Ripped Laces

The collective response to this post.

The original version of Adio’s “One Step Beyond” is a beloved by many and disliked by some. The reason that divide exists is because two versions of the video were produced. The first, a rebellious effort that used music without licensing any of the songs at all as a means of giving each skater the soundtrack they wanted. The second version was a commercially driven effort to guarantee a ROI from those investors who had stake in Adio at the time. While it’s believed, especially in skating, to reward the original with all the praise, I believe the alternative version of OSB was much better. (There’s a comment section below where you can curse at the author of this post)

After reaching out to our good friends at The Secret Tape, I acquired one of my favorite skate videos of all-time. The search for the commercial version came about due to being unhappy with only being able to see the original version that can annoyingly be found in 3 different places on YouTube. With all due respect to your preference and the creators, I can’t stand that version. Whether it’s because my ears met the commercially-driven version first or because I lack any real taste in music (you decide), I can’t deal with notably different parts and the overall change in atmosphere of the original version’s soundtrack compared to the commercially distributed one.

It was because of this urge to see Kenny Anderson skate to Mr. Scruff’s more fitting “Spandex Man” rather than the noisy and annoying “Get A Move On” that I had to get this version online asap. The same reasoning applies to Ed Selego’s part as well.

Watch both parts and maybe you’ll agree that the 2nd version, made simply to sell more units to BestBuy, is profoundly better in both atmosphere and fluidity.

Backstory

Now, “how did this all happen?” you ask…

In an effort to exercise good journalism and more so skate nerdery, we asked people who worked on the video firsthand. Director Josh Stewart recalls it going down like this:

“So we made the VHS version and then we started making a DVD master, and while that was happening Adio worked out a deal to have the dvd carried by Best Buy. And in order for them to carry it, all of the music had to be licensed legally. So we had to change the music because of that. We managed to buy the rights to a few songs but pretty much everything else got switched out. Such a bummer, because all that has been preserved primarily are the parts from the DVD version”

Roger Bagley, who helped film this video adds:

“The first version was for the industry, we knew we couldn’t afford to pay for the music rights so we made the video how we wanted the skate industry to see it. The second version came about because we knew could sell a shit load to Best Buy but in order to do that, we needed to have all the music rights cleared…so, I believe we had Jesse Fritsch (former pro vert skater for Zoo York) suggest a bunch of soundtracks to replace the music we couldn’t afford to get rights for.”

Other notable skate videos that have had their soundtracks swapped are: Birdhouse’s The End & Girl’s Yeah Right, amongst others.