This Is This

There are two things that make me feel ten feet tall, and one of them is this song coming on in the morning on the walk to the office, although not in time.

There are first two muffled bars and then it kicks in with that muddly highhat and the Hendrix riffs and the cowbell and badass happy lyrics. You don’t get a lot of badass happy.

You also don’t get much cowbell in rap and MCA sounds so good when he’s singing loud, like being hit in the face with a velvet pillow.

I have and will always love the Beasties. That shameless fun and cool thing they have is a nice change from the bored and tough persona of most acts. It’s more like the jazz guys have. Maybe it’s a personality trait in people who improvise. Interviews with jazz musicians are often really eloquent and I’ve always wondered if it’s because of the inventive spontaneity of the music, or are the drawn to jazz because that’s how their mind works anyway.

But The Beastie Boys have that. Plus they can jump in slow motion, which is cool.

Watch this interview with CNN and you can see how funny and smart they are. They are the guests of heavyweight reporter Charlie Rose and it sounds serious, which makes it funny. The words and pacing of the answers is exactly like you would get in a political late-evening interview, which is hilariously clever. Or is it meant to be funny? No it is. Look at how MCA is trying not to smile when he is introduced. Satire, irony, subtlety and songs that rock like fuckers.

People how you doing? There’s a new day dawning.
For the Earth mother it’s a brand new morning.
For such a long while there’s been such a longing,
but now the sun is shining let’s roll back the awning.

Listen: Jimmy James

Also on This Is This
I like to be the first to sign someone’s leaving card. That way I can write “take care” or “all the best” before someone else does.
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