Beastie Boys’ Paul’s Boutique

Paul’s Boutique

Praise for the series:

Ideal for the rock geek who thinks liner notes just aren’t enough—
Rolling Stone

One of the coolest publishing imprints on the planet—
Bookslut

These are for the insane collectors out there who appreciate fantastic design, well-executed thinking, and things that make your house look cool. Each volume in this series takes a seminal album and breaks it down in startling minutiae. We love these. We are huge nerds—
Vice

A brilliant series … each one a work of real love—
NME
(UK)

Passionate, obsessive, and smart—
Nylon

Religious tracts for the rock ’n’ roll faithful—
Boldtype

Each volume has a distinct, almost militantly personal take on a beloved long-player…the books that have resulted are like the albums themselves—filled with moments of shimmering beauty, forgivable flaws, and stubborn eccentricity—
Tracks Magazine

[A] consistently excellent series—
Uncut
(UK)

The nobility—and fun—of the project has never been questioned…a winning mix of tastes and writing styles—
Philadelphia Weekly

Reading about rock isn’t quite the same as listening to it, but this series comes pretty damn close—
Neon NYC

The sort of great idea you can’t believe hasn’t been done before—
Boston Phoenix

For reviews of individual titles in the series, please visit our website at
www.continuumbooks.com
and
33third.blogspot.com

Also available in this series:

Dusty in Memphis
by Warren Zanes

Forever Changes
by Andrew Hultkrans

Harvest
by Sam Inglis

The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society
by Andy Miller

Meat Is Murder
by Joe Pernice

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
by John Cavanagh

Abba Gold
by Elisabeth Vincentelli

Electric Ladyland
by John Perry

Unknown Pleasures
by Chris Ott

Sign ‘O’ the Times
by Michaelangelo Matos

The Velvet Underground and Nico
by Joe Harvard

Let It Be
by Steve Matteo

Live at the Apollo
by Douglas Wolk

Aqualung
by Allan Moore

OK Computer by
Dai Griffiths

Let It Be
by Colin Meloy

Led Zeppelin IV
by Erik Davis

Armed Forces
by Franklin Bruno

Exile on Main Street
by Bill Janovitz

Grace
by Daphne Brooks

Murmur by
J. Niimi

Pet Sounds
by Jim Fusilli

Ramones
by Nicholas Rombes

Endtroducing
… by Eliot Wilder

Kick Out the Jams
by Don McLeese

Low
by Hugo Wilcken

In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
by Kim Cooper

Music from Big Pink
by John Niven

Doolittle
by Ben Sisario

There’s a Riot Goin’ On
by Miles Marshall Lewis

Stone Roses
by Alex Green

Forthcoming in this series:

Court and Spark
by Sean Nelson

Daydream Nation
by Matthew Stearns

London Calling
by David L. Ulin

The Notorious Byrd Brothers
by Ric Menck

Loveless
by Mike McGonigal

Bee Thousand by
Marc Woodsworth

Highway 61 Revisited by
Mark Polizzotti

In Utero
by Gillian Garr

The Who Sell Out by
John Dougan

Dan LeRoy

2010

The Continuum International Publishing Group Inc
80 Maiden Lane, New York, NY 10038

The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd
The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX

www.continuumbooks.com

Copyright © 2006 by Dan LeRoy

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publishers or their agents.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

LeRoy, Dan.
Paul’s boutique / by Dan LeRoy.
p. cm. - (33 1/3)
Includes bibliographical references.
eISBN-13: 978-1-4411-2819-5
1. Beastie Boys. 2. Beastie Boys. Paul’s boutique. I. Title. II. Series.
ML421.B39L47 2006
782.42164092’2-dc22

2005035036

Without the love, friendship and support of the following people, this book would not exist: Stephen, Rachel, Thomas and Henry Catanzarite; Drew and Angie LeRoy; Nancy, Alex and Matthew LeRoy; Heather and Eric Lewis; Michael Lipton; Brenda Smith Nutter Schanie, John D. Nutter, Devin Nutter and family; Paul, Gina, Abigail, Amanda and Drew Martin-Ryan; Mr. and Mrs. C. Thomas Tallman; Jamie Tallman; and the editors and staff, past and present, of
The Charleston Daily Mail
, especially Monica Orosz and Chris Stirewalt.

One of the best things about this experience has been the people I have met as a result of it, who have been almost unfailingly helpful, thoughtful and kind. I thank everyone who agreed to be interviewed for this book, including Bill Adler, Gil Bailey, Lisa Ann Cabasa, Madelyn Clark, Eric Haze, John King, Donovan Leitch Jr., Madlib, Dan Nakamura, Prince Paul, Max Perlich (a hat tip as well to Martin Perlich
and Linda Perlich Porter), Matt Robinson, Mike Ross,. Ione Skye, Pam Turbov, Paul Weller and Marvin Young. Ricky Powell also unearthed some of his old, unpublished photos from the
Paul’s Boutique
era, three of which are featured here.

In particular, I extend my gratitude to Cey Adams, Mario Caldato Jr., Tim Carr, Matt Dike, Jeremy Shatan, Jon Sidel, Mike Simpson, Leyla Turkkan and Brian Williams. Many of these people patiently answered several rounds of questions; many pointed me in the direction of valuable sources; and each of them always went the proverbial extra mile. So did Jennifer Hall of SAM Entertainment, and without the inimitable Sean ‘The Captain’ Carasov, I can’t imagine how any of this would have gotten done.

My sincere appreciation as well to Dr. David Barker at Continuum for commissioning this book, and for all his subsequent encouragement and assistance. Meanwhile, Mark Laudenschlager at the peerless
Beastiemania.com
was invaluable, sharing rare documents, recordings and advice. In the always-sage words of The Captain, Mark and his co-conspirators—Brian Chambers, Kristine Sivacek, David Ensinger and Mike Klenke—“know shit I bet the Beasties don’t”

And thanks to Mike D—who graciously offered his recollections of this little-documented era—and to the Beastie Boys, for
Paul’s Boutique
. I have tried to tell the story of the album I consider their greatest as accurately, but entertainingly, as possible; I hope they will agree, and that you will as well.

Finally, I give special thanks:

To my wonderful parents, Louie and Polly LeRoy, who have never questioned my decision to write about music, instead of run for president.

To my lovely wife, Kiena Nutter, and my three beautiful
children, Carys, Greer and Grant, who patiently gave up a husband and father for long stretches while this book was being written.

And to Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Dan LeRoy
Autumn 2005

Beasties on Capitol Records rooftop, June 29, 1989. Copyright © Ricky Powell. Used by permission.

Matt Dike. Copyright © Ricky Powell. Used by permission.