| Adam
Dubin
You have likely heard the song entitled
"The Man Who Sold the World," but have you ever
wondered about the man who sold the Beastie Boys to the
world through the medium of music videos? That man is Adam
Dubin and through his work on both "(You Gotta) Fight
For Your Right (to Party)" as well as the "No
Sleep Till Brooklyn" music videos, the Beastie Boys
became one of MTV's favorite groups. To this day MTV often
selects those Licensed
to Ill era music videos in their all time best countdown
specials, a testament to the endurance of Dubin's work.
"'The (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (to Party)'
music video did the best thing that a video can do...it
gave an identity to the band. Who are the Beastie Boys?
These are the Beastie Boys. They are the kids that invade
a boring house party, wreck the place and leave with the
beer and the chicks. End of story. It was great to see these
guys who we had known as 'just guys around the way' blow
up to be huge stars around the world. It was hilarious."
Adam Dubin met the Beastie Boys through
his New York University roommate, Rick
Rubin. In an interview with Beastiemania.com, Dubin
said that he recalled seeing Adam
Horovitz's band The
Young and The Useless open for the UK Subs at CBGB and
OMFUG December 10th 1982, in New York City. This
is important because it sets the time frame and reveals
that a pre-Def Jam Rick Rubin was already interested in
Horovitz long before the Beastie Boys would gain notoriety
with their 1983 hit single "Cookie
Puss." To add another piece into the puzzle, enter
Ric Menello who co-directed the "(You Gotta) Fight
For Your Right (to Party)" music video. Dubin explained
that the Beastie Boys-Rubin-Menello-Dubin connection dated
back to the days of hanging out in NYU dorms. "Menello
worked the front desk at Weinstein dorm from midnight to
8am. On many a night while eating food from Cozy Soup and
Burg on Broadway, Rick Rubin, the Beastie Boys and I would
sit with Menello and get a first class film history lesson.
So when it came time to direct the video, the Beastie Boys
wanted Menello to do it. The problem was that Menello didn't
know how to produce a video and Rick Rubin wasn't putting
up a lot of money to do it. That is where I, Adam Dubin,
entered in."
Having achieved so much success and
notoriety for his work on the two Beastie Boys music videos,
Adam went on to work on other projects including music videos
for Metallica. His credits include having directed the multi-platinum
selling A Year And A Half In The Life Of Metallica Parts
1 & 2. Also, Adam Dubin directed a feature comedy
Drop Dead Rock starring Adam Ant and Deborah Harry.
In 1999, Adam began working with cutting edge stand up comedians
and went on to direct the short film, Sidesplitters:
The Burt & Dick Story starring Lewis Black and Jim
Norton. His second short film, American Dummy stars
Otto & George, Jim Breuer, Lewis Black, Jim Norton,
Pete Correale, Greg Giraldo and Nina Hartley. He just finished
directing a Jim Breuer feature concert and documentary called
Heavy Metal Comedy. If Jim Breuer's name seems familiar,
it is because he starred in Tamra
Davis' movie Half Baked and used to be a regular
on Saturday Night Live.
To this day Adam Dubin and Rick Rubin
remain friends. "I still talk to Rubin sometimes, but
Menello talks to him like every day." Adam Dubin has
so many great memories of his days with Beastie Boys that
some day he should pen a book. Until that time comes though,
Beastiemania.com would like to tell the following story
that Dubin shared with us. "Once the "(You Gotta)
Fight For Your Right (to Party)" video was out, I remember
going to the December 26th, 1986 show at Ritz
(New York City) with Rick Rubin, Ric Menello, and a lot
of other folks. We sat in a reserved box at the Ritz. I
brought eggs and some ground bloom flower fireworks. I can
remember throwing eggs at the Beasties while they were on
stage. This was not easy, because if the bouncers saw you
they would kill you before throwing you out. My first shot
hit a kid in the head. He was just someone who was in the
audience. My next shot just missed MCA
by inches. They couldn't see who was throwing it. I never
did hit them. However, then I threw the ground flower which
went off on stage. It started spitting sparks and spinning
around. It almost set the banner on the DJ platform on fire.
The Beasties ran away from it. Rubin loved that."
|
