Sabotage (Beastie Boys song)

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"Sabotage"
Sabotage single.jpg
Single by Beastie Boys
from the album Ill Communication
ReleasedJanuary 28, 1994
Recorded1993
Genre
Length2:58
LabelGrand Royal
Songwriter(s)Michael Diamond, Adam Horovitz, Adam Yauch
Producer(s)
Beastie Boys singles chronology
"Professor Booty"
(1992) 		"Sabotage"
(1994) 		"Get It Together"
(1994)
Audio sample
Menu
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Music video
"Sabotage" on YouTube

"Sabotage" is a 1994 song by American rap rock group Beastie Boys, released as the first single from their fourth studio album Ill Communication.

The song features traditional rock instrumentation (Ad-Rock on guitar, MCA on bass, and Mike D on drums), turntable scratches, heavily distorted bass guitar riffs and lead vocals by Ad-Rock. A moderate commercial success, the song was notable as well for its video, directed by Spike Jonze and nominated in five categories at the 1994 MTV Music Video Awards.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Sabotage" #480 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[5] In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at #46 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks, and was ranked #19 on VH1's 100 Greatest Songs of the 90s list. Pitchfork Media included the song at #39 on their Top 200 Tracks of the 90s list.[6]

Background[]

The song was first conceived when MCA played the signature bass line one day in the studio and it immediately caught the band's attention. Both Ad-Rock and Mike D picked up their respective instruments and started building on it. The opening bass line is almost identical to the opening of "Let There Be More Light" by Pink Floyd from the album A Saucerful of Secrets. According to Ad-Rock in the 2020 Beastie Boys Story documentary, the lyrics is a fictitious rant about how their producer "was the worst person ever and how he was always sabotaging us and holding us back."

Critical reception[]

Larry Flick from Billboard wrote, "Loud, aggressive, and probably likely to spur senseless acts of vandalism by teen wannabes, but showcases Beasties' devotion to punk and old-school rap–mostly the former. All that and a nice, compact, three-minute package perfect for radio play, with some modern rock outlets already aboard."[7]

Music video[]

The song's music video, directed by Spike Jonze and played extensively on MTV,[8] is a homage to, and parody of, 1970s crime drama shows such as Hawaii Five-O, The Streets of San Francisco, S.W.A.T., Baretta, and Starsky and Hutch. The video is presented as the opening credits of a fictional 1970s-style police show called Sabotage, with the band members appearing as the show's protagonists. Each band member is introduced as a fictional actor, and the names of the characters are also given.

The characters appearing on the show are (in order of credits):[9]

  • Sir Stewart Wallace guest-starring as himself (played by MCA)
  • Nathan Wind as Cochese (also played by MCA)
  • Vic Colfari as Bobby, "The Rookie" (played by Ad-Rock)
  • Alasondro Alegré as "The Chief" (played by Mike D)
  • Fred Kelly as Bunny (played by DJ Hurricane)

The Beastie Boys Video Anthology featured a mock interview of the "cast" of Sabotage conducted by Jonze's then-wife Sofia Coppola.[citation needed] Additionally, in the DVD commentary for the 1996 film Trainspotting, Danny Boyle credits the film's opening credits to those used in "Sabotage."[10]

Actress Amy Poehler reviewed the music video in 2018's Beastie Boys Book saying that "there would be no Anchorman, no Wes Anderson, no Lonely Island, and no channel called Adult Swim if this video did not exist".[11]

Censorship[]

Some scenes had to be removed when the video was shown on MTV, including a knife fight sequence, a scene in which a man is thrown out of a car into a street, and one where another man is thrown off a bridge and is shown violently hitting the ground (although it is clearly visible that the bodies thrown are stunt dummies).[12]

1994 MTV Video Music Awards[]

The video for "Sabotage" was nominated for Video of the Year, Best Group Video, Breakthrough Video, Best Direction in a Video, and Viewer's Choice at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards. However, it lost all five categories it was nominated in, losing Video of the Year, Best Group Video and Viewer's Choice to Aerosmith's "Cryin'", and Breakthrough Video and Best Direction in a Video to R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts".

During R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe's acceptance speech for the Best Direction award, Beastie Boys member MCA bum-rushed the stage in his "Nathaniel Hornblower" disguise, interrupting Stipe to protest the shutout of "Sabotage" from every category it was nominated in.

At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, the "Sabotage" video won best video in the new category of "Best Video (That Should Have Won a Moonman)".[13]

In popular culture[]

  • The band Phish covered the song in their 1998 concerts at Hampton Coliseum, and it appears on the live album of those concerts, Hampton Comes Alive.
  • During Saturday Night Live's 25th Anniversary Special in 1999, the band played the first fifteen seconds of the song before their performance was "sabotaged" by Elvis Costello, who in 1977 had done the same to one of his own songs on the show; the Beastie Boys then accompanied him on "Radio, Radio", the song performed during the original incident.[14]
  • In the 1999 Futurama episode "Hell Is Other Robots", the Beastie Boys perform several songs, including an a cappella version of the song.
  • The song was featured in XPW from 2001, where Rob Black's faction was role playing from the song
  • The song is included in the track list for the 2007 video games Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock and Rock Band.
  • The song is heard early in J. J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek film, played on a car stereo by an adolescent James T. Kirk. This is one of the few uses of licensed music in a Star Trek production. The song also plays a crucial part in the plot of the 2016 sequel Star Trek Beyond, in which it is used by Kirk and his officers to disrupt an alien attack on a Federation starbase.[15]
  • The song was covered by hardcore punk band Cancer Bats for their 2010 album Bears, Mayors, Scraps & Bones.
  • The song was featured in the 2011 film Horrible Bosses.
  • The song is included in the official soundtrack of the 2012 film This Means War.
  • In 2013, the song was heavily played and used in the soundtrack of one episode of How I Met Your Mother.[16]
  • Finnish band Steve 'N' Seagulls performed a version of the song in November 2015 for The A.V. Club's A.V. Undercover series.[17]
  • The song played during the Bronco chase scene in The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story.[18]
  • The animated TV comedy series Family Guy used "Sabotage" in the 2016 episode "The New Adventures of Old Tom" for Peter and Tom Tucker's skateboarding video.
  • The song is featured in the live-action trailer "New Heroes Will Rise"[19] for the 2017 video game Destiny 2.
  • Bubs is shown dressed as Nathan Wind as Cochese in the Homestar Runner 2014 Halloween special, "I Killed Pom Pom".[citation needed]
  • The song is featured in the official trailer for Illumination "Minions: The Rise of Gru".

Charts[]

Chart (1994) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[20] 94
Canada Singles (RPM)[21] 38
Netherlands (Single Top 100) 35
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[22] 19
US Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles 15
US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[23] 18

References[]

  1. ^ Aaron, Charles (September 1999). "Top 20 Singles". Spin. 15 (9): 137.
  2. ^ Grierson, Tim (October 25, 2015). "Top 10 Essential Rap-Rock Songs". About.com. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
  3. ^ Weiss, Dan (April 6, 2012). "Ten Rap-Rock Songs That Are Actually Awesome". LA Weekly. Retrieved August 9, 2016.
  4. ^ Hand, Christian. ""Sabotage"". PSAudio. Retrieved June 29, 2021. The Beastie Boys maintained their cred, punk-rock attitude, and roots throughout their careers. This song is a 90’s Classic, of that there is no doubt.
  5. ^ "500 Greatest Songs of All Time: Beastie Boys, 'Sabotage'". rollingstone.com. 2012. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  6. ^ "Staff Lists: The Top 200 Tracks of the 1990s: 50-21". Pitchfork Media. 2 September 2010. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  7. ^ Flick, Larry (2 July 1994). "Single Reviews" (PDF). Billboard. p. 84. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  8. ^ Smith, Ethan (2012). "Spike Jonze Unmasked". New York. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  9. ^ "Beastie Boys: Sabotage (1994)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  10. ^ DVD commentary. Trainspotting.[clarification needed]
  11. ^ Horovitz, Adam; Diamond, Michael (2018). Beastie Boys Book. Faber & Faber. p. 471. ISBN 978-0571308040.
  12. ^ "Sabotage (Comparison: Regular Version, Extended Version)". Movie-Censorship.com. April 23, 2018. Retrieved April 21, 2019.
  13. ^ "The Playlist: Spike Jonze Wins Belated VMA For Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage'". theplaylist.blogspot.co.uk. 14 September 2009. Retrieved 31 August 2012.
  14. ^ Elvis Costello and Beastie Boys- Radio, Radio - YouTube Archived October 16, 2015, at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ Funk, Allie (July 21, 2016). "The Song In The Big 'Star Trek Beyond' Scene Will Make Beastie Boys Fans So Proud". www.bustle.com. Retrieved September 2, 2016.
  16. ^ Hogan, Marc (November 19, 2013). "Beastie Boys' 'Sabotage' Crashes 'How I Met Your Mother' 'Ill Communication' classic roars over the soundtrack and complements a punchline". Spin. Retrieved April 12, 2017.
  17. ^ Modell, Josh (3 November 2015). "Steve 'N' Seagulls cover Beastie Boys". The A.V. Club. Onion, Inc. Retrieved 3 November 2015.
  18. ^ Tobia, Scott (3 February 2016). "The People v. O.J. Simpson Recap: The Bronco Chase". Vulture. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
  19. ^ "Trailer for Destiny 2". Bungie. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  20. ^ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988-2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing.
  21. ^ "Beastie Boys Top Singles positions". RPM. Archived from the original on 2012-02-25. Retrieved 2011-05-10.
  22. ^ "Beastie Boys Album & Song Official Charts Company". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 2011-05-10.
  23. ^ "Beastie Boys Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved 7 August 2017.

External links[]

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