text — Mad money schemes.
Speaking of mad billionaires. If I had loads of money to burn I think I would pay the Beastie Boys to perform the whole Paul’s Boutique album from start to finish without using the turn-table skills of Mix Master Mike.
Meaning they would have to actually re-create any sounds or samples used in the songs using the actual original mechanism as they perform. To illustrate let’s look at the samples used to create the track Sounds of Science:
“I do not sniff the coke, I only smoke the sensamilla” - Pato Banton’s song “Don’t Sniff Coke”
“Right up in your face and dis’ you” - “My Philosophy” by BDP
James Brown’s, “Get Up, Get Into It, Get Involved”, when MCA says “that’s right my name’s Yauch”
Jet flying overhead from The Beatles “Back in the U.S.S.R.” off the White Album
The Beatles, “The End” is scratched throughout the song
The crowd noise in the break is from the beginning of SPLHCB
The drum track underneath the guitar sample is a sample of the Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)” from SPLHCB
The guitar track at the end is a sample from the Beatles “The End” from Abbey Road.
The oboe track you hear at the beginning is a sample of the Beatles “When I’m 64” from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
The occasional beeps and bass lines during the first half of the song is from Issac Hayes’ “Walk from Regio’s”, on the “Shaft” soundtrack
The sounds at the beginning is from the small toy in a can that would make a “mmmoooooooooo” sound each time it was turned upside down.
The violin and other orchestral tuning you hear in the middle (I believe when AdRock says “Rope-a dope…”) is a sample of the intro to the Beatles “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” from SPLHCB
So to perform this one track the Beasties would need to have an actual airplane fly over at the exact point in the song, a performer whose only job would be to turn the Cow in a Box toy to produce the moo sound, a band that would be able to perform precise cuts of James Brown, the Beatles, and Issac Hayes, and a walk on by KRS-One to say the one line “Right up in your face and dis’ you.”
This would be a herculean task that would rise above a concert, involve theatrics, and precise planning. An amazing site to behold and something only a mad man would use his sizable wallet to support.
What useless but extravagant ploys would you support if you were a mad billionaire?
