Many of my memories are associated with what music I was listening to at a certain time in my life. It’s just like how you can smell something and suddenly be thinking about how the bus you used to ride to school smelled or the gross food the babysitter tried to force feed you when you really young.
I will sometimes hear a song and do the same exact thing. I get transported back to when I first heard it or what I was going through emotionally when I played that song or record on repeat till my parents couldn’t take it anymore and made me stop.
With the sad news of Adam (MCA) Yauch’s passing today I can’t help but think of all the places my mind runs any time I hear a Beastie Boys song.
I remember the Christmas morning that my big brother gave me the “Licensed To Ill” CD. I must have only been 12 or so and wasn’t really sure who The Beastie Boys were. I fell in love instantly. I probably listened to nothing but “Brass Monkey” for three weeks before I was finally pretty sure it didn’t have anything to do with the movie “Congo.”
Since then I remember that Christmas morning every time I hear a song from “Licensed To Ill” and I remember my uncles laughing when I told them “No Sleep Till Brooklyn” was my favorite song. “You weren’t even born yet!” my uncle Brian said as him and my uncle Darren reminisced about blasting “Fight For Your Right” while they worked on their BMX bikes back in the ’80s. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t born yet because that record was as amazing in 1996 as it was when it came out in 1986 and still is today.
Whenever I hear “Sabotage” I remember the day I bought my first car. It was a blue 1989 Camaro with T-Tops. The day was just sunny enough so I popped the T-Tops and hit the streets of Everett blasting that song as loud as I could while I cruised around town trying to race people and violating a traffic law or two.
At least once every year at Sasquatch I stand watching the sun go down behind the hill across the Columbia River and remember how freezing cold it was in 2007 while I waited for the last band of the night to hit the main stage. I could tell some of my friends were tired and cold and ready to leave, but I wasn’t having it. I had never seen the Beastie Boys live before and they were headlining. The show was incredible and I don’t remember being cold after they started playing but I do remember walking out very satisfied. I had never been so happy about standing my ground.
The world lost a pioneer today. Somebody who helped transform music and who changed the game every time he stepped up to the mic.
MCA will be missed, but thanks to him and the Beastie Boys I will always have these memories.
“I’m out and I’m gone,
I tell you now I keep it on and on” –MCA
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