Mark On The Bus

Album: Check Your Head (1992)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Running just 1:05, this song really is about Mark on the bus.

    Mark is Mark Nishita, who started playing keyboards with Beastie Boys for their third album, Check Your Head. Brought in by their producer, Mario Caldato, he quickly became very comfortable working them, and would even sleep in the studio from time to time. He put together this song one night, which recounts his journey on a city bus, and the band discovered it when they came in the next day. He's the only credited writer on the song and did all the singing as well.
  • According to Ad-Rock of Beastie Boys, Nishita was "drunk as a skunk" when he made this song. He wrote in the Beastie Boys Book: Even though he wrote and recorded everything, and we had pretty much nothing to do with it... it's one of my favorite songs we ever made."
  • The "You should sleep late man, it's much easier on your constitution" vocal at the end is Bill Murray from a bit he did with the comedy troupe National Lampoon called "Mr. Roberts #1." It aired on the National Lampoon Radio Hour in either 1973 or 1974 and later appeared on a 1977 album called That's Not Funny, That's Sick!

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Carol Kaye

Carol KayeSongwriter Interviews

A top session musician, Carol played on hundreds of hits by The Beach Boys, The Monkees, Frank Sinatra and many others.

Corey Hart

Corey HartSongwriter Interviews

The Canadian superstar talks about his sudden rise to fame, and tells the stories behind his hits "Sunglasses At Night," "Boy In The Box" and "Never Surrender."

Lita Ford

Lita FordSongwriter Interviews

Lita talks about how they wrote songs in The Runaways, and how she feels about her biggest hit being written by somebody else.

Rosanne Cash

Rosanne CashSongwriter Interviews

Rosanne talks about the journey that inspired her songs on her album The River & the Thread, including a stop at the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Kevin Godley

Kevin GodleySongwriter Interviews

Kevin Godley talks about directing classic videos for The Police, U2 and Duran Duran, and discusses song and videos he made with 10cc and Godley & Creme.

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie Combination

Stand By Me: The Perfect Song-Movie CombinationSong Writing

In 1986, a Stephen King novella was made into a movie, with a classic song serving as title, soundtrack and tone.