Remembering Adam Yauch – MCA Day – May 19th – Union Square Park – NYC
Growing up, in my mind, I was the fourth Beastie Boy. I mirrored myself after them, I grew up in sync with the release of each of their albums, had every shirt, sticker and bootleg you could shake a stick at and scraped and saved to make it to every show. Eventually I think I just internalized the music and the message so much that it became part of who I was as a person. When I awoke on May 4th and heard about Adam Yauch passing, I felt the loss as if it were a family member. Yauch’s words played such a big part in helping me to create myself, that his death created a loss, a void.
Not just for me of course, but just an awful moment for my generation at large. Not just within the music community of course either because Yauch’s message was for everyone. What I always took from Yauch’s vision is what hip-hop could be & people should be.
Clearly I wasn’t alone and suddenly I started seeing messages from Michael Kearney, an ambitious fan who was organizing a public celebration of the life of Adam Yauch and the music of the Beastie Boys.
Their was no way I wouldn’t be here for this even if it was just Michael and I listening to Paul’s Boutique all day – I made my way over to the park and looked for a giant boom box blaring Beastie Boys music. It only took about 3 seconds to find it. Mike, the guy who organized the event, had some great remixes playing, and there were books and pages where fans could sign and write notes to the guys. I wrote in the book and drew a couple of doodles on the pages, and just kind of hung out, taking in the scene, talking with people and enjoying the music and camaraderie. The park was already full of support by the time I arrived at noon.
A point I thought especially cool that in keeping with Michael’s vision (as well as Yauch’s) is that this was an event for the people by the people.
They accepted no corporate sponsorships. They relied on the people to make the event a success and putting their faith in the people to make this a peaceful, joyful demonstration of love and respect was a wise investment and the people delivered.
I kept finding myself standing behind the boombox trying to digest the scene in front of me and I just kind of look up. I see Kathleen Hanna and
Adam “King Ad-Rock” Horovitz standing right in front of me.
It only takes a few minutes before Adam and Kathleen are mobbed, pretty much everyone who is in the park for MCA Day has realized now that they’re here.
I hang near the back of the crowd, watching Adam do his thing. He’s gracious and patient with everyone. He gives out a million hugs, takes all kinds of pictures with people, autographs everything in sight.
He talked for awhile about the band. He said that he had always wondered why people bought their records. When people laughed, he was like “No seriously!”
He said that he thought a large part of it was that they were such good friends, and had been since high school, that there was so much love between the three of them. He felt it was evident in their music, and that people connected with it.
Like most people my age, my introduction to the Beastie Boys was the Fight For Your Right video – it came at the perfect time of harmless, capricious rebellion for me & the singles and videos that followed during the Licensed to Ill era were all at once my new soundtrack, an extension of my limited knowledge of hip hop and just a whole new language.
I wish I could tell you that I was one of those cool kids that dug Paul’s Boutique right away and not one of those people that kinda left them for dead during that period but I can’t.
It took my best friend Chris who happened to catch the video premier of Pass the Mic many years later to call me up and say “Hey man, remember the Beastie Boys?, I just saw their new video and it’s the best shit ever”.
They were just about to release the landmark Check Your Head, that NO ONE, not even us could have prepared for. No one saw that coming – we went to buy it the day it came out and we saw a flyer that they were actually coming to town in a few weeks.
We were so excited that we actually showed up to the gig a week early and were wondering why we were the only cars in the parking lot haha! I had been to quite a few shows by then but never a hip hop show. The intimacy of the small place with the intensity of the performance is something we still talk about. I remember them starting with Slow and Low and our whole world sorta changed.
That summer is when the obsession began and when we went back to re-visit Paul’s Boutique we couldn’t believe this masterpiece had passed us by and now we discovered we were part of the secret handshake. The album wasn’t really promoted much, so when it was new, and for the first few years after it came out, familiarity with it was a brotherhood.
That Fall, they returned, this time with the Rollins Band and Cypress Hill who were brand new at the time – to a worn down old barn, the Sportatorium. In the history of Texas Wrestling, its hallowed ground, but for a concert with perhaps the most animated crowd I can remember, it spelled disaster. It was just in the air that night, Cypress and Rollins having to deal with an unruly, unending string of stagedivers to the point that something had to give, and it did….the floor.
What was supposed to be a co-headlining gig, Rollins was cut at the 45 min mark with a good portion of the floor collapsed and people were falling through it.
I tell this story because the situation was so tense and the solution was Yauch.
He came out alone, made sure everyone was ok and talked to everyone calmly trying to ease the vibe – just him. And it worked.
I always wondered why he came out by himself and it wasn’t until later that we started learning about his beliefs. He was just so relaxed and impressive.
By 2006 I had moved to NYC and I remember the first time listening to Paul’s Boutique in my headphones while riding the train. Something I had been so familiar with it was like the sound of my own voice was suddenly new again and I had more perspective.
Believe it or not (because I couldn’t) The Beastie Boys only played one gig in Brooklyn, EVER – and it was the following year in 2007.
I will never forget Yauch disclosing that information at the show and leading Hello Brooklyn at the height of an unforgettable Summer.
When we heard he was sick, it really didn’t faze me, Yauch just seemed so invincible that I was sure he would get better, I really didn’t even think twice about it.
Then when they started releasing new music again I had practically forgotten he was sick in the first place.
I didn’t know that the he didn’t appear at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction but looking back that was the writing on the wall. Still nothing would have prepared me for the news when I woke up that morning and heard he was gone.
And this day, like Adam Yauch, was a powerful and moving experience, and it’s one that I’ll never forget.
And finally, Mike the organizer said “For me, the day was Perfect. All in all, I saw that Subway car full of strangers singing Beastie Boys songs in unison that I had imagined a few weeks ago.”
It was an amazing experience, one that I was so incredibly honored to be a part of thanks for everybody that supported and participated in MCA DAY.
Beastie Boys Walking Tour to Celebrate Life of MCA – Aug 4th – NYC
The night before this event I was online looking for some information because I knew that the next day was gonna be Adam Yauch’s first birthday since he passed and was wondering if their was anything going on in the city to celebrate it. Man did I discover the best thing ever that led to one of the best days I can ever remember and meeting some terrific, like-minded people that led to an unforgettable evening.
I discovered a Facebook group promoting an event that a guy named Jason Palk, who MTV.com were calling a Beastie Boys “superfan”.
The event was to be a free walking tour that visits all the old landmarks in the Beastie Boys storied history.
To accompany the walk Palk, has drawn up a detailed list of 12 locations with directions that stretch from Harlem all the way to Brooklyn.
Ok I’m in! – The only thing was that the tour was starting at 9am and I was discovering this around 3am
The first stop was gonna be where it all started at 100th Street and Broadway. The band reportedly held their first performance at guitarist John Berry’s apartment there during Yauch’s 17th birthday party. However I wouldn’t meet up with the group until a little bit later.
Thankfully Jason had posted maps of everything and in what order they were gonna be there and had even left sticker trails so by the time the tour hit 511 Canal, which is the location of Oscilloscope Laboratories, I had joined them.
The office scenes from Ch-Check it Out and entire Shazam video were shot here. Quite a large chunk of BBoy history resides within these walls. Plus, the Gratitude and RIP MCA signs in the window were quite moving to see.
Next we his a visit a former residence of the band and song title – 59 Chrystie Street. According to Jason’s tour notes,after the band won a lawsuit against British Airways for an unauthorized use of Beastie Revolution in a commercial, they took their winnings and got an apartment here.
Next we went to an obvious and must-stop, a place I’ve seen many times,and brought friends to see and used to walk past everyday was in the Lower East Side at Rivington and Ludlow streets, the corner that appears on the Paul’s Boutique album cover.
The store actually never existed there, and the band dressed up the building to make it look like the shop that used to be out in Brooklyn before closing down.
The tour ended in Midwood, Brooklyn where Yauch attended Edward R. Murrow High School, and where a memorial was created on a nearby wall.
In case you haven’t seen it, the mural was painted by Team Entree. You can see their blog post about it here -The dissipated for a few hours before reassembling for the grand finale which was a party at a place in Manhattan called the Overlook.
The party was great, had fun Beastie Boys themed drinks, a great DJ and a rooftop. The club was very gracious to let the group have full use of the facilities.
At one point some people were getting really excited and were running outside to see something. Up on the deck I couldn’t quite see so I came down to check it out. Parked right in front was Dave Sussman’s just wrapped Cadillac.
I had such a great time today, thank you so much to Jason Palk & Michelle Lawlor (who’s pictures you are enjoying in this post) for putting together such a comprehensive, amazing love letter to Adam Yauch and welcoming everyone to be a part of it.
Photos –
Roy Turner
Michelle Lawlor