Assorted Snobbery: "I Recognize That!!"

Today while I was on my way to meet Mrs. Snob for lunch, 'Big Take Over' by Bad Brains popped on to the radio unexpectedly. If you know the song at all, then you know it's a track you recognize shortly after it begins and prompts an inevitable reach to the volume knob.

After the song builds, there is a moment where the music breaks and drops you into the meat of the tune. Until today, I hadn't pinned together the fact that it's a moment the Beastie Boys sample in Pass the Mic.

This brought back the memories of sitting in my friend Mike Bulington's pad in Chicago, staying up late, listening to music and picking out samples. It was a period of time when arguments (which soon after turned to litigation) about sampling was common. Were you less of an artist the more you sampled? Was it an art in itself? But while Mike and I would occassionally joust about such things, we really just enjoyed picking them out. Finding samples was finding Easter eggs or cash money under your pillow in place of a tooth. "I've got one!"

There were also the times when you thought you had it, but weren't sure. (Particularly me, I was the undergrad to Mike's masters.) I start rifling through vinyl and cd's to see if I was right. Head phones were often donned in the search for confirmation. "I won't turn this off, but I gotta know. Where's the phones??"

Mike's still in Chicago, playing in a handful of bands, including my favorite of his gigs, Grimble Grumble. If you need a 6'9" drummer, power forward who can't dunk, man to read at your wedding or musical knowledge base, 'Money' is your man.

And now for the catalyst...