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Videos: When Parents Feared The Beastie Boys In 1986
By
Jen Carlson
Published May 8, 2012
Modified May 8, 2012
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By
Jen Carlson
Published May 8, 2012
Modified May 8, 2012
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These lyrics didn't kill us, after all.
The parental war on music has been going on ever since Elvis first gyrated on stage, but sometimes it's easy to forget that parents just never understood, especially when the bands they raged against ended up proving them wrong down the road. Adam Yauch famously apologized for The Beastie Boys' earlier antics and boorish behavior, in part by penning this lyric into 1994's "Sure Shot": “I want to say a little something that’s long overdue/The disrespect to women has got to be through/ To all the mothers and sisters and the wives and friends/ I want to offer my love and respect to the end." Yauch also became more politically active, raising awareness about China's persecution of Tibetans, and he's now remembered as an individual any parent would hope their kids would look up to—as Randall Roberts put it in the LA Times this weekend, "he managed to carve a path at once so admirable and unlikely that his contributions should serve as a model for a life worth living."
But, back in 1986 the Beastie Boys were young, and being judged for every moment they were under the spotlight, because with great wattage comes great responsibility. The band was public enemy #1 for some parents, including Tipper Gore, who even took the fight against the original party warriors onto national television, to Oprah herself, who had just launched her Oprah Winfrey Show that year. Watch that, and other television clips from the same year below, showing how the Beastie Boys reacted to some criticisms from the elders, and showing what one of their performances that year looked like.
Discussed on Oprah in 1986, with Bob Guccione, Jr. (editor of Spin) and Jello Biafra (singer of The Dead Kennedys) defending them to Tipper Gore:
Defending themselves with Run-DMC, on Nightwatch:
A 1986 performance at MTV's New Years Eve show:
"Hold It Now, Hit It" (the song highlighted in the Oprah segment):
Tagged
beastie boys
oprah
parents just don't understand
tipper gore
Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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