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Lisa M. Frame

beastie boys

Thoughts on Music — My Fantasy Album of Cover Songs and Concert

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I was driving home from Maryland yesterday and had quite a bit of time to think while simultaneously flipping through the free Sirius XM music channels on my rental. (I’m an avid Sirius listener, so this little perk made my 10+ hour trip much more bearable.)

When there are long periods where I am trapped in the car, my mind wanders to things that would make most normal humans question what planet I dropped in from. Most of the time, you do not want to know. This time it was much more simple.

My brain shift was to music.

Music in an important part of my every day and has been an integral part of my life since birth. I come from a family of bluegrass musicians and cannot remember a time when someone was not playing music, or it was blasting out of the radio, or the vinyl was spinning on the turntable.

If I’m in a bad mood, I turn to music. Good mood, music. Sad, music. The only time I don’t listen to music is when I am writing, but as soon as I stand up from my desk the music is back on.

I was whizzing down the road listening to 70’s on 7 when Grand Funk Railroad started wailing “we’re an American band” and the only thing I could think was “I like this song. I’d love to see the Foo Fighters cover it.” After that, my brain created a Foo Fighters cover album of songs I enjoy, but suspect I would enjoy their versions even more.

My Fantasy Foo Fighters Cover Album

  1. Joan Jett’s “Bad Reputation” — I’ve seen them cover this in concert with Joan and the YouTube videos aren’t enough to satisfy me.
  2. Grand Funk Railroad “We’re An American Band”
  3. Prince “Darling Nikki” — I have no idea why. But I think it would be a good cover.
  4. Kiss “Cold Gin”
  5. Aerosmith “Toys in the Attic”
  6. Mott the Hoople “All the Young Dudes”
  7. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers “Refugee”
  8. The Clash “Train in Vain”
  9. The Runaways “Cherry Bomb”

That’s just the beginning. I was in the car for a long time, going stir crazy, so I also decided that I would like to see the Beastie Boys do a show with a rotating lineup of supporters to cover MCA’s rhymes. No one will ever fill his shoes, and I know there will never be a new album as the band technically disbanded after MCA died, but this is my dream so the concert i would want to see on stage with Ad-Rock and Mike D would be:

  1. LL Cool J (especially on “AWOL” from Paul’s Boutique)
  2. Chuck D (Ch-Check It Out would be perfect for him)
  3. Big Daddy Kane
  4. Grandmaster Flash
  5. Kurtis Blow
  6. Slick Rick
  7. Melle Mel
  8. Ice Cube
  9. Ice-T
  10. Dr. Dre
  11. Joseph Simmons and Darryl McDaniels a/k/a two-thirds of Run DMC

While none of this would ever happen, it is nice to dream and I’m thankful I can tune into the Foo Fighters and the Beastie Boys anytime I want to.

Time to Get Ill — Tuesday Tunes: Beastie Boys

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Tuesday Tunes this week is a sad one for me and Beastie Boys fans everywhere. This week is dedicated to MCA of the Beastie Boys who passed away last week after a long battle with cancer.

If you’re a Gen-X’r, you’ll reminisce with me. Back in the day, long before iTunes or iPods, we had Boom Boxes and Walkmans. Cassette tapes had replaced 8-tracks and vinyl was getting ready to have a sharp decline in sales.

Everything I’d owned up until then was on vinyl and the record store was my favorite place to be. If you bought a cassette they’d put a little yellow sticker on the back of the cover to note the date it was bought in case of an issue with the cassette and you could get a replacement.

The first cassette I bought for myself was the Beastie Boys “Licensed to Ill”. I was in middle school and the only one in my little town in Western, North Carolina listening to these boys from Brooklyn laying it down.

Today, I share my favorite song off of that album, “Paul Revere”. God Speed Adam Yauch, my world will never be the same without your low, hoarse voice.