Something’s Got to Give Lyrics
Someday we shall all be one
Why fight yourself?
This one is called Rectify
There's something coming to the surface
There's fire all around
But this is all illusion
I've seen better days than this one
I've seen better nights than this one
Tension is rebuilding
Something's got to give
Something's got to give
Someday, we shall all be one
Jesus Christ, we're nice
About
This is Track 14 on Beastie Boys' third (full-length) LP Check Your Head. It was recorded and mixed at G-Son Studios, Atwater Village, CA,Co-produced by Beastie Boys & Mario C with Mario C acting as engineer.After sequencing at PCP Labs, the album was released on 4.21.1992.
“Something’s Got to Give” is one of my all time favorites ‘cause of all the elements inside; mixing live music with samples of our live music, live vocals with samples of our vocals, the lyrics and their sentiment, and the fucked-up bass.
The music came from a tape of us jamming at Cole Practice Space. Maybe six months later we were listening back to a bunch of tapes and found this stuff. We looped like ten bars of music on Mike’s sampler and put them in a song type arrangement. Yauch wrote some lyrics, and me, Adam, Mike and Mark sang them. Mario went in the other room with a cassette of the music and sang the fucked-up high-pitched sound on a four-track, and then looped that. There’s no hidden message behind the lyrics; they’re pretty direct. To me this song just sounds funky. And I really like that the main instrument making the music is a DX7.
As a little footnote, the 'smile’ with laughing I found in ‘89 or so. I was at this predominantly white mall (in L.A. or Texas) and in this crowded camera store there was this thing called 'the Smile Machine’ or something like that. I pushed the little button and the batteries were all dead so it came out like the devil making fun of us all in the mall. It just stuck with me like the ‘just say no’ campaign. With how deep in America racism is, the image of the Smile Machine in the white mall fit nice in this song.” —Adam Horovitz, 1999, from Beastie Boys Anthology: The Sounds of Science
“Something’s Got to Give” was performed in 145 known concerts…
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
- 1.Jimmy James
- 2.Funky Boss
- 3.Pass the Mic
- 4.Gratitude
- 5.Lighten Up
- 10.Something’s Got to Give
- 11.The Blue Nun
- 12.Stand Together
- 13.Pow
- 14.The Maestro
- 15.Groove Holmes
- 16.Live at P.J.’s
- 17.Mark on the Bus
- 18.Professor Booty
- 19.In 3's
- 20.Namasté
- 21.Dub the Mic
