RIP Adam Yauch: New York City Musical Messenger
Where were you the first time you saw MCA?
Out of this world.
I’m asking, because like a lot of people, I clearly remember: It was 1986, I was a freshman in high school. I had heard “Fight for Your Right to Party” on the radio several times now, and I was intrigued.
We were listening to records at my friend Colin’s house in suburban Berkley, Michigan, when after a few other selections he produced his newly procured copy of License to Ill. The aggressive airplane on the vinyl record’s album cover was intimidating enough, but when I flipped it over, I was suddenly face to face with him.
All three of the Beastie Boys were there, of course, and they each captivated me equally, along with that astonishing globe I saw behind them.
Ad-Rock I had no idea what to make of. In his Members Only-style jacket, Mike D actually looked a lot like another kid in my class. But MCA’s sunglasses-shaded visage and five o’clock shadow were a real shock to my system – this was my embodiment of what people looked like when they grew up in New York City.
License to Ill, I realize now as I reflect on the passing of MCA aka Adam Yauch, was for me exactly what its cover proclaimed: a jetbomber of NYC attitude, innovation and culture flown straight into your skull. For the first time, my young teen mind was keenly interested in this mystical metropolis. Do people like this really live there? And where is that other-wordly artwork?
Heard Throughout the Land
It’s a quarter century later, and I’m about to mark my 18th year as a resident of New York City. Over that time, I’ve been in countless studios that had a proud hand in tracking, mixing or mastering their music.
MCA and his Beastie Boys cohorts were responsible for what must be hundreds of hours — if not thousands – of sessions that benefited the city’s music pros (and in multiple other locales) by creating one classic after another: License to Ill, Paul’s Boutique, Check Your Head, Ill Communication, Hello Nasty, To the 5 Boroughs, The Mix-Up, and Hot Sauce Committee Part Two.
Those are just the albums. Adam Yauch was diversified in his roles as a director, practicing Buddhist, and father.
And so there is something sobering about realizing that Yauch is gone. He first appeared to me as the ultimate symbol of brash youth, massively talented and magically unbridled. At that moment and for so long after, there was nothing about MCA that suggested mortality – for the man or his music.
Triple team well into the 21st Century.
Listen Carefully
His arresting vocal delivery and the way he merged it so intricately with his group are at the core of why Yauch will always live on. His bandmates are very much alive, and may even find some revolutionary ways to carry on his work – just because his heart ceased beating, doesn’t mean you’ve heard the last of MCA.
Yet Yauch’s death does carry with it a cautionary tale. In 1986 he rallied us all to fight for our right to party. But a tumor in his salivary gland, diagnosed in 2009, may have led to his downfall.
Did he die for that right? Serious celebrating was an advertised part of the band’s early lifestyle as they rocketed to fame. No one will ever know for sure if that contributed to his early demise, at the relatively tender age of 47.
The World Turns
I took extra time to think about what I wanted to say about MCA today. At one point I dropped the thought process to watch the Kentucky Derby go down live, in real time.
In front of 165,000 people, a horse named I’ll Have Another beat out the highly favored Bodemeister with a thrilling blast from behind after the final turn. Piloting him was a rookie jockey named Mario Gutierrez that no one had ever heard of, but who skillfully shot his horse past the field from Post No. 19. Trainer Doug O’ Neill and owner Paul J. Reddam urged them on joyously from the packed grandstand.
Young blood, seizing the day. You can just see MCA passing the torch – grinning away.
— David Weiss
Don’t miss Adam Yauch doing it for real in this live rendition of “Pass the Mic”, shot in Madison Square Garden:
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