Tag Archives: cover song

“The Last DJ” (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening to you, and welcome to your Saturday edition of The Laptop Sessions!  Tonight we (finally) return to our regularly scheduled…well, schedule…and we are now posting on nights we were originally scheduled to post.

That being said, sorry, no new band tonight.

Instead, it’s one we haven’t covered in some time – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers!  From their 2002 album “The Last DJ” is the title track from that album.  I first heard this particular song via (who else) Jim, and I have always been a fan of Tom Petty’s work thanks to my brother.  This is the 3rd song I have covered from this band.

Oddly enough, I think it’s a great cover, and I think the other two are good as well.  It’s a great song to cover on acoustic since the driving track is acoustic on the song.  You have to love the chorus and the message of the song as well.

I think the higher quality I get on my new laptop has been tremendous during the past 3 months, though.  If you view the videos through Youtube, you will see the “watch in higher quality” button and that will make it sound even better!

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!

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“Can’t You See” (Marshall Tucker Band Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

I got into this song for a couple of reasons.  My father always liked this song, but one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Hill, enjoyed this tune, as well.  I am happy to bring this song to the Laptop Sessions cover song video series tonight because it’s become one of those favorites that conjures up an, “Oh, man, turn it UP!”

I’m pinch-hitting for Jeff today and Chris will be taking my place tomorrow. Sounds confusing, eh? Well, it all means that I’ll be back for the start of my Original Wednesday week on Sunday and Jeff will have to do Friday and Saturday himself. Actually, he’ll probably be doing an Original Friday instead!

“Can’t You See” by the Marshall Tucker Band is, in my opinion, one of the greatest three-chord songs ever written. I’m almost embarrassed to play such a simple song here on The Laptop Sessions, because songs I normally play require hours and hours of learning and practice. This song was a two-take job, however, because I hadn’t quite thought-out the ending where the backgrounds keep singing, “Can’t You See” and the lead sings the first verse over again. I got flustered on the first take of this cover video and flubbed the first verse. I think it came out, “Gonna take a freight train, all the way to Georgia now, don’t care where it goes.” Hmmm, I have an idea- maybe….Georgia!!! 🙂 So, that take was ruined.

The song I’ll be posting for you next is also a three chord song, essentially, so I guess I got off easy this week. But, this adds yet ANOTHER new band to the Laptop Sessions cover and original song series, so I hope the trend continues. That is, if Chris doesn’t have anymore meetings that force us to delve deeper into the Bob Dylan back-catalog. You know, I was just thinking- I haven’t done a Beach Boys song in a long while. I have a few ready to record, but I just have so many other songs that I want to explore that it seems like a cop-out to record another Beach Boys song. Well, that’s the thing about the Laptop Sessions: as a musician who does all of these acoustic cover videos, I have to make a decision between doing songs that I love and songs that will help us get more eyes on the website. Thankfully Chris and Jeff take some of the newer bands, as I’m trying to round-up every last band from the 60s and 70s I can.

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“Behind Blue Eyes” (The Who Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Isn’t it about time?  Tonight, I bring you- finally- a cover song of The Who, one of the world’s greatest all-time rock bands.  This band defines the term “classic rock” and even though they’re only down to two members left in the band, they’re still rocking and making music today.

In our quest to cover every great band of all time, it pains me to think of some of the ones we still haven’t done yet.  Can you believe we haven’t done Creedence Clearwater Revival or the Marshall Tucker Band yet, either?  I hope Chris and Jeff will hop on the bandwagon and help me with some of these famous bands we haven’t done yet, including Simon and Garfunkel, the Rolling Stones, and Queen.  I, of course, always have a few tricks up my sleeve…53 at last count, that is…

Onto tonight’s Laptop Session cover song video.  The Who are an electric band for the most part, with roots from their “garage” band days in the mid-60s.  Everyone, I think, kind of thinks of them as a 70s band, and maybe that’s why they’ve maintained their “cool” stature (kids today don’t feel nerdy walking around with a Who t-shirt on, but you NEVER see someone with, say, a Bobby Darin t-shirt on!).  But, you can’t forget about their earlier songs, before the concept albums and the rock operas.  I do respect them for that, but I wish the other band members did more than just write lyrics and an occasional song (“Boris the Spider”, anyone?).

“Behind Blue Eyes” was a perfect choice because it combines a soft acoustic part with a rocking section that translated well on Chris’ steel-string acoustic guitar.  Sorry, the Italian nylon-string guitar had to take a break tonight!  The only problem with doing this cover song video was the fact that I practiced it first, making the softer parts MUCH harder to sing.  You see, while singing, you have two modes: the sweet mode and the rock-out mode.  This song has both, but once you rock out, it’s hard to revert back to the sweet singing style.  I think I made it by just fine, as I just played the guitar a bit softer to balance out the lack of power in my voice in those sections, ESPECIALLY after my throat-grinding middle section.  This video may be even more rocking and voice-ruining than my video for Billy Joel’s “You May Be Right”!  Click here to view the video and make the judgement for yourself!

Lastly, I’m glad that I recorded this cover song music video after I’d recorded two more, because there was no way I was singing anything after THAT vocal performance!  I’ve been practicing these songs for a couple of MONTHS now and making sure they’re perfect.  Especially when I introduce a new band to the Laptop Sessions acoustic rock cover songs series, I want to make sure that I’m going to please all the new fans of that band we’re going to usher in.  So, I think my full-hearted performance of The Who’s “Behind Blue Eyes” should satisfy fans and have them coming back to the Laptop Sessions music video series for more!  Enjoy!

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“A Rush of Blood to the Head” (Coldplay Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening!  Welcome to your Friday edition of The Laptop Sessions, and to make up for the short (but thumpin’) song yesterday, I have a song that is more than double the length of yesterday’s song.  And it’s from a familiar band that I have enjoyed covering a lot.

Coldplay returns tonight with the title track of their album “A Rush of Blood to the Head”.  This album has a lot of songs similar to this – a soft, mellow acoustic style with interjections of drive guitars and distorted solos.  This is probably the longest song by them that doesn’t involve some of Chris Martin’s trademark falsetto (with exception of the opening, but that part isn’t all that difficult).

It was fun covering this song.  It is based on acoustic, so covering it was easy.  I nearly had it in one take but I played the Bb chord in the chorus too soon.  So on take #2, I was happy with it.  The timing of some of the verse lines and post-chorus lines are different than the studio recording, but this cover version works just fine with that.

I hope you enjoy today’s cover.

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!

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!

More Laptop Sessions covers