It was one day after school at the Rec Center. Trudi L. was teaching Colleen B. a dance routine she had learned in dance class. For some reason, I wasn't taught the dance. I remember really wanting to learn, but for some reason I was delegated to pushing play and rewinding over and over so they could practice. It was totally the song of the moment and I loved it, but I had no idea what on earth they were singing about. A brass monkey? What could that be? Cool dance, cool song, cool by association (I hoped). The following track, Slow and Low, begins almost immediately after Brass Monkey, almost like the song continues with a part 2, so I always heard the beginning of it, but we never listened to it.
At the time, my mom was living with her cousin Joan. Joan was dating Reuben who had 2 teenage sons. They were just about the coolest embodiment of what you would picture today when you picture a teenage boy in the late 80s. Pegged pant leg acid washed jeans? Check! Neon? Check! Awesome hair? Check! The older son had this super cool, long on top, flip kind of thing going on and the younger had a perfect flat top. Name brand high tops? Check! I am sure they thought I was totally annoying, but I definitely wanted to share (read: show off) that I listened to the Beastie Boys and of course, they did, too. When I said that I had never heard Slow and Low, they played it for me. They also played Time to Get Ill which they liked and I remember when I first heard the Mr Ed sample in the middle of the song. That put me over the top. I couldn't think of a more clever, creative thing for a band to do. I agreed with them that it was a great song.
For the record, years later...an embarrassing number of years later...I did finally figure out that Brass Monkey is a cocktail.
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