They fought for their right to party. They had no sleep ‘till Brooklyn. They checked it out, passed the mic, and played with a brass monkey. But did they sabotage or were they sabotaged?
Ad-Rock (Adam Horowitz), MCA (Adam Yauch), and Mike D (Michael Diamond), aka. Beastie Boys, were a groundbreaking hip hop/rap/rock crossover group from New York City. They have sold 20 million records in the United States alone, and had seven platinum-selling albums between 1986 and 2004. They are the biggest-selling rap group since Billboard began recording sales in 1991.
The genesis of Beastie Boys can be found in the experimental hardcore punk band The Young Aborigines, formed in 1979. As line-ups changed, they eventually morphed into Beastie Boys in 1983 as they made the transition into a hip hop/rock crossover act.
Their 1986 debut album Licensed To Ill was the first rap album to top the Billboard chart, selling over nine million copies. Their first singles (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party!) and No Sleep ‘Till Brooklyn made them global superstars.
Let us fast forward to 1994. The Beasties had seen continued success, but not on the same level. None of their following albums had been as popular as their debut. It felt like they had taken a step down, and perhaps they had, although they were hardly in the minor leagues. It was more a case of; when you have been at the very top you want to get back there.
Their fourth album Ill Communication (1994) brought them back to the top of the charts, debuting at #1 on the Billboard 200 on 31 May 1994. The new album had a link to the first one in its title, both using the word ‘ill’ – clearly a lucky word for the band.
The most important factor, and a lot of the album’s success, was no doubt down to the incredible success of its first single.
Sabotage was released ahead of the album on 28 January 1994. It saw the band use traditional rock instrumentation (Ad-Rock on guitar, MCA on bass, and Mike D on drums) alongside their more typical turntable scratches and rap vocal phrasings.
A lot of the songs on the album came out of jam sessions between the three. They would play away, looking for interesting riffs or grooves. Whenever they happened upon something interesting, they would hone in on it and try to refine it.
This is what happened for Sabotage as well, when MCA came up with an arresting bassline. The band immediately took note and joined in. Mike D added the double-beat drum break, while Ad-Rock put in some guitar. Soon after, they had come up with a punchy opening, and it didn’t take them long for the basics of the track to come together. Initially, they called the instrumental idea Chris Rock – simply because an engineer in the studio named Chris really liked it.
With the raw idea for the song captured, it was promptly put aside. Incredibly, for a track of such immediate and obvious quality, it ended up sitting around for a long time because they didn’t have lyrics for it and this prevented a final arrangement from being made.
It did not help that the band had a casual approach to recording. It is fair to say that when they were making the Ill Communication album, they had no sense of urgency about finishing anything. To help them keep their minds off of doing any actual work, they even had a basketball hoop and skate ramp in their studio, which at times kept them far busier than recording.
Their producer, Mario Caldato, was used to a much higher degree of efficiency, and kept trying to rally the troops to work. He was frustrated with the lack of progress, and on one particular day he was nearing the end of his rope. He kept imploring them to finish another song, even if it was just an instrumental.
For once, he got a response as Adam “King Ad-Rock” Horovitz finally decided to throw the producer a bone. But it was meant as a joke. In full smart-ass mode, he quickly spat out a verse about how Caldato was “sabotaging” them by making them work and impeding their creative brilliance. It came out brilliantly, and was captured for posterity. The producer went to work, and discovered that the vocal take fit perfectly with the instrumental track they had already made.
When the band discovered what was happening, they all rallied around it. They kept the recorded verse as the song’s overall theme and expanded on it. With an idea in place, they went back and started jamming it. Ad-Rock was the song’s main vocalist, his voice being heavily distorted. So was the bass guitar riff, which was given centre stage in the song. It ended up being the lead single and biggest hit from the album.
I can’t stand it, I know you planned it
I’m gonna set it straight, this Watergate
I can’t stand rocking when I’m in here
‘Cause your crystal ball ain’t so crystal clear
So while you sit back and wonder why
I got this fucking thorn in my side
Oh my God, it’s a mirage
I’m tellin’ y’all, it’s a sabotageSo, so, so, so listen up ’cause you can’t say nothin’
You’ll shut me down with a push of your button?
But you, I’m out and I’m gone
I’ll tell you now, I keep it on and on‘Cause what you see you might not get
And we can bet, so don’t you get souped yet
You’re scheming on a thing that’s a mirage
I’m trying to tell you now, it’s sabotage
They had almost given up on finishing the song, even considering releasing it as an instrumental. With the lyrics and full vocal performance falling into place a mere two weeks before the end of the sessions, they now didn’t have to. Sabotage was the last song they finished before the sessions were wrapped up.
Unlike much of their earlier work, Sabotage did not use any samples. Nor did the following album. They decided to rely more on live instruments, as sampling was getting expensive and was increasingly seen as a 1980s thing. They felt it had been played out, and had always had a leg in the rock universe in any case. The transition was an easy one to make.
They were also keen to be seen as a still relevant act in the new decade. Sabotage certainly fit well into the musical climate of the 1990s, embracing the lo-fi qualities of grunge as well as sharing a similarity to other rap-inspired hard-edged rock bands like Rage Against the Machine who also were hugely popular at the time.
When Beastie Boys released Sabotage as the album’s first single on 28 January 1994, it took off in a way that none of their songs had done since 1986. It shed them of any ’80s band’ tags that might still have lingered, showing that they fit perfectly into the 1990s vibe as well. The song would go on to become one of the defining track of the decade, hugely helped by its accompanying music video.
The music video was directed by Spike Jonze and was played extensively on MTV. It was made as a homage to (and parody of) 1970s crime drama shows such as Hawaii Five-O, The Streets of San Francisco, S.W.A.T., Baretta, and Starsky and Hutch. The video is presented as the opening credits of a fictional 1970s-style police show called Sabotage, with the band members appearing as the show’s protagonists. Each band member is introduced as a fictional actor, and the names of the characters are also given.
The three Beasties each play a few different characters in the video, using wigs, moustaches, and huge sunglasses as props as they run around the city chasing a man with a briefcase and doing other undercover cop stuff. The clothing came from thrift stores. They had such a good time playing dress-up that they started wearing the costumes to parties and other functions.
Adam “MCA” Yauch recalled to Q magazine in April 2008 how the video came about: “Adam (Ad-Rock Horovitz) wanted us to do a photo shoot as undercover cops on a stakeout, sitting in a car, surrounded by coffee cups and doughnut wrappers. We mentioned it to Spike and he said, ‘Let’s do it.'”
Reflecting on the video, Matt Pinfield of MTV’s 120 Minutes told Songfacts: “It showed a band’s sense of humour and playfulness, and not being afraid to have a good time. It was a change of direction as far as the song goes: It was full-on rock inspired, that ’70s rock feel on that song. I felt there was a lot of Zeppelin in it. That’s why I think it’s such a great take-off on all those great ’70s cop shows and those blaxploitation movies.”
The video was nominated for six MTV Video Music Awards, but didn’t win any. The Video of the Year went to Cryin’ by Aerosmith, while Best Direction went to R.E.M.’s Everybody Hurts. The Beasties were going to get attention no matter how, though. Just as Michael Stipe had received his trophy for the latter and was about to start his acceptance speech, Adam Yauch (MCA) rushed the stage and got to the podium. He was in character as his alter ego Nathanial Hornblower, wearing a huge fake moustache and lederhosen, giving a silly speech of his own.
This was the first such intrusion in the history of the show, pre-dating Kanye West’s takeover of Taylor Swift’s speech by 15 years. Unlike Kanye’s actions, Yauch’s stunt came much more off as being a humorous prank with no particular ill will intended towards R.E.M. It was still a bit baffling, as only the biggest Beastie Boys fans would be familiar with the Hornblower character, with most of the audience scratching their heads about who that was and what was going on.
Yauch and the group suffered no fallout from the incident, with the network more or less taking the stance that boys would be (Beastie) boys. The fact that they were given the Video Vanguard award in 1998 more or less proved that there were no hard feelings. The award was given by MTV for “outstanding contributions” and “profound impact” on music videos and popular culture.
Beastie Boys rarely allow their music to be used in advertisements, but the band gave their blessing for this song to be used in the 2017 live action Destiny 2 trailer. The commercial’s director, Jordan Vogt-Roberts, has an existing relationship with the Beastie Boys which helped him in securing the soundtrack. The song was also later used in a spot for the movie Minions: The Rise of Gru that aired during the Super Bowl in 2020.
In the 2020 Beastie Boys Story documentary, Ad-Rock talked about how the lyrics are a fictitious rant about how their producer “was the worst person ever and how he was always sabotaging us and holding us back.” Unfortunately, this story has frequently been misunderstood over the years to the effect that the band had genuine gripes with their producer. They were certainly annoyed with his nagging at times, but like so many Beastie Boys songs, the words in the song were made as an in-joke among the band and the people they work with. They were also grateful to the producer for his work, which helped make Ill Communication into one of their most successful albums.
The fact that the lyrics of Sabotage work on many levels has no doubt contributed to the song’s longevity.
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