Welcome to a fresh episode of The Guest Sessions, where the musicians and songwriters of the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog take submissions of other cover song videos, pick the best ones, and feature them here on the music blog!
Today’s solo performance is a Sublime cover song. No, I’m not just describing the cover song itself- that’s the name of the band, for those that don’t know. This song, “Santeria”, was a hit back in 1997. YouTube user rickp822, who refers to himself as “California Love” did a very unique cover of this song. He basically recreated the whole song with his really cool electric guitar stylings.
You’ll see some different video angles taken during each take as he layers his guitar parts over each other. I was very impressed with the guitar technique he displayed on this song!
I hope you enjoy this week’s edition of the Guest Sessions here on the Laptop Sessions music blog! Remember, if you have a cover song music video in the style of the Laptop Sessions, make sure visit our submission page by clicking on the link in our sidebar- we look forward to hearing from you!
Assistant Editor’s note (that’s Jeff): I am in the process of re-embedding some Laptop Sessions videos that I still have. This post was originally from 2009, but for history’s sake I have not edited the post.
And continuing from last week’s post is the song that is followed by the one I covered last week.
Now, I know that i’ve covered a bunch of Coldplay songs, and quite a few from Viva La Vida, but there’s a good reason. Everybody loves this band. They write catchy songs, and enjoy performing and love their fans. How can I not want to cover this band?
This song is more of an instrumental than a lyrical song, but the lyrics are present and sung. I initially wanted to perform this with my electric guitar hooked up to my bass amp. However, I hit a few snags. 1) My electric strings are kind of old. 2) The bridge of the guitar sticks out of the base of the guitar a bit, making the strings a bit further from the fretboard, and therefore more difficult to play. 3) The amp is meant for bass, and I could not find a good combination of settings that made my guitar sound like a guitar.
However, practicing the song on the electric proved helpful, as it made it a lot easier to play on the acoustic. Funny how that works sometimes.
This video came out great. I’m very proud of this cover.
I have reached my first milestone post 100K views and hit 110K views. I’m nearing 500 views per day on my videos, and I can’t wait to tell you when I am averaging 1K views per day. It could happen before the year is out!
Welcome to your Saturday night fever edition of The Laptop Sessions! Today I bring you another return engagement with a band previously featured on the sessions, and it is a great song.
The band is Toad the Wet Sprocket (and again, don’t ask – I’m not too sure where that name came from either), and today I am covering another song from their final album “Coil” (well, I should now say their most recent release) called “Crazy Life”. It is a simple, yet catchy tune with a great strum pattern. The lyrics are quite interesting and I still have not fully understood what they mean. There are a few historical references you’ll hear though.
It is appropriate that I am doing this song today. I really had a “Crazy Life” kinda day, where I ejected only my 2nd coach in my 2 year umpiring career. It takes a lot to get to me, and if you go onto my ejection list, you must’ve done something wrong. Baseball coaches, if you are reading this, do not argue balls and strikes – unless you’re looking for an excuse to go home.
I hope you enjoy today’s session, and I know you will be back to see Jim’s latest installment of the sessions. We’re rolling along as usual! Seeya next time!
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!
Hello and welcome to yet another all-new acoustic rock cover song from the best cover music video blog on the Internet! Although last week was fun for me — I played covers from the Counting Crows and Jimi Hendrix, which were both a lot of fun to learn and play — but this week promises to be even better. Not only is it my turn for an Original Wednesday (when we songwriters here at the music blog break out one of our original songs), but I’m starting out the week with a song from one of my all-time favorite bands, the Wallflowers.
Which brings me to today’s video. This is “Letters From the Wasteland” from the Wallflowers’ Breach album, which was released in 2000. I was actually listening to my iPod on random earlier today when this song came up. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t already done a session of it, and I figured that Jeff might take it if I didn’t jump on it soon. In fact, Jeff is another reason I chose to record the song. He just recently recorded “Some Flowers Bloom Dead,” another great song from Breach. I love that song, too, but I’ve always been taken by “Letters.” There’s something really dark and powerful about it, and I absolutely love the drum beat and the guitar sounds.
Interestingly enough, at least for an English teacher like myself, is that the title of this song is reminiscent of T.S. Eliot’s famous poem, “The Waste Land.” I always wondered if Jakob Dylan intended any sort of reference, but there is a key clue that makes me believe he didn’t. Namely, the Eliot poem spells it as two words — Waste Land — whereas the Wallflowers song spells it as one — Wasteland. This may seem like a minor detail, but you’d think that Dylan, being as careful about his wording and his songwriting as he says he is, would have picked up on such a detail. It would honestly be one of the questions I would ask him if I ever met him…
That being said about the background information regarding the actual song, I have to say a bit about my night surrounding this music video. What a night! First, I’ve been hit with allergies pretty bad the past couple days, and even though I started taking allergy medication again, it hasn’t quite kicked in. Thus, my voice wasn’t exactly angelic to begin with tonight. Then, I kept recording takes of the song that I wasn’t really thrilled with, so by my tenth take or so (including brief false starts) I was dragging. My throat was pretty sore. After taking a break to watch the Mets a bit, I went back downstairs and ten or so minutes later, I had a take that I was pretty happy with. So, I went upstairs from the studio to render my video and post it…
…only to find that the last ten seconds of the recording were all audio static!!
This was devastating to me at the time and some words and phrases slipped out that I shouldn’t repeat on a family-friendly blog. (Well, as a quick tangent, a family friendly blog directory actually removed us from their listing a few months ago, so maybe we’ve crossed the line already…) But, anyway, Jim swooped in and, being the computer deity that he is, spliced and salvaged my take by using footage from previous takes. Amazing. Even though I now owe him lunch or dinner or a drink or really any sort of food/beverage outing that he chooses, it was well worth it! I didn’t mentally or physically have it in me to either record yet another take or to settle for a previous one.
And this brings us to the actual video. I hope you enjoy “Letters From the Wasteland” and I hope you hurry back tomorrow for a new acoustic rock cover from our resident Wallflowers expert, Jeff Copperthite. You’ll never know what song is up his sleeve unless you check back tomorrow…
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.
