Hey Ladies
 

I'm not sure when exactly it happened, but at some point in the last few years Hey Ladies has become one of my favourite and most-played Beastie jams. I keep imagining what it must have been like to hear at the time, being a fan and having waited three years for new music (I was born in '89 by the by). I probably wouldn't have known what to think - does anyone have any recollections?

It's just so damn funky and the vocal interplay is some of their best ever. And obviously, it just heralds this whole new sound. It's a million miles away from LTI and - despite my love for that album - all the better for it.

I have some other questions that I've been thinking on recently: why was it never (to my knowledge) performed live? I know Yauch (I think?) was confused as to why it was the first single off Paul's in the Anthology booklet, but they obviously liked the track enough to include it on both best of's...

And, although I say it was never performed live, did it not make any of those small, very infrequent clubs show set-lists in 1989 around the time of its release?

One of those songs I painfully imagine them revisiting (along with Shadrach) when I imagine what recent set-lists may have been like had the unthinkable not happened :(

Hope everyone is well by the way - I miss this place but always remember with affection the brilliant fans...

ps - and how can I not mention the video!

Re: Hey Ladies
 

I've just read in Beastiemania there is a BS remix of Hey Ladies... how cool it would be to listen that!!!

Re: Hey Ladies
 

I remember when the video came out being like "what the hell is this disco stuff?" I just don't think I was cool enough to realize what they were doing. I wouldn't say I didn't like it, but it was so far from what I expecting based on License to Ill that I think it went over my head.

You also have to remember that disco was still kind of hated in the mainstream at that point in time. The Beasties were just ahead of their time with the throw-back to that era. I'm pretty sure that track was all I heard from Paul's Boutique. It wasn't until after Check Your Head came out that I started listening to Paul's Boutique and by that time it made a lot more sense to me.

Headz really weren't ready.

Re: Hey Ladies
 

I remember it well and l was'nt pleased, hey ladies was only liked by a few girls l knew at the time.In 89 l was trying to tell everyone how good "pauls boutique" was and people were saying but "hey ladies is shit".
I was thinking why the hell is'nt shake your rump the lead single? (The B side wins again - PE)
When the video for shake your rump was released on yo! Mtv, then my friends knew what l was talking about and gave "pauls boutique" a chance and then two of them bought the album and loved it.
I love hey ladies now but only up until about 3 years ago because l know if shake your rump or shadrach was the lead single that would have been a different summer for the beasties in 1989 and for me.

Re: Hey Ladies
 

Great stuff! Yes I'd love to think that I would have 'gotten it' straight away. But I definitely would have been bewildered. Even when listening to the Anthology - which was the first time I heard Hey Ladies - it didn't do much for me. I agree that Shake Your Rump and Shadrach were more immediate, and probably better choices as singles. That said, I love how Hey Ladies was the first song dropped, and I wonder who's decision it was.

While the Beasties gained more control over their output than most (partly due to the 'failure' of Paul's), I remember Yauch complaining on here that Capitol were pushing for Triple Trouble to be the second single off TT5B, when the band really wanted An Open Letter to NYC. I still think it would have been a better follow up to Check It Out, which was by all accounts a hit. In the end, it came at the end of the campaign and only in Europe / the UK I believe (also bizarre).

Anyway, I digress... Thanks for your recollections.

Re: Hey Ladies
 

I do listen to PB but typical push the next button and skip HL

Liked a lot as a kid and still like it but I played it enough I guess

Re: Hey Ladies
 

In '89, I waited so impatiently for the release of the new album and I could read in the Melody Maker that they worked with 3 normal and unknown guys.
I loved LTI and when Hey Ladies came out, I was not expecting that at all. But the samplings were so great, the dynamics in rapping so brilliant and the video, mmmm perfect : the suits (they got more suits than Jacoby & Meyers), the sequences in the disco and near the pool, the cowbell. And indeed no live performance.
As a musician, I am always stunned by the mix of styles (Love American style...) on PB.
Beasties always surprised me.

Re: Hey Ladies
 

I was a huge fan at the time and was eagerly awaiting the album. I bought the single as soon as it came out (still have it). It also had Shake Your Rump and a couple Dust Brother mixes on it. I thought all of it was incredible.

It was a big change, and I was, like Mister-Gerard said, always surprised by what they did next. But I was very open-minded. I was 19, and smoking a lot of weed and always checking out new different music. I was way into hip hop at the time, but also into alternative rock and older rock like Hendrix and the Beatles and just soaking everything up, so the Beasties' new music was just amazing to me. I just remember being so excited to hear their stuff and what they were coming out with next. I also was psyched thinking about what the shows would be like, which unfortunately I never got to go to, as they just ended doing a few small shows and never toured. I didn't get to see them live again till 1992, which was like a whole other era in their history, as they changed styles so fast back then.

Hey Ladies is probably not their best song from that time, but the musical track is very strong and the rapping is good. The chorus is very weak though. I remember the video coming out later. We thought it was hilarious. It is kind of similar to the video for No Sleep Till Brooklyn, where they are just dressing up and having fun and making fun of another style and fashion.

It is interesting that you guys say they never played it live. That is funny, because it is one of the songs I had imagined them doing when they would tour the album. I'm sure they would have, but the tour never happened. And after that, I think they just felt that they had moved on to CYH and had a lot of songs to play, and it just didn't make the cut any more. It does kind of surprise me though, they they wouldn't have thrown it in a few times just for fun.

I just remember me and my friends would play that tape high all the time (I recorded the record to a tape, so I could play it in the car, or on a boombox, or home stereo, etc., that's how we did it back then).

When the album came out we were just blown away completely. So many samples, so many rhymes....Listened to it constantly and had the album memorized after a couple months...but still, always hearing something new every time I listened to it. To this day, it remains a big influence on me as a musician, sonically (not so much lyrically or thematically). I consider that album basically a pillar of popular music at the time, along with stuff like It Takes A Nation, 3 Feet High and Rising, Mother's Milk, and other influential albums like Bleach, Stone Roses, Pretty Hate Machine, etc. But I would have to say that the production on Paul's Boutique is as influential as anything that came out back then. People are still trying to do what they did back then today.

Re: Hey Ladies
 

Can you dig the cowbell?
Hey Ladies!!
:o

Re: Hey Ladies
 

after reading this I pushed #2 on the disk changer and have been listing to PB and I played HL for the family and then a few other times.

out of 3 plays I only made it all the way through 1 time.

I do love the riff in the beginning and like the song and may have heard it more than any other. Just not in current time.

Anyway, I cant help but think about Will Farrell when listening

I also think this song might have been better if it was 2.5 minutes