I just wasted a ton of time, but I guess it’s good that I write down this story for all of infamy. Somehow yesterday at work, I ended up telling my Beastie Boys story, so I share it here as well.

How My Little Bother and Crazy Friends Influenced Rap History

 

This story is all about the VW Emblem necklace that the Beastie Boys are credit with. Stupid Beastie Boys didn’t start the craze, my friends and I did, but first the Beastie Boy’s first MOCKED us for doing it, and then copied it.

It happened like this:

BINGO on a Kid’s Bus and a Volkswagen Graveyard

It started by my then 6 year old brother, the same big headed one that you see in my reunion pictures of me and Max, who played “BINGO” on the bus to preschool.

Basically, the game was to looking for VW bugs and calling BINGO first, then you get a point. He then made my family play it in the car, and I in turn, made my friends play it. It was fun and addicting. It got more complicated then.

We played a whole summer. We would scout out streets and neighborhoods and then tons of us would pile in one car and “look”. Of course the ones who scouted previously had the upper hand, calmly saying, “Oh, take a right here” when they knew the location of the VW’s before hand. We added more points…5 for a convertible,  more for a bus, even more for a Deadhead bus. Then we added stunts…climb on top and get 100 points, kiss it and get 25.

The points numbered in the thousands by the summer’s end. It got violent. LI was boring. We hunted VW’s, and stole Lawn Gnomes. If you have about 25 Suburban Punk and Goth Long Island kids play a massive game of Bingo..looking for Volkswagens  while the rap artists are wearing their Mercedes emblems..it’s only a matter of time until we managed to rip one off from a Volkswagen grave yard on Long Island. I wasn’t there that night, but I was thrilled!

I am pretty sure these images were taken that night,. In fact that very well might be the sacrificial bug. That’s Lauralie and Richie and Brian coming home from one of the LI clubs. I want to say it was Spieze.:

How the VW Bug Emblem Became a Necklace

The rappers were wearing their Mercedes “bling” and we had ours! Now that was the summer of ’86, the last year before college. So that fall, when Laura went to FIT in NYC, it went with her.

Now, what happens when a few of these LI kids happen to travel in the same social circles with the Beastie Boys in NYC?

Well, let’s just say, that IF one of these kid’s had their turn to wear the coveted VW necklace, and the Beastie Boys just happen to be there at the same party and MOCK the VW necklace worn in front of all the other people at the party, then they had BETTER not get their own and wear it to a promo photo shoot the next week! But that’s exactly what happened.

The Beastie Boys Mocked OUR Necklace and then STOLE the Idea

When the Licensed to Ill came out in Nov of 86, the poster was ALL OVER NYC.

We were SO PISSED.

It was this VW necklace that makes my story. In fact, while looking I found this quote on the Tower sight which forced me to a) register and b) set the record straight!

The Volkswagen badge-stealing craze was unknowingly started by the band, who wore the pendant merely in order to mock the hippies who had worn the ban-the-bomb medallion.

Yeah, pretty petty of me, but hey…we all have our principles! They did not mock the hippies, they mocked US!

OMG…and it was everywhere..and all over the place we cursed them. “Nice necklace…” snort laugh. Touched it, mocked it, and copied it.  Had nothing to do with Hippies or ban the bomb. If I ever have a chance to interview them, I want the real truth admitted..and an apology!

Licensed to Ill NYC promo poster..where are you?? The dern poster still mocks me. First it was everywhere, and now no place to be seen! Thankfully someone found it for me!

 

Someday I can tell you my Buttofucco stories, and about Steven Baldwin, and Mrs Maymen. Being a teenager on LI was….fun. And if you had a lawn gnome on the south end of LI in the late 80’s and it went missing..it’s in Eric’s back yerd. When I moved, there was none left, so they are ALL, in Eric’s backyard. Sorry!