By Chris Moore:
Here’s track one, and the title track, from Ringo’s latest album, “Liverpool 8.” Now, I realize that this is not the first “when I was a Beatle…” song that a reminiscent solo Beatle has put out, but I love it. It’s an interesting story, and it’s a great addition to such songs as George Harrison’s “When We Was Fab.”
There was actually a “Liverpool 8” video contest on the Ringo Starr YouTube page, but I messaged the channel and never received a reply…
See you next session!
By Chris Moore:
Hello and welcome to your Saturday session of the best acoustic rock cover song blog on the web today! This is actually a combination of my favorite type of post (a brand-new song) and Jim’s favorite type of post (a new artist to the music blog)… The Pretenders’ “The Last Ride.” This is a brand-new song from their 2008 album Break Up The Concrete.
I’m not really a big Pretenders fan, but I’m on this big new albums kick for 2008, so I figured I would try out their new album this year. It’s called Break Up The Concrete and it’s actually pretty good — I especially liked the “First Edition” packaging, which included a piece of paper with the title of the album and name of the band on it. But it wasn’t just a piece of paper to highlight the specifics; it has instructions on it to dampen it with water, plant it in the ground, and wait for it to grow a plant. I like this as a piece of the theme of the album — to break up the concrete could include planting new and natural things that, when they grow, break through the man-made pavement. In fact, the back of the album is a picture of a flower. Most artists include bonus tracks or music videos, but a seed patch… that’s original!
I’ve only heard this song about three or four times, but I decided that this was the one for me to record from this new Pretenders album. To be honest, I don’t really know any Pretenders songs, but I’ve definitely heard of them. I think I have a song of theirs on one of my “80s greatest hits” albums. Let me go check…
And I’m back — I knew I’d heard of them. The Pretenders had a hit with “Back on the Chain Gang” in the early 1980s. I first heard this song when I was a senior in high school, trying to learn all the big periods of American pop music. There was always something about Chrissie Hynde’s voice that I really liked.
Now, is Break Up The Concrete the best album of the year? No. But I’ve found it really interesting adding them to my collection this year. They’ve got an upbeat sound and, if that wasn’t enough, they’ve got my favorite drummer of all time… also known as the fifth Traveling Wilbury… Jim Keltner! I’m on my way now to do some research on the Pretenders, but their drummer on the new album is indeed Keltner, a drummer who’s not only played with the Wilburys, but has also been a session drummer for such rock acts as Bob Dylan.
As you’re watching the video, you might notice that there’s a blue flash every so often. That’s the menu of “Mission Impossible III,” which I rented tonight, thanks to the Jimmy Fund promotion at Burger King. I donated money to the fund and got a scratch off ticket that ended up being a free rental at Blockbuster video. So a special thanks goes out to Blockbuster — whose ever-increasing rental fees have discouraged me from renting recently — for participating in this worthy cause. I absolutely loved the first “Mission Impossible” and found the second to be pedestrian at best. Now, I’m half way through the third installment and loving it. I had to stop it at 1:03:51, as it’s good enough to be very distracting to me as I type this most recent post on the best acoustic cover song music blog in the universe… the Laptop Sessions! It was a really cool feeling, coming home tonight and knowing I had to record a session. I translated and posted the chords to “The Last Ride” earlier this afternoon, and I was really excited to be one of the first people in the world to record a cover of a song from the new album.
What a cool project this session-a-day is… I realize it’s really annoying and tedious at times. But, at the end of 2008, Jim, Jeff, and I will have posted 366 (leap year!) videos this year. What other musicians are as ambitious? If you haven’t already, you need to check out Jeff’s album at the Fusco-Moore Store (one of the best of the year — and, trust me, I can judge this, as I’ve bought something like 20 new albums this year)
Well, that’s it for now. The last thing I want to mention is how much I’ve been into Wilco and the Counting Crows recently. They’re both great 90s bands, and I’ll certainly be posting acoustic cover songs from them soon. But, for now, the focus is on new additions to the blog — I hope you enjoy the first Pretenders song on this music blog — more sessions from Jeff and Jim are in the archive. I’ll see you again soon.
See you next session!
By Chris Moore:
Hello and welcome to your weekend retreat from the real world…the best cover song music blog in the universe…a great place to post comments… the Laptop Sessions! I, for one, am really excited for what’s on the horizon here for the music video blog, as the coming week (starting with Jeff tomorrow) is another “New Bands Week.” Basically this is a week when every session — except for Original Wednesday, of course — features a song by a band that we’ve never covered in the history of the blog. I think it’ll be interesting to see what great new music comes to the blog! I actually have one band I plan to do that surprises even me; I’m honestly not sure why I chose this artist, but I’ll figure it out and let you know when I post my video.
Okay, now down to business. Today, I chose “All At Once,” Jack Johnson’s first track on his 2008 album Sleep Through the Static. This is an album that came out early in the year, and it was one of the first that I was really anticipating with excitement. Well, you know what they say about expectations. I don’t know what I expected, but I really wasn’t bowled over by this new release. It was billed as “Jack Johnson goes electric,” but if anything, he got slower and more mellow with the addition of the electricity. The joke circulated, at least among friends, that this more subdued sound wasn’t helped by the fact he recorded the album with natural power. Mike was similarly disappointed in the record, and as a result of our reviews, I believe Jim never even put the disc in his CD player. When he does get to it, I’d be curious to know what he thinks.
So, you may be wondering why I chose to play a song from this album. Well, my favorite playlist on my iTunes is my “New Music from 2008” playlist, so Johnson’s songs have been coming up for months and months, and this one in particular grew on me. I hope you understand — it’s not that the music is bad; far from it, in fact. I love this song. But as an album opener? The other tracks on the album never really get more upbeat and rocking than this one, which is disappointing. After an amazing album like In Between Dreams, I couldn’t help but become one of those fans that expects something. Slowly but surely these songs are growing on me, and I sincerely hope that you enjoy this one (and that I’ve done it justice!).
Well, that’s enough for me for one post. But, before I go, I need to pass on a really interesting tidbit of BnL trivia. Mike just called me today when he couldn’t get in touch with Jim to spread the news… He just learned in class that 9.8 meters per second squared is the rate of gravitational acceleration. It’s a mouthful, right? Well, this finally explains Ed Robertson’s line in the Barenaked Ladies’ song “When I Fall.” He’s talking about being up high and contemplating jumping, and he sings, “It’s 9.8 straight down…” Wow. I can’t believe I never knew what it meant!
Jeff, Jim, and I all posted New Bands Week covers — they’re in the archive.
See you next session!
For Locksley chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!
By Chris Moore:
Hello and welcome to another all-new week of great material at the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video blog! Before I address my session for tonight, I should begin by announcing that this will be a jam-packed week of sessions, reviews, and other posts. There’s Monday and Tuesday accounted for as you can always depend on, and rest assured that there is a Guest Session lined up for Friday. In addition, I have some bonus chords coming your way, as well as a bonus Weekend Review post before the week is out. All this when I’m beginning one of the busiest weeks of my life!
First of all, let’s get down to the session at hand. For today, I’ve recorded “All of the Time” from the band Locksley’s second release, Don’t Make Me Wait. This is one of those rare — but very exciting — CDs I came across quite randomly in the used CD rack at Newbury Comics. I can’t really explain what possessed me to buy the album, but I was thrilled by what I heard. Now, before you get your hopes too high, I should admit that their sound is some kind of cross between garage rock and early Beatles. It’s a bit derivative, but I have a very good feeling about this group of guys, and I feel like they are going to evolve and come out with an album that is all their own in the future.
Hopefully, that “future” would come with their next album!
Funny enough, the band that gave us Don’t Make Me Wait and the accompanying title track has also, just as of last week, delayed the release of their new album, Be in Love, by nearly a month and a half. Apparently, an opportunity to engage in a higher-profile marketing campaign arose recently that they couldn’t pass up. The only problem was that they needed to hold off on the release to complete the necessary preparations.
Of course, I had decided to record this song today based on the Be in Love release date of the next day, January 26th, 2010.
Still, this will give me some more time to enjoy this album and wonder what the new one will be like. I suppose that could be a good or a bad decision, as expectations often have a way of killing the real experience…
To return to the present, my version of “All of the Time” is based on the 2008 reissue version of the aforementioned album. I was really pleased with the way this song translated to an entirely acoustic live Laptop Sessions performance, complete with my first recorded use of my “G” harmonica. Unfortunately, I screwed up lyrically; it’s just one word that I missed, but it doesn’t make as much sense the way I sang it. The most frustrating part is that I was singing it correctly before I hit record!
I think…
Regardless, this was my best take, and I hope you enjoy it. I know I enjoyed learning and playing it, especially since it was one of my rare two-takes-and-I’m-done Laptop Sessions experiences. That’s why it truly does help to practice days in advance and sing along in the car a ridiculous number of times! But, as much fun as it’s been learning and recording the song, posting my Locksley-themed Weekend Review, and writing this post, I’m off to get some work done now so I can sleep well before continuing a week of grading exams and papers, closing out the semester by Thursday, closing in another sense on Wednesday, and moving five minutes closer to work on Saturday.
See you next session!