Monthly Archives: September 2014

“About A Girl” (Nirvana Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

And a happy Thumpin’ Thursday to you as well!  I hope this evening finds you healthy, warm, and enjoying the awesome weather we are supposed to receive for the next few days.  I can finally say “So Long and Farewell” to Winter, and to the hope of any more snow days from school.

Of course, I may be smitten for saying that.

Well, anyway today’s song is one that I actually heard a couple of days ago and said “Hmm…that song would be a good one to cover”, so here you are!  It’s another song by Nirvana and is called “About A Girl”.  It is from their debut 1989 album “Bleach” (wonder if it was clean…).

I did some reading about the history of this song and there’s a few cool stories about it.  First off, when presented to the band the then-drummer Chad Channing asked Kurt Cobain what the song was about, and Cobain replied “It’s about a girl”.  Cobain didn’t want it put on the album for fear of it being too pop sounding, and having it overwrite their perceived grunge image from their fanbase.  Eventually they decided to put it on the album, citing the producer’s image of it even being a single.

There was a girl that he wrote it about.  It was his then-girlfriend Tracy Marander.  She had asked him at one point why he hadn’t written a song about her, and that was among the inspirations that helped him write this song.  Funny thing is it took 10 years for her to find out that the song was about her, and she only found out by reading the biography of Nirvana called “Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana”.

The song is a rather light number and is perfect for our covering style.  I hope you enjoy it!  I’ll see you next week, and be sure to check back throughout the week for more covers from all of us!

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

“Writing Thousand Kingdom Blues” (Original Acoustic Song)

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By Chris Moore:

This, as you’ll probably be able to tell once you start listening to it, is a song that I wrote a long time ago.  In some ways, this would be a reason to choose a different song to record, as I think I have better songs to showcase that I’ve written more recently.  I do feel that I’ve progressed as a writer and that I’ve written more structurally complex and lyrically thoughtful songs.

And yet, in other ways, this is one of those songs that reminds me how I used to write and, in some ways, reminds me of a type of song that I don’t really write any more.  This song, “Writing Thousand Kingdom Blues,” was written just as I really started to get into Bob Dylan’s work.  Everything about him fascinated me — his lyrics, his music, his personality.  Everything about him had an other-worldly feel to it, particularly to a young high school student who had yet to experience many things.  At the time, I hadn’t even heard nearly as much music as I have now.

That being said, I wrote this song without filters.  That is, I didn’t think about literal meaning as I was writing; I focused more on the feeling and the overall image that the words conveyed.  Thus, terms like “chalkboard salesmen” or “unnecessary sports gaming powers-that-be” didn’t need to make immediate sense to everyone; it was more important that what was in my head flowed out and onto the page honestly and in as creative and unique a form as possible.  I’ll freely admit now that I don’t remember exactly what I meant by all these lyrics in the song.  I do remember the specific references for a lot of them, though, and it’s fun to think about the ones that I don’t.  That’s what I always hoped people would want to do with my music — with any music, really — to take it in and come up with a theory about what it means and, perhaps, how it could relate to their own lives.

The inspiration for the title came from a novel I read in my senior year of high school — Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres.  My English teacher, Mr. Rinaldi, had us read it alongside Shakespeare’s King Lear and draw comparisons between the characters and plot details.  It was an enjoyable book, and I remember its themes and ideas creeping into my own writing of the time.  That’s actually one of the things I miss most about being a student — the ability to take in a lot of new literature and information in general and tune out class when inspiration hits, putting the pen to paper and writing.  My most boring classes in college were often the ones that I got the most writing done during.  I can think of a couple for which the only interesting aspect was trying to complete a poem or decide on how to finish the chorus to a song.

Ah, well, there’s always my nine remaining master’s degree courses to look forward to…  🙂

Well, that’s it for me tonight.  But, before I conclude, I should point out that I have the honor of recording and posting the very first Original Wednesday of 2009!  For my next Original Wednesday, I’ll be debuting another new song that will be featured on my upcoming album (to be recorded in 2009!).  For now, I hope you enjoy this blast from my recording past.

See you next session!