Volume 19, Track 6
Posted on | August 6, 2010 | No Comments
“The Maestro” by Beastie Boys (1992)
On Paul’s Boutique there’s a point in which an advertisement for the store Paul’s Boutique is played. The sound quality is average—it sounds like it was recorded with a handheld tape recorder near the TV speaker. “The Maestro” begins with someone leaving a voicemail directed at someone named Cory telling him to kiss his ass. Though the two aren’t directly related, it seems like the latter was recorded as a rebuttal of some sort to the advert for Paul’s. Of course, this little intro can also be used to sum up some of the changes that the Beasties went through in between albums. On Check Your Head the multi-layered sampling is mostly gone, replaced with either real instruments or more straight-up studio style beats. The Beasties also allowed a little bit of their punk influences to seep through this album. Overall, “The Maestro” exists inside of a nice compromise: real instruments intermixed with record scratches and other post-production touches; semi-aggressive lyrics intermixed with shout-outs to TV detectives (Columbo). Shortly after high school, a friend of mine got new speakers and “The Maestro” was the first song that he chose to play really loud on them. It was a no-brainer for us at the time as this song is a great Beastie track that has a fair amount of rock influence underneath its surface.
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