[Songs My Son Should Know] Beastie Boys | Sabotage

This wasn't intended to be the weekly [SMSSK] entry, but upon learning the gloomy news of Adam Yauch's passing -- and thus the mandatory dismantling of the band itself -- I thought it appropriate to write about a group of artists that infiltrated the culture and influenced the upbringing of every single person my age.  I don't mean that allegorically; I mean that very literally.

I will even say that I am certainly not the most loyal fan.  There was a definite threshold for me regarding the Beastie Boys, and maybe that went for a lot of other people as well.  But there is one undeniable constant, and that was their ability to pock every 1990s in-car discman (with the hardwire hanging out of your tape deck like a feeble rap I.V.), post-football kegger, and Juarez drink-and-drown with their unmistakable musical pragmatism.  Its a gray afternoon when a legendary act dissolves suddenly, and even darker the idea of explaining the history of the band to Enzo the way Elvis or The Doors were explained to us.

There is a song that I'd like Enzo to know them by -- although their catalog is a mixed bag of genres and there is no singular cork that seals their vessel -- but there is a song that I'd like Enzo to know them by that gave me volumes of memories in high school.

There was no time of social notability in 1994 where this song was not blared from somebody's brother's set of Pioneers.  But beyond the tune itself, the video ushered in what we know today as hipster irony.  It simply blew our fucking minds: the sake of being retro for irony's sake.  Beastie had ushered in a movement, and one that is so pervasive today, its almost the cultural norm.  Think about your wardrobe, and there is AT LEAST one display of Sabotage haberdashery within.  And its 18 years later.  Think about that.

So, goodbye to a prodigious band -- one that grew along the same maturational arcs as we did  -- from anthemic party bros to opinionated political stumpers.  They will be remembered.