“With A Little Help From My Friends” (Beatles Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Good afternoon to you! Welcome to your Tuesday edition of the Laptop Sessions, where we are getting more known each day, especially for our Beatles cover songs.

I bring you a song that has been covered many, many times (did I mention many?). It’s from the Beatles and the classic album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (also a favorite of my music teacher from high school). “With A Little Help From My Friends” is among their most well-known songs, and is also one that Scott & I covered frequently in our jam sessions. However, I usually played the bass to it.

I think I did a good job on this performance, although I sang the backup vocal part at the end, rather than the high note. Other than that this version came out quite well.

Check back tomorrow where Jim will be performing an original song. Have a great rest of the day!

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!

“Into the Great Wide Open” (Tom Petty Cover)

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By Jeremy Hammond:

My cover of “Into the Great Wide Open” by Tom Petty. I play the main verse pretty much the way Petty does, as far as I can hear.  I’ve re-arranged the chorus section a bit to try to closer mimic the multiple instrumental layers you hear on the album.

** EDITOR’S NOTE **

The title track to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 1991 album of the same name, “Into the Great Wide Open” may not have topped the charts, but is an excellent song that deserves appreciation.  Even though it fell a full sixty-four slots shy of its predecessor “Learning to Fly,” Petty did manage to produce an outstanding music video for this song.  And it even starred a young Johnny Depp as Eddie Rebel with supporting roles by Chynna Phillips (of Wilson Phillips), and Matt LeBlanc (of Friends fame).

They truly don’t make music videos like this anymore, so if you haven’t seen it, you should really take the time to do so.  Go ahead, that’s what YouTube is for, right?

What makes “Into the Great Wide Open” such an excellent candidate for an acoustic cover?  Well, there’s the catchy, powerful acoustic strumming before the chorus, never mind the fact that this is certainly a song that comes across well when played with a minimal arrangement.

As per usual, Jeremy has demonstrated great taste and considerable ability in his performance of this Tom Petty classic.  I had forgotten how much I love this song and this album, and I’ve already watched Jeremy’s video several times over the past few days, enjoying this stripped down rendition.  On behalf of the Laptop Sessions, I thank Jeremy for yet another wonderful video.  Here’s to many more in 2010!

“Living Well is the Best Revenge” (R.E.M. Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to an all-new weekend edition of the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song video blog! We’ve been doing a lot of work on the site recently, in terms of adding new features and new material to the Laptop Sessions site as well as promoting it so that we will bring in new fans to this great venture. For instance, by this weekend, we will be adding category descriptions for each of the artists we have covered — these will provide interesting background information on their songwriting, information on both original and cover songs that the artists have produced, and share some information about what material has been used for the Laptop Sessions thus far.

And now, without further ado, on to the Laptop Session of the day! I am pleased to bring you the album starter from this year’s R.E.M. release, Accelerate, “Living Well is the Best Revenge.” When the album first came out, I was interested in it, but I had my doubts. I do own both volumes of R.E.M.’s greatest hits, but I really only love about half of the tracks — I would have personally preferred a one disc greatest hits, but that’s just me. Suffice it to say that I wasn’t sure how I would feel about an entire album, especially when their last few albums have received mediocre music reviews. Still, I was interested, so I took a shot…

And I’m so glad that I did! The album is one of my favorites from this year. The music is upbeat and rocking, the vocals are strong and the lyrics interesting, and there is really only one song on the album that I’m not crazy about. The packaging of the deluxe edition (which, yes, I bought — I’m a sucker for attractive CD packaging…) is impressive. There is a booklet tied together loosely with string and a subtitle on the front cover that reads “This will fall apart.” And I don’t doubt that it would if I pulled on the pages too hard…

This song, “Living Well is the Best Revenge” is a great album starter. The verse is really only one chord, so I hope I’ve done it justice. Without the fullness of the other instruments, it just doesn’t sound the same, but you need to watch one other YouTube video after mine — the official R.E.M. music video for the song. They recorded it while driving in a car — the drummer, who is driving, is literally using the steering wheel for the percussion in the song. It’s a great idea that I wish my band MoU had thought of before, as we have been known to rehearse for gigs in the back of our bassist’s van!

That’s all from me for now; make sure to check back tomorrow for an all-new, amazing video blog entry from Jeff…

See you next session!



“Driving to the Beach” – Playlists on Parade

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By Chris Moore:

I can’t believe it’s been over a year now since I compiled this playlist…

…but I couldn’t be happier to greet the warm summer days once again!

I first put together this 19 song sequence for Mike’s birthday, in honor of the fact that he loves driving to the beach.  I went online to map the distance between his house and the beach, and made this playlist within a minute of the estimated travel time.

Now, it should come as no surprise to those of you who know either myself or Mike that this list is populated by multiple Beach Boys songs.  In fact, I think the most difficult part of this process was deciding which Beach Boys songs to include, so synonymous is their music with summer and the beach.

The playlist has a great range of music, though, ranging from Johnny Cash’s take on “That Lucky Old Sun” to a track from Brian Wilson’s 2008 That Lucky Old Sun record, Warren Zevon to Weezer, and McCartney to Modest Mouse.

So, if you’re heading out to beach this summer, consider taking these songs along for your ride.  After all, I not only gave this list as a gift, but I’m also a listener!

1. “Good Day Sunshine” – the Beatles

2. “Beach Ball” – Roger McGuinn

3. “Slip on Through” – the Beach Boys

4. “Venice Beach (Narrative) – Brian Wilson

5. “See Your Sunshine” – Paul McCartney

6. “Island in the Sun” – Weezer

7. “Girls on the Beach” – the Beach Boys

8. “Sunshine All the Time” – Jeff Foskett

9. “Pacific Ocean Blue” – Dennis Wilson

10. “Oceans” – Pearl Jam

11. “Catch a Wave” – the Beach Boys

12. “I’ll Follow the Sun” – the Beatles

13. “The Rosarita Beach Café” – Warren Zevon

14. “Sunflowers” – Everclear

15. “Summer Means New Love” – the Beach Boys

16. “Ocean Breathes Salty” – Modest Mouse

17. “Soulful Old Man Sunshine” – the Beach Boys

18. “Cold Day in the Sun” – Foo Fighters

19. “That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All Day)” – Johnny Cash