At Music Times, we love a good cover song. There's something wonderful about repurposing music and essentially bringing life to another creation. Music is not a rigid and inflexible product but rather a malleable one that allows songs to take on a new life as others reimagine it. Nothing gets a crowd more excited than seeing one of their favorite bands cover one of their favorite songs. The cover song makes music accessible to new audiences, and spreading music is what we are all about.
Welcome to Freak Friday. Each week we highlight a new cover song that we're crazy about. Have suggestions? Send them our way! This week, we give you...
Song: "(You Gotta) Fight For For Your Right (To Party)"
Cover Artist: Coldplay
Original Artist: The Beastie Boys
Why We Love it: Today is the 27th anniversary of The Beastie Boys' debut album Licensed to Ill. So in its honor, we wanted to pick a cover that re-imagined a song off that album rather than just rehashing it. The Coldplay version of "Fight For Your Right" strips down the track and reveals the aching of a young boy trying to find his place in the world. While the original is fun and rebellious, the piano-driven version shows that vulnerability of being young and misunderstood by your parents as a teenager.
Background: Licensed to Ill debuted in 1986 via Def Jam. It became hip-hop's first No. 1 album and continues to be one of the best-selling rap albums of all time. It blended hip-hop beats with rock and roll riffs and witty, sarcastic verses. "Fight for Your Right" reached No. 7 on the Billboard 100 during its seventh week.
The song was originally intended to be a parody of the party anthems of rock and roll such as "Smokin' in the Boys Room." But ironically, the song itself became a party anthem. The band, upset by this fact, reportedly stopped playing it live after 1987.
Coldplay paid tribute to the late Beastie Boy Adam Yauch with this song at their May 4, 2012 concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, the day that Yauch lost his three-year battle with cancer.
Check out the Coldplay cover and compare it to the original here. Let us know what you think in the comments section below!
