Beastie Boys love Zeppelin & Sabbath

Recently I was listening to The Beastie Boys on the Marc Maron Podcast, WTF.

I knew at one point they were a punk rock band but I didn\’t know they were such big classic rock fans.  Listening to their debut album License to Ill this week, I heard a guitar riff I thought I knew in \”Rhymin & Stealin\”.  Black Sabbath\’s \”Sweet Leaf\”.  I already knew the song featured a drum loop from Led Zeppelin\’s \”When the Levee Breaks\” but I just had never noticed the Sabbath. 

Led Zeppelin & Black Sabbath on their debut album? That\’s pretty big.  If you don\’t get the proper licensing you could get in legal trouble for sampling songs, the original artist has to sign off which Led Zeppelin hardly ever does.  Remember Queen/David Bowie vs. Vanilla Ice or The Verve vs. The Rolling Stones?  Wasn\’t pretty.

After digging deeper I found out there are a ton of samples I never noticed.  A few more Led Zeppelin samples plus AC/DC, Joan Jett, The Steve Miller Band, The Clash, CCR, Stevie Wonder and more.

In the WTF Podcast Marc is talking about how their debut album was a joke, I think they are trying to distance themselves from the way they behaved in the 80\’s compared to the culture in 2019.  You don\’t get that many samples plus a guest apperance from Kerry King from Slayer on \”No Sleep To Brookyln\” as a joke.

Maybe the Beastie Boys didn\’t get credit from Zeppelin after all.  One story has Axl Rose running into the Beastie Boys at a party and telling them to quit stealing from Zeppelin.  Reportedly this got back the Led Zeppelin who had no idea.  That full story is here. – Forrest

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