What's the real deal with the 'mullet' and the Beasties connection?

[gaselite]

As you can probably imagine, it's a great source of pride to me when I can say my favourite band of all time pioneered sampling, initiated the free tibet concerts, and of course, coined the term mullet with regards to the hairstyle. Especially in Australia where the mullet is an intrinsic part of our culture.
It's an old bit of beasties legend I've picked up when browsing around the place, but I really am in search of a definitive answer, were the beasties, specifically Mike D, responsible for coming up with the 'mullet'. First I heard about it is that it was first used in an issue of Grand Royal magazine in '95. Does anyone recall the word being used before then? What about Mullet Head, the IC B-side, which surely must have been recorded in '94, was that the creation of the pop culture icon 'the mullet' as we know it? Or have I just been lead on like a fool who believes that Mike D created the term 'mullet' in his off time from grafting trees to humans?

Thanks in advance, I await your answers

[b-grrrlie]

If you'd done some search you would've found several (http://www.beastieboys.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=53165) threads (http://www.beastieboys.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=55065&highlight=mullet) about this issue.

[gaselite]

Yeah I saw those threads but then, no defintive answer was really provided, I mean does anyone have some genuine evidence... I've just got this feeling it was referred to down here as a mullet for a bit longer, but if not, very cool. This thread was meant to be a once and for all thing, the others just kinda turned into jokey threads. Although that'll probably happen to this too :p

[Chad the Lad]

now what you make you think that? (not that i'm gonna break with tradition and get "all jokey" on ya.

[marshall10]

I#m not sure, was the term not used in the sixties?

[laurie_hammy]

I remember in one of the other threads some dude said "the word mullet has beenused since back in the early 80's". So I guess Mike didnt come up with it.

[gaselite]

I dunno what made me think that, it was just a feeling.

Laurie: If that's th case though, what would get everyone thinking that he did make it up?
To be honest I really can't remember when the word first came into use anymore :(

But yeah, the reason for this thread came to be when I got a bit confused coz I heard the first reported use was in Grand Royal in 95 but then I heard Mullet Head which must have been recorded in 94

[zorra_chiflada]

mike d didn't invent the word, but he certainly popularised it. it wasn't a very well-known term before.

[laurie_hammy]

I dunno why someone would say it was Mike that made it up, but the person that said the word was being used in the 80's could be wrong, its hard to gety a answer. But personally I dont think he made it up.

[gaselite]

But the weird thing is, as far as I can tell, the first known recorded use was in Grand Royale, so at the moment it seems like he was one of the first. But maybe it's something he took from another country and brought to America through the mag and the song?

[discopants]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHH HHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How many more fucking times??!!! The word mullet was popularised in Britain in the 80's thanks to Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle. To get a looksy, watch the World in Motion video.















Stone me.

[laurie_hammy]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHH HHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How many more fucking times??!!! The word mullet was popularised in Britain in the 80's thanks to Glenn Hoddle and Chris Waddle. To get a looksy, watch the World in Motion video.
















Stone me.

Theres ya answer gaselite.

[gaselite]

There ya go, thanks, dunno why you had to be so agro about it, I did search and found bugger all, hence the new thread. Looks like it paid off in the end :)


just wikipedia'd it and found this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mullet_%28haircut%29

"The mullet became popular in the 1970s, but was known to have been worn long before then. Urban legends have it dating back to 19th Century fishermen with long hair in back to keep them warm, hence the term "mullet". The term was also referenced in the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke, starring Paul Newman and George Kennedy, in which Kennedy's character refers to Southern men with long hair as "Mulletheads."

An article Mike D wrote for issue 2 of the Beastie Boys' magazine, Grand Royal in 1995, proved to be a turning point in the history of the hairstyle. The article started "There's nothing quite as bad as a bad haircut. And perhaps the worst of all is the cut we call The Mullet," and went on to lampoon the hairstyle over several pages, including many photographs of celebrities sporting this hair style. Soon after the article was published, it became popular for fans of the band, and in youth culture generally, to mock the hairstyle, which gradually led over a few years to it being almost universally ridiculed."

[laurie_hammy]

There ya go, thanks, dunno why you had to be so agro about it, I did search and found bugger all, hence the new thread. Looks like it paid off in the end :)"

Word & Word

[discopants]

Breath in... and relax.