Coldplay Pay Tribute to MCA, Cover Fight For Your Right (Live at Hollywood Bowl)

In August 2009, I headed to New York (well, technically New Jersey) to see the 2nd annual All Points West Music festival, with headliners Coldplay, Tool, and the Beastie Boys. Unfortunately, it was around the time that Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys had first gotten diagnosed with cancer, and the Beastie Boys withdrew, and were replaced by Jay-Z. Jay-Z came on the stage and performed a rousing version of the Beastie’s No Sleep Till Brooklyn, completely winning over the crowd. Coldplay, who are known for clever live ad libbing and doing short covers, covered Billie Jean (in honour of the recently departed Michael Jackson), and they also paid tribute to MCA, doing a short version of Fight for Your Right.

Last night, Coldplay were at the Hollywood Bowl in California and once again performed a cover of the Beastie Boy’s Fight for Your Right. The version is drastically different – Chris, Johnny, Will, and Guy do NOT rap – it’s instead a drastically altered piano ballad. The crowd clearly doesn’t recognize the famous lyrics at first, and the song is so different that they are afraid to sing along. And maybe it should be that way. Check out Coldplay’s cover below.

Coldplay – Fight For Your Right, Live at the Hollywood Bowl (Original: Beastie Boys)