Invoke the name “Beastie Boys” to a layperson (read: not a frothy-mouthed music geek) and they’ll probably think of the goofy videos for “Fight for Your Right to Party” and maybe “Sabotage,” but that will probably be the extent of it.
Obviously, there’s a lot more to the story. I’ve posted innumerable entries about the Beastie Boys here over the past ten years, each laden with reverence. While many may still perceive them as novelty rappers fueled by beer, overactive libidos and cheap nyuck nyucks, their place in the respective histories of Hip-Hop and New York City are unimpeachable (even if Hip-Hop stubbornly continues to have precious little regard for its forebears).
But, as I’m prone to laboriously point out, prior to their transformation into an unlikely Hip-Hop juggernaut, they started off as a nascent hardcore -- or hardcore punk, depending on how old you are -- band. That’s them above circa 1982, as captured by Arabella Field. The young lady in the beret and leather coat is drummer Kate Schellenbach (later of Luscious Jackson and, very briefly, the Lunachicks), while the gent on the left is the band’s original guitarist, John Berry. John Berry passed away yesterday at the young age of 52.
But prior to becoming The Beastie Boys, they spent a gestation period as a band called The Young Aborigines, whose roots lay on the opposite side of the island from all things East Village. Both hailing from the northern reaches Broadway on the Upper East Side, John Berry and bass player Jeremy Shatan were the initial impetus. I’ve become “internet friends” (that never sounds right) with Jeremy over the years, and yesterday, he penned a lovely eulogy to his fallen friend. Read that here.
Rolling Stone, meanwhile, posted their own obit for Berry, appended with the photo below of him performing post-Beastie Boys at what certainly looks like CBGB. I was struck by one crucial detail …
That shirtless guitarist on the left is none other than Norman Westberg of SWANS, lending further credence to the Beasties-SWANS bond I alluded to at the tail end of this post.
Rest in peace, John Berry.
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