1986Released
3:40

Did You Know?

Interesting facts and trivia about Paul Revere. By Songfacts®.

This song tells the fictional story of how the Beastie Boys met. Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz) is running from the law, riding on his horse, when he comes across MCA (Adam Yauch), who asks for some of Ad-Rock's beer and pulls a gun when he refuses. Ad-Rock gets the idea that they should join forces and rob a saloon for cash and more booze. It's at "the spot" where they finally meet Mike D (Michael Diamond). They all rob the place, knock out a piano player and his boy, grab two girlies and a cold beer, and are out. The song helped form an image of the band as quirky and unpredictable. They came up with the concept after seeing a Western from 1968 called Once Upon A Time In The West, which got them envisioning themselves as hip-hop high plains drifters.

Paul Revere was a key figure in the American Revolution, known for his midnight ride warning the Americans of the British invasion. He has nothing to do with this song; the name came from a song from the musical Guys And Dolls called "Fugue For Tinhorns" where three guys are picking racehorses to bet on. "I got the horse right here, the name is Paul Revere," one of them sings. Beastie Boys decided to use the same name for the horse Ad-Rock rides in the song.

According to Ad-Rock in the Beastie Boys Book, Run (Joseph Simmons) and DMC (Darryl McDaniels) from Run-DMC came up with the intro, which is how the song started. Beastie Boys and Run-DMC were on the same label (Def Jam) and got together to work on a song. The Beasties were waiting for them outside a studio in Manhattan when Run came walking down the street saying over and over, "Here's a little story I've got to tell." He and DMC delivered the first four lines, which set the stage for the story. Beastie Boys put the track together with their producer, Rick Rubin, then Ad-Rock worked on the rest of the lyric with Rubin.

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Song Analysis

Key, BPM (tempo) and time signature of Paul Revere.
F♯Key
MinorMode
4/4Time Signature
92BPM

Album

The album Paul Revere is released on.

Released By

The record label that has released Paul Revere.
Def Jam Recordings
© 1986 Def Jam Recordings
℗ 1986 Def Jam Recordings

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