It’s hard to believe “new bands week” is almost over! It’s been a lot of fun — hopefully we’ll do it again soon before we run out of new bands!
My song for today, “No One Else,” is from my second favorite Weezer album, their self-titled debut known among fans as “The Blue Album.” For some reason, I had a hard time getting into the album when I first heard it. When I listened again about a year later, I really fell in love with its sound and energy. It’s about as close to garage rock as my preferences go… I felt this song translated easily into an acoustic version, and it was fun to learn a song from a band I have never covered before!
Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the seventh day of “new bands week” — Jeff’s up again. And, of course, don’t forget to check back here on Sunday when he releases his new album Greenlight!
You know me – i’m not one to decline a challenge. When I read Jim’s Thursday post that he was covering a female artist, and echoed by Chris, who followed up Jim’s post with an extremely….scary cover (how appropriate – I don’t think i’ve been put on a holiday yet).
Well, here you go. Jeff’s covering a band with a female lead singer.
And yes, I admit i’m not as attractive as Shirley Manson.
But nonetheless, I present a song from her band Garbage. The song is “Only Happy When It Rains”, which was a popular song from their debut self-titled album. I always did enjoy the songs from this band, and I also enjoyed the fact that Butch Vig was their drummer (and the producer of the quintessential alternative rock album Nevermind by Nirvana). They had catchy riffs, good vocals, and Shirley is quite impressive in the singing department.
I didn’t have to raise my normal voice pitch all that much, given Shirley’s tendency to sing in the low range. Because of this, I didn’t need to use falsetto. I think I did a good job of this. I threw a capo on the guitar to make playing it a lot easier, since the singing part was going to be somewhat challenging.
This goes to show – we aren’t afraid of the female-lead bands! Perhaps I’ll throw in a Fleetwood Mac song in the near future…
Tomorrow Jim will entertain us with his Super Sunday edition. I’ll be back to check it out, and i’m sure you will be too!
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!
It was definitely one of those “clouds parting” kind of Chris Moore Mondays for me.
First of all, I should clarify that “Chris Moore Mondays” is the title we use around here to remind you all that it’s my job to post a great cover song music video for you each and every Monday evening. Next, I should explain the “clouds parting” aspect. Well, I woke up around 5:30 this morning and was having serious difficulty getting myself out of bed. Then, I noticed I had an email from bobdylan.com.
Long story short, I had woken up to find the link to a free download of the new, unreleased Bob Dylan track “Beyond Here Lies Nothin.'” It will be track one on his upcoming album, Together Through Life, to be released on Tuesday, April 28th. Sorry, Jim — this means that your birthday the following day is going to be something of an anti-climax. 😉
In all seriousness, this is an exciting bit of New Music Tuesday news. After all, there were five years of separation between 2001’s Love and Theft and 2006’s Modern Times. Now, it’s been less than three years and there’s a new release. Based on the first track alone, I couldn’t be more excited. It’s a pretty simple song — only three chords and a basic verse, chorus, repeat structure with a few instrumental breaks thrown in and a classic Dylan chorus style in which the lines in each chorus are slightly different. I wasn’t sure what to think of the lyrics at first, but they’ve really grown on me today as I’ve listened to the song repeatedly and learned to play it. I’m still not sure what to think of lines like “The whole world is my throne” or “And every window’s made of glass.”
The conclusion I’ve come to is that this is a deceptively simple song. In the beginning of the song, Dylan sings of a lover in terms that express fairly standard love-song mentalities. Still, by the end of the track, he compares himself to a ship in harbor with the sails up. This implies that the ship is about to leave harbor, or perhaps that he is ready to move on to something — or someone — new. And yet he goes on to tell his lover that she should lay her hand upon his head. In typical Dylan fashion, even a love song has darker overtones, as played out in the chorus lines. The choral sections really are my favorite lines. “Beyond here lies nothin,'” he sings, “But the mountains of the past” or “Nothin’ done and nothin’ said.” There is simply nowhere else he would rather be than where he is, as he acknowledges that there is nothing “beyond here.” The questions, of course, are 1) where is “here”? and 2) does he really want to be “here” or are there simply no better options?
As I mentioned, it’s a fairly simple song. Even I was able to figure it out in short order. It’s three chords — Am, Dm, and E — easily within my register with an uptempo beat. It’s actually caused a bit of a debate among Dylan fans who have disagreed over the use of accordion in the song and the state of Dylan’s vocal abilities. As far as I’m concerned, the instrumentation is excellent, raw and loose but very intentional and fitting, accordion or no accordion. As for Dylan’s voice, I read one user’s take on the fansite expectingrain.com. He essentially said that Dylan’s vocals have deteriorated even more than they had on Modern Times. My reaction is simple:
Really?
I mean, if you’ve followed Dylan over the past decade and enjoyed Time Out of Mind or the aforementioned two albums, then you know that his gritty vocals are fitting. He may not stand a chance on American Idol, but I’m not so sure that’s a bad thing! Another post that I read made a great deal of sense. This user basically argued that Dylan’s vocals on studio recordings and during live performances should be weighed separately. I agree with this — while his vocals may be a bit difficult to understand and follow in concerts at times, his studio recordings haven’t failed to impress me — including vocals, instruments, etc.
Needless to say, I hope you enjoy my take on this brand new Dylan song. If you’re a guitarist, you should check out my chords and lyrics (see the link above) and have fun playing it yourself. And, without further ado, I wish you a good night and a great week…
Foo Fighters’ There is Nothing Left to Lose (1999) – MAYBE NOT
Foo Fighters' "There is Nothing Left to Lose" (1999)
(November 2, 1999)
Review:
Although this album somehow managed to rake in better reviews than The Colour and the Shape (1997), these songs — for all their potential and positive aspects — generally fall flat (i.e. “Learn to Fly” is wonderfully catchy but irritatingly repetitive; the outstanding “Generator” is marred by perhaps the most annoying guitar effect on record).
Cover Songs & Original Music Videos By Laptop Sessions Songwriters
The Laptop Sessions music video blog is a great combination of acoustic cover songs and original music. This website features cover songs from many of rock music's greatest bands, including the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and Bob Dylan. The blog is updated every day with another acoustic cover video, how-to video, or article about music. We only play the best cover songs from the best rock bands of all time.
Here at the Laptop Sessions, we don't just sit down and do a bunch of cover songs- we make them our own. Yes, each cover will sound like the original, but it will also have a new, fresh sound to it. One of our specialties is taking a song from say the eighties and stripping-away the production. Then, we're left with just the song- simple (and most times, much better). We then record an acoustic version of that song and put it on this music video blog for all music fans to watch.
But, Laptop Sessions Music Blog is much more than just videos. There are informative blog posts, including the chords and lyrics to your favorite songs, recording tips, and much more. Plus, you can buy Jim Fusco's original songs right here on the music blog!
Right from the start, the Laptop Sessions Acoustic Cover Songs & Music Video Blog set out to be different. We wanted to give the best music blog for the world to enjoy. We wanted to put an end to bad YouTube cover videos forever. We wanted to bring great rock music back to the forefront with our great cover songs and original music. And, we guarantee we'll keep it this way- free videos that are updated constantly for your musical enjoyment. If you're looking for the best cover songs, the most exciting new music, and the most informative music articles, look no further than right here: home of the world-famous Laptop Sessions.
