Loran's Dance and the Beastie Boys

You know that feeling when you really love a song, or an album, and it's so essential to your daily routine that it's like a soundtrack. One of those albums for me is Paul's Boutique by the Beastie Boys. I won't bore you, or myself, with the nostalgic details of my youth. I'd rather talk about the opening and closing of the album. The dark organ. The short nods of bass and guitar. The high hat.

I love that sound! And I sheepishly admit that for the longest time, until fairly recently, I assumed those instruments were played for the recording of that album. You can imagine my disappointment at learning that it was lifted from Idris Muhammad's Loran's Dance. I felt duped. I felt like I was a sucker for believing in something that wasn't real. Was I somehow complicit in a creative crime? Had they stolen the Mona Lisa's smile and placed it with sleight of hand on their own masterpiece?

At the end of the day, I reconciled myself to a couple of things that seem real to me. One is that I would never in a thousand years come across Loran's Dance without the Beastie Boys. They and their collaborators opened a door for me that I didn't even know existed. Another thought that seems real enough is that musicians are always grabbing sounds from one another as a part of creativity. They grab it and adapt it.

The part that doesn't sit well with me still is the financial component. I assume that Idris  didn't receive any compensation. That is wrong. But I look at my own music buying and listening habits over the years and my frugal choice to buy used LPs and CDs that weren't compensating musicians for their work. To what degree am I any less guilty for stealing? Not to mention the opaque world of musicians being compensated for plays on streaming services. All too often, musicians get the short end of the stick.

I still love Paul's Boutique but now I do so with my eyes and ears opened more widely.

This playlist of mostly jazz artists sampled by rap artists is pulled together with the help of the amazing WhoSampled.