Beastie Boys – Check Your Head – On this Day

3 years on from Paul’s Boutique, the third album from the Beastie Boys was released on April 21st 1992, I remember it well, at the time it seemed a long way on from Licensed to ill, and it was, that was released in 1986 and a lot happens in your life at that time in six years. Didn’t matter, it was some Crazy Ass Shit! (Yes I know that phrase was from Hot Sauce Committee in 2011 but I liked it!)

The Singles

1. Pass the Mic – Released: April 7, 1992
2. So What’cha Want – Released: June 2, 1992
3. Jimmy James – Released: August 28, 1992
4. Gratitude – Released: October 4, 1992
5. Professor Booty – Released: December 15, 1992

I was distracted in 1992, a lot! and the music press wasn’t on socials, there weren’t any socials, there were no eshots, we didn’t have email! The only access to this knowledge was listening to the right radio shows, NME or Melody Maker. My daily radio listening was predominantly Simon Mayo on the breakfast show on BBC Radio 1, not exactly Beastie Boys territory, not saying it wasn’t played though. 

We were so engulfed in the ‘rave scene’ and clubs early nineties, we lived on mixtapes. ‘Pass the Mic‘ passed me by in the April but ‘So Watcha Want‘ in the June did not, Beasties were back and in perfect time for summer tunes, you can’t sit around in the garden in the sun or on the beach with hardcore dance playing, well you can, there was a lot of great music at that time, but Check Your Head was a standout! Sounded edgy in the pull out Kenwood in the car as well!

Some great Wikipedia knowledge – Check Your Head was the first Beastie Boys album to be fully co-produced by Mario Caldato Jr., who had been an engineer on Paul’s Boutique and was credited as producer on that album’s track “Ask for Janice”. It also marked the first appearance on one of their albums of keyboardist Money Mark, who became a regular collaborator of the band. The album was somewhat of a return by the Beastie Boys to their punk roots. It featured the trio playing their own instruments on the majority of the album, for the first time on record since their early EPs, due to the commercial failure of Paul’s Boutique.

A twist that probably did them a favour, two years later ‘Ill Communication‘ came out and playing their own instruments and the punk ethos is evident there!

This inspired photographer Glen E. Friedman to shoot photos of the Beasties with their instrument cases, one of which was used as the cover of the album. Supposedly, a trading card for Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. from a set of Desert Storm trading cards was the inspiration for the album’s title. 

It was a great album that came at the right time, I personally loved Pauls Boutique, commercial failure or not, in fact, i’m listening to that while i’m writing this, I’ve already listened to Check Your Head which is still an all time favourite of mine, the return to instruments as previously noted made the difference for me. Jimmy James, Funky Boss and Pass the Mic feel like Beastie Tracks, Gratitude, straight back to punk roots, if you told me it was a recorded jam session I would believe you! Lighten up almost going full acid jazz! You get pulled back with So What’cha Want, lulled into a false sense of security before they hit you with Time for Livin’ mosh pit anyone! More of that with stand together then into Pow and Groove Holmes where I want to break out my big collars and dance in the club the Sabotage cops frequent at night. In 3’s more Wah Wah, Namaste is just that, chill, later.

It’s funky, it’s retro, it’s cool, it’s Beastie Boys . . . wear sunglasses to listen to it!