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October 20, 2018 4:17 PM   Subscribe

"The upside was that we finally did finish Paul's Boutique. The downside is that we wasted So. Much. Fucking. Money. Soon enough, though, the amount of money we'd just wasted would be the least of our problems." The Making (and Unmaking) of Paul's Boutique.
posted by paleyellowwithorange (30 comments total) 19 users marked this as a favorite
 
So here's the Donny Osmond video. Fun fact: it seems to be directed by Michael Bay.
posted by khaibit at 4:46 PM on October 20, 2018


He’s not wrong about that. What even was that video?? I’d never seen it, and considering I probably spent the entirety of 1989 in front of MTV, that’s saying something.
posted by greermahoney at 5:20 PM on October 20, 2018


What even was that video??

To be fair, it was pretty visionary of them to make a video at the first Burning Man.

From the lede, I was thinking the interference was going to be something like them using a Donny Osmond sample and getting sued over it.
posted by Candleman at 5:33 PM on October 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


To this very day, this is what me and my older brother say when we get together:

Him (deadly serious voice): "Is your name Michael Diamond?"
Me: "Naw, mine's Clarence."
posted by Groundhog Week at 5:38 PM on October 20, 2018 [24 favorites]


This reminded me of my favorite Adventure Time episode "James Baxter The Horse". I like this feeling because Beastie Boys are my favorite musicians.
posted by bleep at 6:43 PM on October 20, 2018 [4 favorites]


Dude check out this new Donny Osmond.
posted by PHINC at 7:08 PM on October 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


I never saw the Osmond video, but for some reason I’d forgotten about that song entirely despite hearing it about a kajillion times on the radio. I guess I always thought it was a George Michael song.
posted by Autumnheart at 7:19 PM on October 20, 2018 [1 favorite]


This is one of those records where, when you hear it the first time, you say "whoa this is the future of music". I guess it wasn't the future of music, and thirty years later I'm still not sure why.
posted by kevinbelt at 8:46 PM on October 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


I'm worried that those gentlemen got sunburns.
posted by praemunire at 11:47 PM on October 20, 2018 [2 favorites]


I guess it wasn't the future of music, and thirty years later I'm still not sure why.

Because the future's not here yet.
posted by chavenet at 1:45 AM on October 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


Licensed to Ill came out when I was in high school, and all my metalhead friends absolutely hated the Beastie Boys.

We graduated from high school and went to college, and got back together during that first winter break, and every one of them had changed their mind because each of them had purchased a copy of Paul's Boutique.
posted by 4ster at 3:45 AM on October 21, 2018 [4 favorites]


Really fun: Paul’s Boutique Minus Paul’s Boutique on Spotify by Tim Carmody
posted by chavenet at 4:00 AM on October 21, 2018 [6 favorites]


. . . future of music . . .

The Dust Brothers did continue on to produce one-hit wonder Hanson's "MMM Bop," which sadly was the future of music.

[they also did Odelay and the Fight Club soundtrack, both of which are quite good if you like that sort of thing]
posted by aspersioncast at 5:10 AM on October 21, 2018


Link to the forthcoming Beastie Boys book from which the article is an excerpt.

It is an amazing album. I don't remember where I heard (a documentary?), but making the album now would be almost impossible financially because of all the sampling. I think that is one of the reasons it still stands out. It is utterly unique and can not be mimicked.

I will probably end up buying the book above as well as the 33 1/3 book which is specific to Paul's Boutique.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 6:21 AM on October 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


Donny Osmond slow jam r&b via a Janet video
I can smell the Calvin Klein's Obsession in this mash up of CK jeans and the guess print ads
The ninety's media had very interesting choices that seems like throwbacks to cocaine decisions of the 80s
posted by reedcourtneyj at 7:30 AM on October 21, 2018 [2 favorites]


Wait, it's not "secret emotion"?
posted by goatdog at 7:48 AM on October 21, 2018


Hanson's "MMM Bop," which sadly was the future of music.

Fun/cheerful pop music written and performed by the artists themselves was the future of music in 1989?
posted by NerdtoriousBIG at 8:11 AM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


This is one of those records where, when you hear it the first time, you say "whoa this is the future of music". I guess it wasn't the future of music, and thirty years later I'm still not sure why.

Sample clearance. That's why.
posted by atoxyl at 10:37 AM on October 21, 2018 [3 favorites]


a non mouse, a cow herd: "I will probably end up buying the book above as well as the 33 1/3 book which is specific to Paul's Boutique."

There is also "For Whom the Cowbell Tolls: 25 Years of Paul's Boutique (66 & 2/3) " which is a follow-up to the 33 1/3 book, also by Dan LeRoy & Peter Relic.
posted by chavenet at 11:03 AM on October 21, 2018


Fun/cheerful pop music written and performed by the artists themselves was the future of music in 1989?

I meant more that derivative, vapid, saccharine pop was the future of music in 1997 - admittedly it never occurred to me to wonder whether Hanson had "written" and "performed" their own material.
posted by aspersioncast at 11:05 AM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


The ninety's media had very interesting choices that seems like throwbacks to cocaine decisions of the 80s


Honestly, "hot shirtless dudes in addition to the random hot chicks" seems like an extremely valid choice. Let's keep in mind that "Love Will Never Do Without You" gave Djimon Hounsou a big break.

It's funny, I was just looking at my iTunes and Check Your Head is the far and away winner for BB album representation. But Paul's Boutique was, most people would agree, artistically stronger.
posted by praemunire at 2:09 PM on October 21, 2018


[they also did Odelay and the Fight Club soundtrack, both of which are quite good if you like that sort of thing]

...and co-produced The Else by They Might Be Giants, among others.

I meant more that derivative, vapid, saccharine pop was the future of music in 1997

That’s, like, the history of chart-pop since time immemorial.
posted by mykescipark at 4:13 PM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


I liked that Osmond video better when Rex Manning did it.
posted by q*ben at 8:41 PM on October 21, 2018 [1 favorite]


The Dust Brothers did continue on to produce one-hit wonder Hanson's "MMM Bop," which sadly was the future of music.


I kinda think it’s adorable that people are STILL mad about Hanson two decades later. I was 22 and at the height of my music snobbery when “MMMBop” hit, and even *I* had to say “Dam, that’s a seriously well-crafted pop song”.
posted by tantrumthecat at 9:30 PM on October 21, 2018 [10 favorites]


At some point I thought it would be a great idea to get the kids listening to Paul’s Boutique because it’s great music, it’s got a groove and I can bug out to it, and now I probably here some cut from it about once a week.

And I really don’t mind. My sister got her kids funneled in The Minutemen which I always held awe but I feel alright that they know this. And lately the younger, 13 year old has been getting deeper into the catalog than I ever did and, you know, it is the music of the future.
posted by From Bklyn at 10:35 PM on October 21, 2018


I meant more that derivative, vapid, saccharine pop was the future of music in 1997 - admittedly it never occurred to me to wonder whether Hanson had "written" and "performed" their own material.

Cool gatekeeping. I’ll bet you’re parties at fun.
posted by NerdtoriousBIG at 4:10 AM on October 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


“Dam, that’s a seriously well-crafted pop song”.

Damn, even. Dammit.
posted by tantrumthecat at 6:01 AM on October 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


Looking at the Donny Osmond vid it's always telling when "Comments are disabled for this video."

The truth hurts.
posted by VictorianSquid at 5:49 PM on October 22, 2018


That’s, like, the history of chart-pop since time immemorial.
Totally, fair do's. Although I still feel that song's a low point, in a simulacrum of a simulacrum sort of way. Like Donny Osmond, really.

Cool gatekeeping.
Not sure that's what gatekeeping means, but thank you!

On the TFA, Paul's Boutique is a brilliant, weird, idiosyncratic mess. I can only hope that the acquisition of Harry Fox by the Blackstone group and all the other BS multi-layered mergers surrounding music IP result in such confusion that no one can possibly know who owns the rights to anything anymore, so we can get back to sampling the shit out of everything like Negativland stuck in a Weird Al song.

TFA is full of great quotes from Michael Diamond, btw.
First we ran into Slash, briefly. Nice guy. Big hat.

This spot had a crazy Harrison mixing console that looked like it belonged at NASA mission control. . . . The wave of the future. Unfortunately, at that time, the future still sucked


It sure did, Clarence.
posted by aspersioncast at 10:57 PM on October 22, 2018


Dust Brothers also did Young M.C.s album, including bust-a-move. They are great producers and criminally underrated. Full-Fucking-Stop.
posted by lkc at 9:33 PM on October 23, 2018 [3 favorites]


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