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Video: Party Backstage With The Beastie Boys In 1987... If You Dare!
By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 11, 2013
Modified Jan 11, 2013
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jan 11, 2013
Modified Jan 11, 2013
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It's Friday, it's about time to get ill. Let us stumble back in time to 1987, when the Beastie Boys, ranging in age from 20 to 23, were deeply immersed in their controversial Licensed to Ill tour. It's impossible to understate how much trepidation the group was inspiring in the minds of American parents at the time—the Beastie Boys had lurched grotesquely into the national consciousness with a sudden fury, and the media was quick to distort and amplify their ludicrous bad boy personas. It's probably true their boorishness started out as a stupid joke, but even the Beastie Boys would later admit they lost sight of where the parody ended and reality began. Any parent with a teenage girl in 1987 probably had a hard time finding the humor in this backstage footage:
The video, which was included on a Licensed to Ill VHS tape distributed by the Beastie Boys, appears to be at least partially staged—we're not buying the cops bursting in at the end. And how about that moment at the 3:20 mark where Adam Yauch reaches his hand down the front of a groupie's pants? Please tell us she's an actor. But judging by accounts of the tour, this doesn't seem too far from the truth. And some fans have speculated that a lyric on the Beastie Boys' subsequent album, Paul's Boutique, references lawsuits filed by girls' parents. From the Annotated Beastie Boys website:
Two different site visitors have suggested that this line ("Time and money for girls covered with honey") references the Licensed To Ill tour when the Beastie Boys reportedly would invite young girls on stage (or backstage) and pour honey on their bodies. this allegedly resulted in lawsuits from the girls' parents. I have yet to find any corroborating evidence of this, however, I thought the two separate mentions of this (while it could well be rumor, still) warranted a mention.
8 years later, in an interview with Shambhala Sun Magazine, Yauch (who passed away from cancer last year) would say, "When I was 15-16 years old, I was going to see those bands every night, like Bad Brains and Minor Threat. That’s what mainly affected my way of thinking about music. Then I forgot about it for a bunch of years. I went and got drunk and made some stupid music. [laughter] But… nothin’ wrong with that! No regrets there. It’s not anything 'bad.' It was 'stupid,' but it was fun bein’ 'stupid.' Nothin’ wrong with bein’ 'stupid.'"
Tagged
beastie boys
groupies
public service announcement
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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