Letters from Rosie 8 – Best Coast and that Fleetwood Mac cover

Best Coast cat

By Rosie

Have you seen the Best Coast cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rhiannon’?

Hold on to yr halo…

Best Coast’s cover of ‘Rhiannon’ flung me into a sort of crisis the other day. When I heard it, I felt like crying. I felt really bad. I wanted to post it on Facebook with the words ‘comforting thots of death’ or some such comment. And then the idea was for me to post this, immediately afterwards, with indignation:

Which is a video of me, covering Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Sara’.

But I didn’t do it because my big theme is Grace, Everett, and that’s how I try to live. I try to temper my reactions, I try not to puke up internet all over dear life. I try to keep it with mine, as best I can. But in this case, I can’t… quite. So by writing to you I’ve found a third way – a way that I can shoot from behind bulletproof glass and vent on this issue, whilst simultaneously being removed by ‘analytical’ distance. Except, you are the last person I would ever want to hear me say these things that I am about to say. Above all else, The Sisterhood.

(continues overleaf)

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 20th, 2012 at 2:26 pm. It is filed under Columns and tagged with , , , , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

5 Responses to “Letters from Rosie 8 – Best Coast and that Fleetwood Mac cover”

  1. golightly says:
    July 21, 2012 at 12:03 am

    Why is it popular to dislike Best Coast anyway? I can’t imagine why. They remind me of the Breeders in other songs. Either you like the Breeders for the sound and therefore like Best Coast… or you don’t. And I do. Has it occurred to you that maybe they covered Rhiannon because it’s one of their favorite songs? I like how you call bullshit on hipsterisms such as hailing a less remarkable album such as Tusk. But what is the problem with covering? Maybe you just like to original so much that it sounds wrong to you and destroys your FM mythology?
    You’re a great singer but hello hypocrisy no? Or does the Best Coast cover highlight something in yourself that is uncomfortable when seen from an objective distance for you? I have no such problem. I can appreciate it for what it is in isolation. I may of course feel otherwise if it was some music sacred to my own existence… in other news I prefer Hole’s music when Courtney Love remembers that it’s not trying to be Stevie Nicks and remembers her own power and artistic strength comes when she is busy being herself. It could be because I much prefer Hole to Fleetwood Mac. Fleetwood Mac has always made me feel mildly depressed and in need of a hug after listening. And I’d take Hole’s cover of Gold Dust Woman over the original any day. It’s cool as fuck.
    So anyway, you are still my new favorite C.B. writer… and this time I only disagree with about half of what you say.

  2. daz says:
    July 29, 2012 at 12:48 am

    Best Coast is like The Breeders’ dull, straightlaced niece. So by your estimation any band with fuzzy guitar tones and a female lead singer sound like the Breeders?

  3. Erika says:
    July 29, 2012 at 3:58 am

    Daz sez “Best Coast is like The Breeders’ dull, straightlaced niece.”

    I empathize with you, Rosie, I think. I think it’s frustrating as a musician to see these tribute albums happen and it’s a band or songs you love so much, and it features all the current hot & hyped musical acts and then the covers themselves are disappointing.

    I feel kind of bad for those who are really seeking soul or depth or artistry or meaning from 90% of the shit they pitch at Pitchfork. If I was 20 years younger, this is what was offered me, I’d be listening to 70s album rock, too. Come to think of it – when I was 20 years younger – and my generation was hooked on MTV – I *was* listening to 60s and 70s album rock. I spun the grooves off of Rumors. And exactly 20 years ago, I went and saw Fleetwood Mac play at the Aladdin in Las Vegas, Nevada and smoked a joint (Nevada being the least tolerant state in the US for marijuana and the most tolerant for booze) in the casino and got chased by casino security and made my escape through a sea of women in black and purple flowing scarves and sleeves…. but I digress.

    I admire Fleetwood Mac and I agree that they are a band which combined artistry, musicianship, songwriting, and male/female dynamics and made it theirs, made it beautiful. And I love Hole’s covers of Fleetwood Mac songs and how they made them their own with all their beauty.

    Fleetwood Mac – yes, I agree about the changes wrought by the shortened attention span of today’s post whatever culture who didn’t grow up spinning 12″ records…

    But there is also an issue of the BIZ turning all namby pamby. If all you eat is what you are fed, and if all you are fed is plain oatmeal with white sugar, you’re gonna think it’s revolutionary when someone decides to add a raisin.

  4. Golightly says:
    August 11, 2012 at 1:46 pm

    No Daz… a band that sounds like the Breeders sounds like the Breeders.

  5. Jed says:
    December 6, 2012 at 4:02 pm

    Changing it from vi/IV to I/IV/V, or in other words, “major-keying it”, is a dumb trick that doesn’t work in and of itself, but then removing any grooviness left over by having the drummer do a Moe Tucker (no slight on Moe) is just so unbelievably cracker-ass I can’t believe it was allowed. God-hell is this horrible, and I’m not even a Mac fan.

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