Stimpson
-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Russavage <joer@bu.edu>
To: Stimpson <stimpson@total.net>; Acid Jazz Mailing List
<acid-jazz@ucsd.edu>
Date: Wednesday, July 29, 1998 5:20 PM
Subject: Re: The Beasties
>Have the Beastie Boys written their "Hey Jude", "Imagine" or "A
>> Day In A Life" yet?? No, and I'd guess safely that they never will.
>
>are we forgetting the musical genius of brass monkey!!??
>
>(a joke.)
>
>joe, boston
>
>on a serious note, i agree with you about it being very difficult to
>compare beatles and beasties. I wouldn't call the beatles musical
>geniuses, however. They wrote incredible pop tunes (should we dare
>enter the realm of pop?) but they were far from brilliant. It was more a
>matter of being well marketed and having a good ear for music.
>
>Correlations I can see drawing between the two:
>
>1.)Both entered the scene similarly: into a field that a:was already
>being established, and b:was being established by a different kind of
>person (for the beatles they entered the american pop scene, for the
>beasties, they entered the "black" rap/hiphop scene) both paved their
>way and made great names for themselves in these fields
>
>2.)Both decided to get creative and made really "different" music after
>they were well established in their field. It's interesting how they
>were both heavily influenced by the concepts of peace, eastern ideas,
>and eastern music.
>
>3.)Both artist groups held to their roots even while exploring new kinds
>of music.
>
>4.)Both comprised of a group of people that were incredible friends. I
>know the beatles had their differences, so that is arguable, but I think
>their friendship really pushed their tours along well. The beasie boys,
>I can only assume they are great friends by the fact that their little
>group hasn't experienced any change (as far as my limited knowledge can
>tell, anyhow) and in fact continue to give each other props in every
>single song to this day.
>
>so i don't think you can totally knock it when someone says the beatles
>and the beasites have a lot in common. saying the beasites are a
>modern-day beatles, though... that really sounds like putting the
>beatles on a pedestal (which they are on) but i'm not totally convinced
>they were more musically talented than the beasties are today. i think
>the beasties are probably better musicians. and with their instrumental
>tracks, probably write more complicated pieces than the beatles
>(themselves, not their producers) ever did.
>
>interested to know what y'all think
>
>joe, boston.
>
>p.s. let me know if that email was just too damn long.
>