The first time you listened to Paul's Boutique...

[MissCrafty]

Where were you? What was it like? For me I was 12 back in 1990 and I remember my older sister ordering some CD's from Columbia House and one of the CD's was Paul's Boutique.

I remember thinking the album cover looked so cool. I remember thinking before the first time I put it on thought maybe there's a song like Brass Monkey on it? So I remember the first time I heard it feeling disappointed that it wasn't like Licensed to Ill but at the same time it felt really awesome like nothing I've heard before. It was just like that first time smoking weed, it was weird but at the same time it was awesome. I loved it more I listened to it and felt it was way better than all the other rap of the time. Yet not alot of people knew about it then. I felt I was the only girl in 7th grade that liked it.

So what was your first PB experience like?

:p

[LuciferHam]

I was the same age as you, 12, although the year was 2002 for me. A girl in my class knew I liked the Beasties so gave me a scratched up CD that her brother had owned and didnt listen to. That CD was Paul's Boutique.

I gave the CD a spin while putting up posters or doing something for the teacher. I remember the teaching looking disaprovingly at the music, perhaps she caught an offensive lyric or she just didnt like hiphop.

At first I found the album a little strange but it quickly became my favourite Beasties album, which I would proceed to bash for forever.

Although as I'm typing this I remember a time earlier, standing in a CD store when I was perhaps 9 or 10 listening to the album on headphones. I was trying to find Intergalactic at the time and didnt know what album it was on. I'd just eaten a Burger King Double Whopper with Cheese cause I was a fat little fuck, and I remember bopping along as I left the CD store, inspired from the cool beats I'd heard. I didn't however know it was Paul's Boutique at the time.

So there you go, the first two times I heard the album.

[pesto pizza]

It was the day before my 16th birthday, 25th july 1989 the day of the uk release.I bought it on vinyl and it was a very sunny day.I had already heard "shake your rump" and "hey Ladies" I remember on first listen I really liked it,but was'nt untill the coming weeks on my Postman deliveries with my walkman on that it blew me away.
Image a 16 year old kid with white adidas basketball boots,long hair and a postman uniform walking down your street singing"time and money,girls covered in honey!"

[abbott]

the day it was released, I had Shake Your Rump lyrics memorized within a few days. Probably still could recite 80%+ of them. Seems at the high school I was in, I had maybe 3 other people I knew that were into it. I had to buy at least 2 other cassette versions as I wore that shit out. It pretty much stayed in my car until CYH came out.

[Laver1969]

Cool stories.

I also heard Hey Ladies on the radio before the album came out. I recorded it off the radio and listened to it over and over.

I was 19 when PB came out in 1989 and remember going to the mall to buy the cassette version...my car did not have a cd player yet. I remember listening to All The Girls and being confused. Then heard the beginning of Shake your Rump and thought "they're back".

Then kept listening and reading the liner notes and getting lost in the music. I was honestly hoping for LTI part 2 as I was 19 in a fraternity and into girls and beer. But I thought it was different but awesome. I remember being disappointed there was no news of a tour. I kept waiting for the explosion that LTI had...but it never came.

Then CYH came out...boom!

[Bernard Goetz]

I was 15 - the release date coincided with a concert I had tickets for - The Cult at the Worcester Centrum (Metallica headlining, but my friends and I were freaks for The Cult). First thing that day, a bunch of us piled into Jim's Chevy Malibu and headed to the mall to each pick up our own copy of Paul's Boutique on tape. Like others here, we'd been obsessed with Hey Ladies (from watching the tape so many times, to this day I still associate the video with a mental snippet of Ed Lover slapping cologne on his face after introducing it) and we'd tried and failed to record Shake Your Rump off the radio, so we were primed and ready. As that summer day at Brian's house grew long, with PB on repeat while we ate pizza and played Nintendo and goofed around in the pool, I found myself drawn closer and closer to the boombox until at one point Steve walked up and said 'Man, you're going to see The Cult tonight! Why are you wasting all day listening to this?' I remember thinking 'I am hearing something I have to keep hearing.' And that was that. After the concert that night, I insisted Jim put the Boutique on again, and I spread out in the backseat, taking it in and feeling strongly it was something special that I'd be listening to for the foreseeable future. That was nearly 25 years ago. I last listened to it two weeks ago and it won't be long before I listen to Paul's Boutique again.

[PORKYS1982]

It was the day before my 16th birthday, 25th july 1989 the day of the uk release.I bought it on vinyl and it was a very sunny day.I had already heard "shake your rump" and "hey Ladies" I remember on first listen I really liked it,but was'nt untill the coming weeks on my Postman deliveries with my walkman on that it blew me away.
Image a 16 year old kid with white adidas basketball boots,long hair and a postman uniform walking down your street singing"time and money,girls covered in honey!"

Pesto Pizza - You Are 1 day Older Than Me I turned 16 Years Old 2 days after Paul's Boutique Came Out.

[pesto pizza]

Pesto Pizza - You Are 1 day Older Than Me I turned 16 Years Old 2 days after Paul's Boutique Came Out.

"My name is MCA and I'm a leo"

[dave790]

My order of B-Boys albums is totally messed up. I think I listened to it in 2002, because it was a little while after I'd got the Sounds of Science. By this point I owned IC, LTI and CYH as well.

I found it on cassette on the cheap and thought why not. I knew Shake Your Rump and Hey Ladies, the latter hadn't really done much for me by this point. As a 12/13 year old kid, who worshipped the sounds of Sure Shot, Intergalactic, So What'Cha Want and Rhymin and Stealin, the sound was a little off at first.

I'd also grown accustomed to the Beasties spitting in verses. Also, my appreciation for samples wasn't really there. So, in a way, my attitude was similar to the general one which is existed in 1989. I was under-whelmed.

Of course, as the months and years went by, my appreciation and love for that album went up. Certainly by TT5B I considered it a classic. In a weird way, I actually found some similarities between the two albums. Both had 15 songs, both were all hip-hop. One was just far more dense than the other. I listened to both of those albums more than anything else during 2004/2005, and the beauty of seeing them for the first time at Wembley arena opening up with Egg Man is something I'll never forget.

Also, it's worth noting, despite my initial lukewarm response to the record... I LOVED Car Thief from the get-go. It was an instant classic for me and remains one of my favourite songs today. I also loved the Shadrach video and that live performance - the LP version still suffers in comparison as it just doesn't sound as alive.

[Bernard Goetz]

Of course, as the months and years went by, my appreciation and love for that album went up. Certainly by TT5B I considered it a classic. In a weird way, I actually found some similarities between the two albums. Both had 15 songs, both were all hip-hop. One was just far more dense than the other. I listened to both of those albums more than anything else during 2004/2005, and the beauty of seeing them for the first time at Wembley arena opening up with Egg Man is something I'll never forget.

They opened with Eggman? That is fucking AWESOME!

[Brother McDuff]

got it for xmas, freshman year of high school. listened to it on headphones. it really creeped me out. for some reason i sense dark undercurrents from this album still to this day. epic record, but kinda spooky in ways as well.

[Guy Incognito]

i really got into them when CYH came out and pretty much straight after got a copy of PB and took it back to my college room and listened to it and....

thought it was shit.

tbh i probably wasnt concentrating that much as a young lady i was interested in at the time turned up and i think spent more time trying to impress her than actually listening to the album. I failed in impressing the young lady but after a few more listens really got into it so story had a happy ending

[dave790]

got it for xmas, freshman year of high school. listened to it on headphones. it really creeped me out. for some reason i sense dark undercurrents from this album still to this day. epic record, but kinda spooky in ways as well.

Those weird vocal sounds /effects on High Plains still creep me out.

And Bernie G, yes, Egg Man opened up. Just dug out the killer set-list from the thread of that show...solid tour all round.

EGG MAN
ROOT DOWN
SURE SHOT
PASS THE MIC
TRIPLE TROUBLE
THE NEW STYLE
SUPER DISCO BREAKIN'
SKILLS TO PAY THE BILLS
SHAKE YOUR RUMP
MMM

SABROSA
LIGHTEN UP
SOMETHING'S GOT TO GIVE

AN OPEN LETTER TO NYC
RIGHT RIGHT NOW NOW
PAUL REVERE
BODY MOVIN'
3MC'S AND 1 DJ
BRASS MONKEY
CHECK IT OUT
SO WHATCHA WANT

INTERGALACTIC

GRATITUDE
SABOTAGE

[LuciferHam]

Egg Man as an opener... shhhhhhhiiiittttttttttteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... yeah I find elements of the album pretty eerie as well, think it may have something to do with the drugged up vibe which surrounded the studio during the recording of it. The few times I've listened to the album stoned* have been an interesting trip.

*Not that I'm into that kind of stuff anymore

[PWN productions]

1987, 16 years young, You gotta Fight for your right played om the radio. Blew me away instantly. It was new, it was fresh, it was Beastie Boys!!!! Fan since that day...

[JasonP]

Bought it at a record store in St. Pete Beach FL. while on vacay in '89. Just walked up and down the beach listening to it. To me (at age 13) I didn't think it was drastically different than LTI...it was just different. Still sharp, funny, with great music. I already had Love American Style, so I probably knew what I was getting into with PB.

Funny how memories like this can be so vivid.

[Kid Presentable]

1990 - I was 9, staying on a farm for a couple of months in NZ, long bus rides to school etc etc. My parents were going through bankruptcy and this place was sort of a weird retreat for us. In retrospect I liken it to the band recording in the log cabin, but it's really nothing like that.

At the time, I was a little skate grommet, and was obsessed with Tone Loc's first album. This kid gave me a copy of something "by the same guys" and it happened to be PB. So I guess he meant the Dust Brothers.

Earlier that year I had encountered the FFYR video, but my preference was more for shit like Faith No More, Suicidal, Peppers and so on. I did love me some Run DMC but at that age, in that location, had never really connected them meaningfully to the B-Boys. Yeah, I know.

Aaaanyway, I recognised them from a photo and blurb in some metal magazine (which in hindsight is very cool that they were even being spoken about in 1990 given how badly PB flopped), and put the tape on my stereo with some big-ass headphones. I cranked the shit out of To All the Girls because it was too quiet, and as it grew louder I realised they had ended up tricking me. Oh yes they had. Big smile from that day on.

I recall it sounding too busy compared to the straightforward nature of the Tone Loc record, but it didn't take long at all to grow. High Plains Drifter and Barrel of a Gun were instantly my favourites. Car Thief probably really didn't hit me until I was 13, close to four years later. But it remains one of my favourite songs in their catalogue.

This thread made me put the album on. Nice one.

On the eerie thing, yeah I certainly agree. There is some sort of low fidelity to the recording which tricks your brain into listening harder, or some shit. Like messages in reverse, recorded forwards, and played forwards. It's like 'Gimme Shelter' - you could never, ever hope to replicate that recording.

I don't know that it was the drug thing; I never even thought of that period as overly debauched. Not by modern standards. Not even really by early 20s standards. Bit of weed, coke, e, shrooms, acid. Sounds about right.

[Rodie]

My story is boring. Heard it, wasn't impressed, listened some more, loved it.

I just wanted to share that I was at a different show in 2004 where they also opened with Egg Man and was overjoyed. In fact Dave790 when I saw them they played all those same tracks except swapping new style and skills to pay the bills for posse in effect and time to get ill.

[Bernard Goetz]

Been thinking back on that summer of 89, getting to know PB. Funny stuff bubbles up, like the time my best friend and I were listening one day in my room (very early on - the verdict was still out for him), and during Get On The Mic, he was like "Man, no one does beatboxing anymore, that's so old school." Back then, when old school wasn't a compliment.

[MissCrafty]

Been thinking back on that summer of 89, getting to know PB. Funny stuff bubbles up, like the time my best friend and I were listening one day in my room (very early on - the verdict was still out for him), and during Get On The Mic, he was like "Man, no one does beatboxing anymore, that's so old school." Back then, when old school wasn't a compliment.

Summer of '89 was one of the greatest summers imo. I actually do remember the day when the album came out also. I was at a friend's house who lived down the street from me and we were both watching MTV Raps,and my friend was like "Oooh look, the Beastie Boys are back!". Although I remember when 'Hey Ladies' first aired after watching it my friend and I just looked at eachother like "WTF!?!?" ..

But then listening to the album the first few times within the next year, it was just really deep. I agree with a few here that some of the songs do have a creepy vibe to them. I really like that though. I love haunting songs. It still amazes me why this album wasn't as big as it should've been. I remember all the kids at school always talked about how cool Public Enemy,MC Hammer or NWA were while trying to talk about this album made you look like a nerd lol. And then I remember reading an article in that old magazine RapPages and there was an article where 3rd Bass just straight up dissed the Beastie Boys. I remember feeling how dare they dis the Beasties after they just released this album!!!!!!! I never liked 3rd Bass after reading that and I thought it was a shame that people at the time actually agreed with them. Still imo the greatest hip hop album ever recorded.

[Bernard Goetz]

It's also easy to underestimate now just how much the Beastie Boys seemed done, finished, cooked after the aftermath of Paul's Boutique. As much as my friends and I were obsessed with PB, we knew it hadn't caught on, and nobody else (we thought anyway - thanks pre-Internet) cared about it. IIRC, it wasn't until the fall of '91, when that Dirt article came out chronicling the development of their new album, that a comeback seemed possible. That was a long time, the fall of '89 to the fall of '91; two years of listening to the best album ever by a band that by all appearances weren't even going to make a followup. That hiatus will always feel like the longest between albums for me, odd as it may seem.

[beasties#1fan]

I love this thread(y)

I specifically remember my first listening of PB. I not sure what year, I'm guessing my 7th grade...Cause it was when I was really getting into the group, and I remember me and my dad talking about them for awhile, and he alredy had CYH, HN, TT5B, and I thinkkkkk IC, so i was missing LTI & PB and my dad bought LTI for me once i really started to like them and i was like dad i really want the PB cd. & I remember him always saying "thats a hard one to find" (because my dads not really computer savvy so he doesnt shop online, therefore he had to go to best buy/target/circuit city, etc. to buy his cd's) Anyways christmas was around the corner and at the top of my list was "PAULS BOUTIQUE"

When i was opening gifts Xmas morning i saw a cd shape present, I opened it and it was like taylor swift or some shit...& i was hella bummed out, almost on the verge of tears....and i went over to my dad and was liek "so you couldnt find PB?" and he was like..."No i told you that was really hard to find"
So i'm opening up my stocking and i shit you not the PB cd was in there, i was like jumping for joy...i ran over to my cd player/radio thing (LOL) and played the cd, and i remember listening to Shake Your Rump first...
My inital reaction was.. "is this really the beasties?" cause i was use to LTI & HN...and at first i was kinda like...what the hell... but i listened to the whole thing and yeah it grew on me...Its just crazy reminising about this because now that I'm the fan that I am, its funny remembering my inital reaction to the CD.

[MIKEtotheD]

I got it in the summer of 2004, I was 12 at the time.
I'd heard all of their other albums prior to listening to it, and remembered thinking how different it was.
B-Boy Bouillabaisse was instantly my favorite, and still is.
It took me probably two years to appreciate it in its entirety, though.
I think I was too young at the time to grasp the intricacies of the samples, and to understand what a groundbreaking album it really is.
Better late than never to appreciate a classic, right?

[LuciferHam]

On the eerie thing, yeah I certainly agree. There is some sort of low fidelity to the recording which tricks your brain into listening harder, or some shit. Like messages in reverse, recorded forwards, and played forwards. It's like 'Gimme Shelter' - you could never, ever hope to replicate that recording.

I don't know that it was the drug thing; I never even thought of that period as overly debauched. Not by modern standards. Not even really by early 20s standards. Bit of weed, coke, e, shrooms, acid. Sounds about right.

Yeah good point I shouldn't stress the drug thing too much. I guess it's more the increased creativity of the time. But perhaps by referencing a lot of late 60s/70s albums which were fueled by drugs (sgt. peppers etc), the album borrows some of the vibe.

The Beasties have said in interviews that they don't remember a whole lot from that period though, which I think they partly contribute to drugs. I'm sure the Dust Brothers were in on that too and that some of that inspired their unique approach to production.

When i was opening gifts Xmas morning i saw a cd shape present, I opened it and it was like taylor swift or some shit...& i was hella bummed out, almost on the verge of tears....and i went over to my dad and was liek "so you couldnt find PB?" and he was like..."No i told you that was really hard to find"
So i'm opening up my stocking and i shit you not the PB cd was in there, i was like jumping for joy...i ran over to my cd player/radio thing (LOL) and played the cd, and i remember listening to Shake Your Rump first...

Also beasties#1fan, I enjoyed this story. Can totally relate to your sense of excitement at recieving/nearly not recieving your most anticipated album for a present. I think I had a similiar experience with Queen's Made In Heaven at the tender age of 5...

[beasties#1fan]

I'd just eaten a Burger King Double Whopper with Cheese cause I was a fat little fuck, and I remember bopping along as I left the CD store, inspired from the cool beats I'd heard. I didn't however know it was Paul's Boutique at the time.



LOL, nice LuciferHam(y)
But yeah I agree w/you about you thinking it was "strange" at first because honestly comparing LTI with PB its a total transformation. but in a good way..
& I'm only comparing the two albums because License was the breakthrough album and a lot of people thought we wouldnt hear from the bboys again, but then pb came out. Sadly i didnt grow up around this time, but my dad did, and he said that only the true beastie fans followed them and bought PB, which he did.
I still cant believe PB wasnt as popular when it first came out as it is now. That will always be a mystery.

[Michelle*s_Farm]

I picked up PB the week it came out (I had the yellow tape). My favourite song was Hey Ladies. The supporting video was amazing. One person I worked with when PB dropped (he liked LTI) complained that there were too many samples. Strange criticism. For me PB culled some of the 'uncool' LTI fans (i.e., the one's who did not understand irony, post-modern art or the band's hardcore roots). To this day I hear non-vocal parts of LTI in PB (cannot put my finger on it), despite the transformation in sound. Found the following PB video (http://youtu.be/f8eok-KPcG0) on youtube the other day and it is great.

[abbott]

it was not the first time I heard it, but I think a good one.

I remember the night shift radio guy on a certain fm station in West Texas would put track #9 ... you know that BBQ, Fried Chicken, Red Neck sounding track. You know that track that seems to start the album within the album, part 2 of 3 or part 3 of 5.

Anyway, late at night on the FM radio, track 9 would start and the radio host would go outside and smoke a joint and listing on his walk-man and finish the album before he shut down the radio, because the station closed at 2 am until 5 am. I am not sure why he did this, but he believed it was a responsibility he had to broadcast it. I am sure he worried a little about Federal Communication Laws, but he never got in trouble and made a few friends as result. Not sure what happened to that guy, but I think he gave up the Radio gig to work in D.C.

[cj hood]

got the Hey Ladies cassingle...borrowed the cd...didn't like it...came back a year later...studied it and wore it out!

West coast bound, new York swagger
Acid trippin, but spit daggers
original galif-in-ockis
way ahead like Nostradomus
heads to bed, no support
a masterpiece that came up short
back to lab, upright bass
Buddhist now all in your face
Heads in check, renaissance
Back to Pauls studied nuance

[Brass Monk]

I slept on PB completely. Went straight from LTI to CYH. Once I heard PB, I went from a casual BBoys fan to a fanatic.

[LuciferHam]

Listened to the album in full a few days ago for the first time in a while. Perfect soundtrack to aimlessly cruising and enjoyed it so much I'd be willing to give it some sort of rediculous praise along the lines of, the greatest hiphop album ever released. If it isn't, it definitely isn't far from it.

But regardless of rediculous praise, fuck it's a good album.

[YoungRemy]

I was in 9th grade (92-93) and likely tripping on acid.

like many others, the PB release skipped over me and it wasn't until CYH came out until I rediscovered the best sophomore album of all time...

now that's a legit list that Rolling Stone should make.

[MCScoobyT]

I heard it for the first time in the summer of 1990, while losing my virginity to your sister... your sisters def

[beasties#1fan]

I heard it for in first time in the summer of 1990, while losing my virginity to your sister... your sisters def

Ha ha?

[MCScoobyT]

^ At least mine didn't mention PB and Taylor Swift (http://eldeforma.zippykid.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Screen-Shot-2012-10-30-at-8.34.34-PM.png) in the same sentence :rolleyes: