The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique

Description

Derided as one-hit wonders, estranged from their original producer and record label, and in self-imposed exile in Los Angeles, the Beastie Boys were written off by most observers before even beginning to record their second album - an embarrassing commercial flop that should have ruined the group's career. But not only did "Paul's Boutique" eventually transformed the Beasties from a fratboy novelty to hiphop giants, its sample-happy, retro aesthetic changed popular culture forever.

Dan LeRoy is the Director of Writing and Publishing at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School, USA. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Newsweek, The Village Voice, Esquire online, and Alternative Press. He is the author of The Beastie Boys' Paul's Boutique (Bloomsbury, 2006), The Greatest Music Never Sold (2007), For Whom the Cowbell Tolls (2014), and Liberty's Lions: The Catholic Revolutionaries Who Established America (2021).

The idea was simple: to ask a group of authors to each write a book about a classic album. What emerged became Continuum's 33 1/3 series. Without guidelines or rules, each author embraced their own favourite album and chose exactly how they wanted to write about it.As a result, each book is by turn anecdotal, obsessive, technical and personal, but always passionate. * Swell Music, December 2006 * ...recognized as a cultish, kaleidoscopic classic...a frequently illuminating and entertaining tale... -- Stevie Chick * Mojo * Just how the hell did three snot-nosed party boys from Brooklyn go from fighting for the right to party to creating 1989's hip-hop masterpiece Paul's Boutique? The album, with its thousands of samples, is an aural encyclopedia of musical landmarks, served up in a funk stew of arrogance, attitude, and ultimately, adoration for the components from which it comes. LeRoy has done a great job capturing the surroundings, the people involved, and the reaction then. The insights as to how the record was constructed, from the mighty foot of John Bonham to the scratchy guitar of '70s funk, are illuminating. Fire up Paul's on the iPod, crack the spine of this little tome, and "Shake Your Rump". -- James Mann * The Big Takeover * Eminently entertaining and essential. -- Greg Renoff * New Books Network *