Stink-Finger

I’ll kick it off with this lil beauty from days as a store boy at Jenny Craig’s in Glendene

Paul’s Boutique - Beastie Boys

We all know the modern day Beasties as the Tibet loving, jazz noodling, punk, rap outfit who had it all going in the late 90’s. Not to mention the mob who drank and rapped over heavy metal guitars and were the scourge of the world’s parents from the 80’s. Well I kinda fell in-between these two as a yoof. I was a bit young to understand why I would fight for my right to party, as Mum would drop me off at any parties I was keen on without a word and dad would likely give me bottle of Fanta to get the motor running! Well I liked fight for ya right but wasn’t yet a purchasing music fan, why bother when I could tape it off the 89fm or 91fm? So I missed out on the joy that was their first lp.

I grabbed it immediately expecting the same rowdy guitar shout along turn out from they’re first shot…

I was to be super disappointed.

It was all bloody disco samples and dancey crap!!

Bollox. It was the late 80’s, I was a teenager and there was nothing less cool than disco and flares. Two things I would embrace whole-heartedly in the near future (Madchester!!)
Since these were the days of saving up the 20c each day from my lunch money, I was barely about to bin the thing. So I proceeded to listen to it most days (it was new!!) only really liking the start of side 2. The first being a stupid cowboy intro joke and the second a big guitar rock out thing, of course.

Eventually the wee lp with the flash cover and yellow plastic cassette (which is still tres cool!) started to reveal its majesty. I hadn’t heard anything like this stuff and was getting sucked in at a rate of knots. Favourite songs off the lp have come and gone over the years and now I have trouble picking a favourite half!! It’s a big mash up of disco samples thrown together with some neato rapping about all manner of nothing really.

Years later I found out that this lp was originally hailed as rubbish, but a few years further down the track was heralded as one of the truly great hip hop lps of all time!! I always thought of it as my lil secret.

By inadvertently finding this at this time it set me up for moving out of the truly excellent hair metal shenanigans in which I had found meself at the time. I was soon to welcome `Madchester’ into me home.

Its quite interesting looking back and finding the single point where you were opened up to a whole new world. I can’t imagine what I would have done with me life if I hadn’t heard and loved this lp. I most likely would never have found house, as I wouldn’t have `got’ The Happy Mondays. I never would have bought the Paul Oakenfold mix of WFL that lead on to the rest of the music I still listen to this very day.