Tag Archives: best cover songs

“Mourning Train” (The Wallflowers Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

I’m back after a short hiatus!  Welcome to your special Friday edition of The Laptop Sessions.

Tonight’s song is the first Wallflowers cover in a long time.  I have selected another song from their 2nd album “Breach”, and I plan on closing out my 2008 run w/ the Sessions with another song from this album (I did mention it in an earlier post which song it is going to be)

As you know by now, I am a huge Wallflowers fan.  I enjoy all their albums and they are so easy to listen to at any time of the day.  My wife enjoys this band as well.  This cover is still a first for me though.  Up until now, i’ve covered their upbeat songs, and this is the first that is among their slower, gentler tunes.  It allows me to really sit back and play a nice, neat song with the cool writing of Jakob Dylan.

And yes, that is Bob Dylan’s son (in case you didn’t know).

We need not go into further detail, but know that we are committed to bringing you the best cover songs!  Jim, Chris, and I will continue our dedication not just through this year, but into the next.  We can’t wait to announce to you when you can look forward to more cover songs from the three of us!

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!

“Hello It’s Late” (Stone Temple Pilots Cover)

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By Jeff:

Assistant Editor/Historian’s note: This post was originally posted in May 2009.  STP had reunited and has since been rebranded due to legal proceedings.  A lot has happened since this post – reunion, firing of Scott Weiland, and the original band being named “Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington”.

That’s right, back to our usual normally scheduled Thumpin’ Thursday schedule!  This time, I promise it’s a song that has not been covered.

I have been lining up more songs to cover since that debacle last week, but it’s not a huge deal, and Chris, Jim, and I all got quite a few laughs over it.  Well, I can only assume.

So I am going to return to one of my favorite bands of all time (as it is known), and not The Wallflowers.  It’s Stone Temple Pilots!  I can add this song to the long library of STP songs that have been covered on this site.

The song is from the album “Shangri La Dee Da”, or “The album we made before we broke up” called “Hello It’s Late”.  I have enjoyed this song because there’s a simple sublety to the guitar riff and the lyrics.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to figure out the meanings of songs easier when I play them.  I must detach myself from the meaning of the lyrics as I listen to a song.  But playing it forces me to follow the lyrics.  That being said, I still don’t know what the true meaning of this song is.  I suppose it could be googled, but i’m discouraged after trying to google what Peter Griffin was saying in the episode “PTV” when he was talking to his wife and getting airhorned every other word.

I had an absolutely wonderful day in school today.  I definitely lifted a huge weight off my shoulders.  Some of you know what i’m talking about.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of the youtube users who have left me some really positive and encouraging comments over the past month.  It’s really awesome when I tend to get more positive comments than dumb troll comments.  The former seems to be on the upswing, and i’m very appreciative of that.  I can only hope my subscribers do find their way over here to read things like this about them.

Also, 120k views!  And this is my 139th session – 11 before the next landmark.

And…well, you know what my last line is.  It’s the same one from the past few posts.

“Glide” (Stone Temple Pilots Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Yes!  It’s me again two nights in a row!  I have the privilege of bringing you another previously covered band (yeah I know, it seems like it’s new to cover a band we’ve already covered, but hey).  And not only that, another cover of a song you may not have heard before (just like yesterday).  I hope you enjoyed “Mourning Train”, because it’s just another impressive hit that I am happy to bring to you.

Well today here’s another song I have always liked from another favorite band Stone Temple Pilots.  Despite their rocky past and continually shaky future, they remain a favorite band of mine.  I enjoy their catalog from the beginning to end.  However, their later material has always shone much more to me.  This is because they geared more towards a “bluesy” and guitar-driven sound, rather than the reliance on power chords of the typical 90’s alternative bands.  This made them stand out much more to me.

Tonight’s song is “Glide” from their album “No. 4”. Glide is a very unique song in that the chords are all based on the same root for all the verses.  Despite the countless inversions and add 9s in the guitar part.  Like a song I have covered earlier in the year (“Spies” by Coldplay), it’s a unique guitar part but I am happy I pulled it off (mostly) on video.

I really tried my best to relax and belt this song out.  Combine the guitar part commentary mentioned above with a huge jump in notes and the use of falsetto, and you see I picked a doozy to cover.  I decided to be a bit more forgiving of myself in the mistake department, so you may spot a couple of misfingerings here and there.  To me it does not detract from the flow or the overall feel of the song in any way.

I recorded this song in the same session as the previous cover, and I had also attempted to record another song for a future session, but after this song I was just plum out of energy.  That’s ok – you’ll still see that cover on Tuesday!

Be sure to come back for our regularly scheduled Jim Fusco acoustic cover, and then Chris Moore will make your Monday a bit less manic.  For me, i’m just gonna “glide” on upstairs to beat my wife in a game of Gin Rummy!

Until then…

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!

“Bastard” (Ben Folds Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Tonight’s session, Ben Folds’ “Bastard,” is the opening track to one of the most memorable albums in my collection. Songs For Silverman was released in 2005, a few years after I had really gotten into listening to albums. When I say “gotten into,” I mean that albums quickly became one of the few subjects that truly captured my attention and imagination as a high school senior. As I got into college, I quickly found a slew of new albums that I thought were incredible, ranging from the classics like Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde to new music from Paul McCartney and the Wallflowers. I will always look back at that period of my life and fondly recall how new it all felt.

By 2005, I unwittingly began to fall into the traps that I had scoffed others for, specifically those like the Dylan fans who booed him when he went electric. Was it different? Yes. But, was it amazing music? Absolutely! I couldn’t fathom how close-minded people could be to new music. Unfortunately, two albums that I disliked upon their release — the Wallflowers’ Rebel, Sweetheart and the aforementioned Ben Folds’ Songs For Silverman — I later went on to greatly respect. I had to ask myself, why didn’t I initially fall in love with them?

The answer to this question lies in expectations. I expected Songs For Silverman to be as dynamic a record as Rockin’ The Suburbs, his previous and debut solo release. I expected him to play all the instruments and sing all the harmonies. When I listened to the album, there was a consistent sound throughout each of the tracks. He used a bass player and a drummer to augment his piano. It simply wasn’t what I expected. And to top it off, magazines like Rolling Stone were praising it for being more mature and overall better than Rockin’ The Suburbs, an album that I absolutely loved.

It is for this reason that Songs for Silverman holds a special place on my CD rack — it is an album that I didn’t give a fair chance. Ever since this realization, I have tried to approach each new album for what it is — a new album. It may not be the same or even as good as previous work, but if I give it a chance, I might enjoy it or even find it to be better! I know how much Jim Fusco and my sister, Jaime, love the songs on this album — Jaime didn’t take this CD out of her car for weeks after its release — and I’m glad I finally came around.

Well, I hope this makes up for my lack of post on my “7 8 9” video three days ago; I was just so tired that I couldn’t think straight. And I felt that video spoke for itself; it was amazingly fun to record. With Jim there to add acoustic flairs and background vocals, we knocked it out in a couple takes. We would have recorded some more from our long duet list — about ten or fifteen at this point — but hunger (and the need for ant traps) set in…

I hope you enjoy “Bastard.” You’ll get to hear my embarrassing and mercifully rare falsetto. You’ll get to hear me flub a couple of words noticeable only to the Ben Folds fanatic. You’ll get to see me (most likely) create enemies because I’ve broken Ben Folds’ general no-guitars policy and recorded an acoustic cover song of this song.

See you next session!