MY SON, THE PUNKER

“I was at this party the other night and this man went on and on about how the Beatles had ruined Western Civilization for the last 20 years,” said Hester Diamond, mother of Beastie Boy Mike D. “I listened for a while and finally said, ‘If you had problems with them, you ought to hear my son’s band.’ ”

And what do the Beastie Boys’ parents think of the group whose mix of punk, rap and heavy-metal sensibilities has been labeled a parent’s nightmare? What did they think when their sons started hanging around the dingy punk scene in the late ‘70s? Do they think the Beasties, whose songs are filled with bratty references to sex and drugs, are bad role models?

“I saw (the punk scene) as ugly,” said Mrs. Diamond, an interior designer. “But I’m not one of these parents who forget how they were when they were young.

“If Michael had been my oldest child, I think I would have died of anxiety. But when he is your third child, you have a different point of view. . . . You understand there is a curiosity to explore and that they will eventually grow up. Besides, they are solid kids. They never got out of control.”

Architect Noel Yauch, 56, chuckled when asked his feelings when his son (who goes by the name MCA in the band) started getting involved with rock. “The funny thing is, when I was Adam’s age I came to New York to be an abstract painter and my parents didn’t have the foggiest idea of what I was trying to do with my life.

“They thought I was nuts. I look at Adam now and the whole thing seems to be history repeating itself. The words that want to come out of my mouth are the words my father was saying to me . . . and I am trying not to say them.”

Yauch’s wife, Frances, an administrator in the New York City school system, said, “I understand how parents sometimes worry when their kids listen to (some extreme forms of) rock, but it doesn’t seem to really change them. It certainly didn’t make Adam a different person.

“I’ve always had faith that he knows the difference between good and bad. If parents had a chance to sit down and speak to Adam, I think they would be very impressed. I may be prejudiced, but I think he’s a person of great integrity. “

Despite their scruffy Bowery Boys persona, all three Beastie Boys came from middle- to upper-income families. The parents, however, agree their children insisted on making it their way.

“They have been on their own for some time now,” Mrs. Yauch said. “They have been earning money from gigs and their records lately, but the apartment for (a couple of years) in Chinatown was the worst thing you ever saw in your entire life. It was not to be believed. . . . I was afraid to even walk in the building.”

Playwright and screenwriter Israel Horovitz, whose film credits include “Author, Author,” is also a proud parent. “I am delighted beyond description,” he said by phone from the Bahamas where he was vacationing last week. “It’s like a kid (King Ad-Rock) taking over the family store. You just sit back and try not to show too much excitement because you don’t want to deter him from what he is doing. But I have enormous respect and admiration for what he has done.”

Horovitz, 47, described the album as “brilliant” and scoffed at charges that the LP’s lyrics might undercut teen morals. “If people can’t see the humor and satire in the record, I don’t know what to say to them,” he said. “It’s all so obvious. I think the thing that makes the record so good is that it shows a real understanding of people; maybe not an understanding of 49-year-olds, but certainly one of 17-year-olds.

“Adam Horovitz, Adam Yauch and Michael Diamond are very serious about what they do. They are not irresponsible kids. Just as I try to touch people with a play and bring some type of comfort through understanding, their album reaches out to kids and gives them a type of comfort. Everything about (the album) is on the side of the angels.”