‘Country Mike’s Greatest Hits’: The mystery of the Beastie Boys’ secret country album
“Dogs love me cos I’m crazy sniffable”, “I’m the king of Boggle, there ain’t none higher, I gets 11 points off the word ‘quagmire’” and “cool as a cucumber in a bowl of hot sauce” are all lyrics that set the Beastie Boys up to be proprietors of the absurd. Weirdness and chaos have been two of the primary weapons the band brandishes when turning heads and filling stadiums, but their lives are even more bizarre than the words they write.
Beastie Boys are responsible for a few modern classics, such as Licensed to Ill, Ill Communication, and Hello Nasty, all of which are considered some of the most fun and adventurous albums in early alternative hip-hop. They were a group who never took themselves too seriously and, in doing so, gave fans permission to switch off when listening to their music and enjoy themselves. The aforementioned albums are so highly regarded by music lovers everywhere that they can still be found in most record stores today. An album you are less likely to find is from a different time, in a different genre, by, arguably, a different man.
In 1999, the Beastie Boys released the Sounds of Science compilation album, which was predominantly made up of hits from the trio’s past. Also on there were two country songs, both of which sounded incredibly out of place.
Many listeners at the time chalked this off as being a bit of fun the band decided to have when putting together a list of songs that had already been released. Devoted Beatie Boys fans, though, took it as confirmation that the rumours were true and the band had previously recorded a secret country album.
It turns out that Mike D, with the help of the other Beastie Boys, had recorded an album called Country Mike’s Greatest Hits. It was kept private, with only a few hundred copies being made and all of them going to family and friends at Christmas time.
Bandmate MCA wrote in the liner notes for Sounds of Science that the reason Mike D’s songs were on there was because he had hit his head, lost his memory and convinced himself that he was a country music star. His therapist had apparently told the rest of the band that they should humour him to aid his recovery, which resulted in them recording a whole album together.
If you ever need proof that the Beastie Boys are untouchable as one of the most prominent alternative rap acts out there, look no further than Country Mike’s Greatest Hits. It’s an album whose existence was only discovered because of liner notes in a compilation album and was never released to the public, yet it now has bootlegs available that sell for hundreds. A lot of actual country stars would kill to have an album that did those kinds of numbers; all Mike D had to do was hit his head.
