pulled back in a braid in this vid. (To their credit though, both Scott and Charlie are possible exceptions to my "everyone looks better with long hair" rule -- the fact that I even consider it a possibility says a lot of them). But as always, the piece de resistance is Frank Bello. He looks absolutely gorgeous, as always (and it kills me, kills me, that there is no decent link for him!).

Frank, Scott, and Dan are all sort of standing over Charlie while Chuck and Flav run in front of them. As we near the first chorus, we see Chuck superimposed in front of hands playing a black guitar (which is in turn superimposed in front of flashing crowd shots. Blue electrical wires, then more crowd shots appear behind him. As the chorus begins, the first person we see yelling "turn it up!" is Joey Belladonna, shown inexplicably behind a pair of turntables. The other band members take turns shouting it while continuing their frenetic performance, and the camera swings wildly over the crowd.

Chuck D begins the second verse rapping in front of computer animated images of uh… I guess I'd have to say they're stylized renditions of speakers, but I wouldn’t necessarily say "style" was in any away involved here. The background flashes between white and black, and finally Chuck throws his fist and we're back beneath the bridge, where an elevated subway train is going by in the background as the crowd waves its hands wildly. Initially just Chuck and Flav, but eventually everyone, appear mugging for the camera in front of more random red and blue-colored shots of what appear to be telephone poles as well as blue and white-tinted film of skateboarders.

With the second chorus, Joey makes more of a show of pretending to scratch records, which is just sort of depressing (where the hell is Terminator X? It's sort of like the reverse of "Walk This Way," which had all of Run-D.M.C. present but only 2/5 of Aerosmith).

And of course, the third verse, which begins with everyone sort of rapping along ends up with just Scott (yes, Scott) rapping. All of Anthrax and P.E. are shown mingling superimposed in front of footage of the bridge they were playing beneath in the other shots as well as other random stuff (a highway, at one point Scott is playing in front of one of those old-timey film number-countdown things -- I'm sure there is a word for what I'm talking about but I definitely don't know it).



The rest of the crew help him out by yelling along Flavor Flav-style on key lines, but it's mostly just Scott. I don't usually think of him as having much of a New York accent but he sounds really New Yawky here. In between showing him, we also see the other band members being silly for the camera -- Dan makes a face while appearing to fly directly above the crowd, and at one point Charlie, Joey, and Flav are all standing together playing snare drums.

As the third chorus begins, we're back onstage with everyone. Flav has put on his little hand-shaped sunglasses and what appears to be a Donald Duck hat (like those caps you get at Disney that are like, the top half of his face) and stands in the center of the stage looking like he has no idea what's going on. Chuck jumps off a riser for the zillionth time, and oh! Praise be! Terminator X it appears has at long last shown up, so Joey's just watching him scratch. At the same time though, Scott's guitar is long gone, he's now holding just a mic. Frank keeps putting his leg up on Charlie's bass drum to play… oh, so hot.

The camera goes wild and the background strobes as the song nears its climax, with everyone vocalizing one of the original song's stranger samples (the best I can approximate with oenomatopeia is this "deer-neer-neer, deer-neer-neer"). Flav continues to look befuddled, and Anthrax for the most part abandon their instruments and just dance around.

Scott and Chuck share the final verse, standing in front of the crappy computer-generated speakers, which are now sort of slowly rotating. We then see them rapping onstage, and, of course, everyone joins in on the "roll with the rock stars STILL NEVER GET ACCEPTED AS." Then Scott and Chuck are shown in front of footage of (probably Scott's hands) playing guitar -- his hands and arms look normal, the rest looks like a negative.

A crowd member (ahem, stuntman) takes a spectacular dive from atop the mountain of speakers as the verse ends, and then the crappy speaker graphics begin strobing in front of footage of the bands onstage and everyone thrusts their fists as the song reaches its conclusion. Flav makes a pained face, and we see footage of Charlie drumming, then Flav, flashing back and forth between the two of them while Chuck, Scott et al. boogie down onstage.



THE VERDICT Will we ever solve the riddle of what was truly the seminal rap-rock fusion tune? Who can we blame for Fred Durst? While the former will forever be argued, and the latter well, I don't think I can bring myself to wish that distinction on anyone, it is without doubt that Rick Rubin played a big part in it. Let me just say it loud and clear for everyone: Rick Rubin is the man! (In the most positive sense that one can be "the man.")

Now I know you're scratching your head like, wait, Rick Rubin did not produce this song, nor either of the above-mentioned albums it appears on. He did, however, produce the soundtrack to one of my all-time favorite movies, Less Than Zero (which is also hands-down my all-time favorite book and damn near my all-time favorite soundtrack), which is where P.E.'s original version of "Bring the Noise" first appeared (yes, before It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, which Rubin also executive produced).

What else has Rick Rubin produced? Run-D.M.C. (he was particularly instrumental in convincing them to cover "Walk This Way"), Slayer (who rule), LL Cool J (way back before he was all "Mr. Smith" and stuff), and, getting to my point, the Beastie Boys (who he also talked into adding rock riffs to Licensed to Ill -- think Zep's "The Ocean" on "She's Crafty”" and Kerry King's guitar on "No Sleep Till Brooklyn").

Where am I going with this? Oh yeah, right. Even though Anthrax (to the best of my knowledge) never worked with Rick Rubin, they were clearly deeply influenced by his work. Just look at "I'm the Man" -- it's like a more rockin', less sample-heavy "Cooky Puss" (and lest we forget that in the video Scott's wearing a P.E. t-shirt, if I remember correctly… I may be thinking of "Caught in a Mosh" though).

So how'd they get together? (Besides Scott's being a P.E. superfan?) I totally don't know the answer, but I did some digging and found this info on yes, MTV of all places. But you know, it's a "this week in 1991" thing, so it's just a flashback to when MTV was worth watching (don't get me started on that subject). Anyway, it's kind of cool, and has thoughtful quotes from both Scott and Chuck on their decision to work together, and you can also see a clip of Scott talking about the song on MTV News. (You can also learn about what inspired C&C Music Factory's "Things That Make You Go Hmmm," but that's another story).

Anyway, why the meandering, half-baked diatribe? Welll because one, the video doesn't have a whole hell of a lot for me to talk about that I haven't said already above. Two, I wanted to give a shout-out to Rick Rubin, without whom this song would not have existed, and who I think is a frickin' genius. And three, I wanted to lay out what I believe are some of the (very legit) foundations of this song, since a lot of critics hate it. Would it have been better if Chuck had done more of (or all of) the rapping? Probably, yeah.

At the same time though, when you compare it to more recent rap-rock tracks, it absolutely holds its own. It just depends how you're looking at it. It is interesting that on allmusic, the review of Attack of the Killer B’s refers to this track as "slamming," "highly influential," and "classic," while the site's review of Apocalypse 91 describes it as a "leaden, pointless remake." I think the answer's somewhere in between. And no, Fred Durst is not their fault.