Beastie Boys are celebrating the 25th anniversary of “Alive” this week with an EP release. The new, 6-song EP features the original version of the seminal 1999 track alongside new material previously unavailable on DSPs. New B-sides include the track “Peoples,” “Big Shot / Live,” and “You + Me Together / Alive.”
Initially released as the lead single off the Beastie Boys’ compilation Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science, the track prominently samples “I’m Still #1″ by Boogie Down Productions. Late frontman Adam “MCA” Yauch said some of the lyrics, including “Don’t smoke cheeba, can’t stand crack,” referenced his own decision to stop using drugs like acid and pot.
“I stopped smoking herb three or four years ago. The one thing about doing hallucinogens is that they open up your solar plexus chakra and allow you to take in the energy of everybody else around you, whether you want to or not,” he told Triptych Magazine in 1994. “Hallucinogens blow that chakra wide open and you can start taking in a lot of negative energy – worries, jealousy, anger, or whatever other contractive emotions are flying around. I just can’t even mess with that now. I feel a little more in control by keeping my energy separate.”
Yauch, Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz, and Michael “Mike D” Diamond also filmed an accompanying music video to the track in New York City. The clip finds the trio in matching, primary-color fleece sweatsuits traipsing around New York.
Earlier this year, Beastie Boys released a deluxe edition and cassette of their 1994 record Ill Communication. In August, they shared a series of remastered music videos on their YouTube channel, as well as an unearthed live version of “Namaste” performed at San Francisco’s Bill Graham Civic Center in 1992.
Listen to the anniversary edition of Beastie Boys Ill Communication now.
