Tag Archives: best cover songs

“Mama Said” (Metallica Cover)

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By Jeff:

Yep, welcome to Thumpin’ Thursday, which is a day where many firsts happen.  This week it’s a first from a band you wouldn’t think makes music that would be fitting for an acoustic cover.

Well, even they have to record an acoustic one here and there.

However, I refuse to stoop to their commercially successful song “Nothing Else Matters” partly because I don’t think it’s as good of an acoustic song as the one today, but also because I’m really focusing on covering the tunes that I enjoy the most.

So with that said, here’s a 12 year old song called “Mama Said” from their 1996 album “Load”.  This album was received to mixed reviews for multiple reasons.  Firstly, the music tended to lean more towards the alternative movement that was still exploding in the mid-90s.  Secondly, the album was a style change from the traditional “everything in E-minor” key that was common in their previous albums.  Thirdly, they all cut their hair and posed in some weird outfits for the album photo shoot.  While the third one doesn’t have anything to do with the music, the die hard fans enjoyed watching them sway their hair around stage as they pumped out their music.

This song is one of James Hetfield’s recurring themes when he write lyrics – his mother.  While I can’t recall every one of their songs that deals with this, it is quite numerous.  The tune is a bit of a sad one if you pay attention to the lyrics.

I also continue to focus on getting the sound to work out on the condenser mic on my camera.  I just don’t have the time to invest on anything better for recording the videos.  I’ll have to work with what I have.  Currently i’m focusing on aiming the sound hole from the guitar at the microphone to amplify the quality of the guitar.  However, in this video it does seem to be a bit much.  If you have suggestions, i’ll be happy to entertain them (short of buying new equipment).

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!

“Slide” (Goo Goo Dolls Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

What’s happening world?  It’s Jeff Copperthite here with the latest installment of The Laptop Sessions.  After two incredible showings by Chris and Jim, I can only hope that today’s video comes close to the quality that is on theirs.

I am happy to bring another new band to the sessions, and it is a band I have been a long time fan of.  I’m more surprised that it has taken me this long to dig up a song i’d like to cover by them.  The band is The Goo Goo Dolls – a band that has been around for over 20 years and has released multiple albums.   It took their 5th album to gain a significant following, upon the release of the song “Name”.

Well, i’m not doing “Name”, but I am doing one of their other popular songs – hey, it’s only one more character too – called “Slide” from their album “Dizzy Up The Girl”.  While seemlingly simple to play, getting the strum pattern and the arpeggiated intro/middle down was tough.

I hope you enjoy the new original album scrolling image on top of the page – be sure to check out our material as all three of us are very proud of our work, and we hope you agree!

Be sure to come tomorrow to see another terrific original tune performed by our very own Jim Fusco.  I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us all.

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!

“Words” (Acoustic Original Song by Songwriter Chris Moore)

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By Chris Moore:

Welcome to my all-new edition of Original Wednesday here at the Laptop Sessions. This week, I have chosen “Words,” a song I’ve recorded twice over the years — once for my album Looking For You (I recorded the title track for my last Original Wednesday video blog) and again on the Chris, Jim, & Becky debut album Live in the Studio. After recording a new cover song music video every three days, it’s always a lot of fun to turn to my own catalog of songs and revisit songs I haven’t played in years or ones I play all the time on my own. That’s the concept behind the Original Wednesday tradition — allow the members of Fusco-Moore Productions to showcase our pride and joy, our own music.

“Words” inspired the early sketches for a script and some unscripted scenes filmed while Jim and I were on vacation in Massachusetts. The basic premise of the movie was two characters on a journey who disagree on the essential question, what is a more important/effective form of communication — music and sound or words and written forms? For those who know me, it won’t come as a surprise that my character (the Eli mentioned in this song) believes in the power of words to express that which we as humans are simply unable to communicate to each other. Jim’s character (named Brian, if my memory serves me well…) believed less in the ability of mere words to convey the complex emotions we have. Nothing ever or probably ever will come of it, but it was great fun to revisit the song and the concepts.

I’ve written very little about Eli as a character — really only these lyrics — but I’ve always liked him. I hope you do too! As a songwriter, I always wished I could have written more into the song or additional songs, but I think this says enough on its own.

Well, I hope you enjoy this one. If it doesn’t whet your appetite, then don’t forget to rush back tomorrow for Jeff’s all-new Laptop Session as session-a-day rolls on for all 366 days of the year 2008…

See you next session!

 



Best Covers of 2012: A Weekend Review Special Edition

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By Chris Moore:

The BEST COVER SONGS of 2012

 

As I have previously written about, covers are typically of little interest to me (which is, of course, ironic when considering the large number I have played over the years).  Of course, I typically end up hearing a few that stand out, and this year, they were almost all on the Amnesty International charity album Chimes of Freedom.  Sadly, though the compilation included over seventy songs from a vast range of artists, there were only a handful worthy of recognition.  My favorite cover song of the year, however, is the one unearthed on the soundtrack to the Martin Scorcese documentary based on George Harrison’s life: it is Harrison’s cover of his friend Bob Dylan’s song “Mama You’ve Been On My Mind.”  It is a stripped down, acoustic cover, but it is brilliant and the beauty radiates warmly from this simple yet nuanced performance.

 

1)  “Mama You’ve Been On My Mind” – George Harrison

2)  “One Too Many Mornings” – Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and the Avett Brothers

3)  “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” – Brett Dennen

4)  “Mr. Tambourine Man” – Jack’s Mannequin

5)  “Ring Them Bells” – Natasha Bedingfield

 

Honorable Mention:

“Ballad of Hollis Brown” – Rise Against