“And She Was” (Talking Heads Cover)

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By Jeff:

Site Curator notice: Amazing look back at the description and video here.  Still fun to read back at these things over 4 years later.  I actually use this album as “detention music” when students are silly enough to receive detention from me.

And now after yet another possible power outage (just some flickering lights today, despite the 30 minute long tornado warning), I get to bring you my “originally intended for Thumpin’ Thursday video”, which we’ll call “It sucks when the *#%@in power goes out Friday”.

And for ISWTFPGOF (which I will NOT be typing again – either in abbreviated or standard form), I bring you a new band for the site.  It’s amazing that we haven’t thought to do a song by this awesome band – The Talking Heads.  One of my favorite bands from the 80s (aka my childhood of watching MTV videos), I bring you a song from their album “Little Creatures” called “And She Was”.

I think David Byrne is another person that I can sing similar too.  This is an awesome song that goes along with some of their other more well-known hits (which I am considering doing for next week as well).  While a bit on the short side (for one of my videos), it is a fun song to play and sing.

The summer time has afforded me a bit of free time, but that will still be hard to find all summer.  I have two weeks of training in July, a week vacation in mid-August, and in general a summer of preparation.  For many things.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s video – even if it’s a day late.  Seeya in 6 days!

Bob Dylan Discography: 1961 – 1969

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By Chris Moore:

A couple years ago, a friend at work asked me for some information about Bob Dylan and his work in the 1960s. Little did she know I would not only give her son as much verbal information as he required, but I would also type up a brief discography of his albums. I just came across it today, and I figured I would share it with you all!

Bob Dylan Discography

– The Sixties –

1961 – January: Moves to New York

1962 – March: Bob Dylan

-Very folky album, mostly comprised of covers. His early original “Song to Woody” (for his hero, Woody Guthrie) is notable.

1963 – May: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan

-His first big success and one of his true classics! This is the album that made bands like the Beatles stand up and take notice of him.

1964 – January: The Times They Are A-Changin’

-Deep in the heart of his “protest song” era, this topical album solidified his standing with the folk artists of the 1960’s.

August: Another Side of Bob Dylan

-In this album, Dylan’s desire to break away from topical songs and write more personal material—“My Back Pages,” etc.—becomes evident.

1965 – March: Bringing It All Back Home

-Dylan begins to “go electric” with this half acoustic, half electric album.

August: Highway 61 Revisited

-This is where Dylan pulled out all the stops and made a sound that was all his own. Best known for its lead-off song, “Like A Rolling Stone.”

1966 – May: Blonde on Blonde

-Dylan pushes his sound a step further with this album; widely considered to be among the (if not THE) best album of his career.

1967 – December: John Wesley Harding

-Following his motorcycle accident in 1966 and the cancellation of his upcoming tour dates, fans were somewhat thrown by his return to a more folky sound.

1968 –

Records in a basement with the Band; those widely bootlegged takes were later
released as The Basement Tapes

1969 – April: Nashville Skyline

-Making the transformation complete, he released this country rock album with a new version of “Girl of the North Country” (originally from Freewheelin’) as a duet with Johnny Cash.

“Don’t Cry No Tears” (Neil Young Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Happy Saturday to everyone out there on the internet! It’s Jeff Copperthite bringing you the latest installment of The Laptop Sessions. I bring you a new artist for me, but not a new artist for the sessions.

That of course would be a classic one at that – Neil Young, and the first track off of his album “Zuma” called “Don’t Cry No Tears”. It’s a short and sweet song that I was able to technically record in one take. I had meant to record it earlier in the day, but battery problems with my camera (read: camera turning off in the middle of a take) caused me to postpone recording it until about 10 minutes ago. Thankfully I have practiced this one all week.

I decided to record this song after hearing a Wallflowers cover of this song, and you will hear another song in 6 days because of the same reason. It will also be a new artist to the sessions, unless Jim or Chris randomly decide to cover the same artist, or the same song! I’ll leave that to chance, and let you wonder who it could possibly be.

In the meantime, enjoy this classic from Neil Young. Come back in a little while to hear Jim’s newest session!

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 original 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!

Ranking every Beach Boys album/song: “Shut Down Vol. 2” (by Songwriter Jim Fusco)

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By Jim Fusco:

Each song gets a ranking out of a possible 10.

ALBUM – SHUT DOWN, VOL. 2

Fun, Fun, Fun – 8
The Warmth of the Sun – 10 (doesn’t get much better than this)
Don’t Worry, Baby – 10 (see last song)
Pom Pom Play Girl – 4 (too Jan and Dean for me)
Why Do Fools Fall in Love – 6 (again, not a big fan of covers, but this one is very well done, especially that vocal break in the middle)
*I Do – 6 (even though the verse is a clear re-tooling, the chorus is pretty amazing)
In the Parkin’ Lot – 8 (I really like this song- it’s got great harmonies and I love the tag at the beginning and end)
This Car of Mine – 6 (I love Denny’s vocals on this one!)
Keep an Eye on Summer – 9 (just wow)
Louie, Louie – 1 (ugh- why guys, why??)
Shut Down, Part II – 3 (okay, but only because Carl wrote it!)
“Cassius” Love vs. “Sonny” Wilson – 2 (Can this even count? They can’t even get the jokes right! But, it is cute.)
Denny’s Drums – 4 (I hate that Dennis doesn’t get a lot of credit for his drumming, but he clearly has the chops here)

** You have five or six songs that are not only great, but classic on this album and it makes this album a great listen. In my opinion, the Boys really honed the harmonies on this album- not a bum note to be found. Plus, showing off the talents of Dennis (singing and playing) and Carl (writing and playing) is just great. Brian was truly in his prime starting with this album. I find it hard to talk down to any album with the likes of Don’t Worry Baby and The Warmth of the Sun on it. Their greatness truly cancels out any mediocrity the few clunkers on the album express. **