Public Enemy "He Got Game"

Stick with me, MVY listeners . . .

I was following a Facebook thread last night from a friend whose musical tastes run shockingly similar to mine.  The post was based around late 80s/early 90s rap music, starting with The Beastie Boys amazing back-to-back records "Paul's Boutique" and "Check Your Head."  Further comments cited De La Soul, Black Sheep, Boogie Down Productions and Public Enemy, among others, as producing great albums in that era.

Then the thread host mentioned Public Enemy's "He Got Game" soundtrack, and wham! I was hit with a little bolt of lightning.

I am certain that I have not thought about that song since it played on WABN, some 15 years ago.

How certain am I that it was erased from my memory?  When the song came on I thought, "Oh yeah, the song where they sample 'For What It's Worth' a little too heavily."  While completely forgetting that STEPHEN STILLS IS IN THIS VIDEO!!!  They didn't just sample, Stephen Fucking Stills performed with Public Enemy?!?!

This isn't the kind of thing that slips your mind for a second.  Either it's there, or it's not there.

For me, it was definitely not there.  Until now.


Hey mvyradio listeners, I know many of your aren't interested in Public Enemy, but you gotta at least skip ahead to 2:20, when Stills shows up.


Hear the song on Youtube.

David Bromberg "Sharon"

Billy Crystal, back during his 80s stand up days, had this joke about how he knew he was getting old when his daughter asked him if he knew that Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings.

Yeah, when you're born creates the context, doesn't it. And sometimes---I'll even say often, now that Rock N Roll has a multi-generational history---you are more likely to know the spawn than the originator.

One of my all-time favorite albums is "Paul's Boutique," a record that still stacks up to any full-length creation out there, but was even more-so stunningly dense in its day.

Created before the rules on sampling were altered (due to a lawsuit), the record simply couldn't be made these days, because of the many, many sources The Beastie Boys and their producers The Dust Brothers, sampled from.

Even back then, I could pick up a number of the samples, including The Beatles "The End" and "Those Shoes" by The Eagles, but most of the loops and snippets and riffs were unfamiliar to me. They just sounded cool.

What a remarkable delight it was, to find out a friend had created a playlist on Spotify encompassing most all the original tunes that were sampled on "Paul's Boutique." 70 songs and over 5 hours of listening!

I can't tell you how many times I've grooved along to "Johnny Ryall." But in the nearly 25 years I've known and heard the Beasties' song, not once had I ever heard the David Bromberg song that forms its basis, "Sharon."

When "Sharon" came out in the very early 70s, I was still a pup, and I guess it had disappeared from the airwaves by the time my 80s rock-radio-listening years happened.

Now I know you old Bromberg fans probably feel like you're reading a post from a guy who'd never heard about The Beatles . . . but it was a thrill for me to hear the riff, in its original state.


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear the song on Youtube.