“Black” (Pearl Jam Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening! Welcome to your Friday installment of The Laptop Sessions. I hope you are ready to celebrate a three-day weekend, and plan on seeing family, friends, and perhaps enjoy a nice cookout or two in the process.

Meanwhile, I get to bring to you one of my favorite songs. It’s Pearl Jam tonight with a song from their first album Ten. Track #5 is Black from that album and that is the song I bring to you tonight.

It has a great background electric guitar and Eddie Vedder sings a wonderful vocal melody in the entire song. Vedder is known to go in between styles back and forth and this song showcases that talent of his. From the soft verses to the emotional outro of the song, I attempt to emulate what Eddie can do. I think I do a good job, but then again i’m no Eddie Vedder. I’ll let you be the judge of that.

Also, this song translates wonderfully to acoustic guitar, and I substitute a minor change in the guitar part at the end of the song instead of the vocal “do do doo doo do do dooo” that the recording has. And as with all songs that fade out, I picked the chord that sounded best to end on and went with that.

I want to thank all of you for visiting, commenting, rating, and subscribing. This is among the sessions I am most proud of.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Jim’s latest session, then come Sunday we bring another special week of songs to you. You’ll have to check out Chris’s session on Sunday to find out just what that is!

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!

The National’s “High Violet” (2010) – Yes, No, or Maybe So

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The National’s High Violet (2010) – MAYBE

The National's "High Violet" (2010)

The National's "High Violet" (2010)

(May 11, 2010)

Review:

Debuting higher on the charts than any previous album from the National, High Violet deserves the attention: these are some of the most pensive, most beautifully orchestrated tracks they’ve released (particularly on the second half of the album), even if they do threaten to lull you into a forlorn stupor by the end.

Top Two Tracks:

“Conversation 16” & “Lemonworld”

“Fur Peace Rag” (Jorma Kaukonen Instrumental Cover)

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Hello and welcome to the unveiling of our most recent addition to the Guest Sessions, a new segment on the Laptop Sessions music blog that opens up the blog to YOUR cover song music videos!  Tonight, we have the pleasure of bringing you a change from the norm for us.  This is one of the few instrumental acoustic covers we have presented over the years.

Tonight’s video was recorded by Paul Karp.  He writes,

“I recorded an instrumental tune by Jorma Kaukonen titled ‘Fur Peace Rag.’

I started playing guitar when I was 16 years old after listening to the first Hot Tuna album. Jorma has been an inspiration over the years and his style of playing continues to amaze me even after being a fan for over 30 years.”

A quick Wikipedia search will explain that Kaukonen was a founding member of Jefferson Airplane, which he helped score two top ten hits in 1967.  He is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and although he is known for being a folk singer/musician, he was struck by the power of electric music early on, continuing to be fascinated by the technological advancements.  Kaukonen continues to be active musically to this day.

So thank you, Paul, for submitting this video.  Now we hope all of you will enjoy listening to it!

Eric Clapton’s “Back Home” (2005) – Yes, No, or Maybe So

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Eric Clapton’s Back Home (2005) – MAYBE NOT

Eric Clapton's "Back Home" (2005)

Eric Clapton's "Back Home" (2005)

(August 29, 2005)

Review:

The only “revolution” that happened between 2001’s excellent Reptile and Back Home was Eric Clapton’s conversion to the school of light contemporary snooze rock, filling up his new album with instrumentally pedestrian and lyrically boring recordings; Clapton’s guitarwork is, as always, interesting, but that can’t save most songs from dragging on a minute too long (“Love Don’t Love Nobody” has no business being over seven minutes!) or the background singers from drawing a smirk.

Top Two Tracks:

“So Tired” & “Back Home”

Honorable Mention:

“Love Comes to Everyone” (yes, the George Harrison song, recorded as a tribute following his death and recognized here for sounding so much like the original)