Volume 19, Track 13
Posted on | August 18, 2010 | No Comments
“Dr. Lee, PhD” by Beastie Boys (1998)
The Lee referred to in the title of the song is Lee “Scratch” Perry, a musician who was very instrumental in getting reggae and dub music to be welcomed globally. Perry is generally credited with being one of the first people to produce a song that included a sample (“People Funny Boy,” which included a sampled baby crying). “Dr. Lee, PhD” mostly features Perry singing but intermittently finds the Beastie Boys in the background making exaggerated coughing sounds and whatnot. “Dr. Lee, PhD” is the penultimate track on Hello Nasty and it is equal parts history lesson and wonderfully crafted song. It is a history lesson because I would suspect that “Scratch” was a big influence on the Beastie Boys and getting him to collaborate on a track was probably the fulfillment of a collective wish. But this song is also wonderfully crafted: it is kind of inherently disjointed but everything fits so perfectly. At the end of the song you can hear Perry make a comment suggesting that they need to cut another song, and I could not agree more. Perry needs to make more appearances with those Beastly Boys, and their beastly toys.
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