“What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” (REM Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening to you!  I just had a wonderful run of Dynamis, then realized “Oh yeah, I am fresh out of videos for today!”  Thankfully, I had one ready to play and record, and you are in the right place to listen to it!

The song I have selected for today is by one of my favorite bands from my entire life, REM.  This song “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” was a single from their album “Monster”, which is home to some of my favorite REM songs.  The album itself has a wide range of sound, but a common element is the “fuzz” guitar sound that seems constant in nearly every track.  This song is not an exception to that trend, but naturally here at guitarbucketlist.com, we give you acoustic guitar and an in-tune voice to go along with it!

There’s been some debate to the last line of the song.  Most places i’ve read lyrics to the song say the last line is “I’ve never understood, don’t f*** with me, uh-huh”.  However, the radio play version I have heard countless times does not alter this last line that is in the CD version.  It leads me to believe the last line does not include the f word.  However, I still can’t figure out what it is.  So you will notice a change in the last line which does not change the meaning of the line at all.

This is also unique because the song has no acoustic guitar track, so hearing this played back is quite unique to me as well.

I hope you enjoy this latest installment, and I know you’ll be back tomorrow for our favorite day of the week, as Jim dips into his library of original goodies for a great session installment.  I’ll be here to watch it, and I know you will be as well!

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!

“Lady Picture Show” (Stone Temple Pilots Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening to you. I hope you had a great and fulfilling weekend, and that you are starting off your week right by visiting us here at https://guitarbucketlist.com/!

Back to normal here, I bring you another song by Stone Temple Pilots, bringing the total of STP songs we have covered for the sessions to 5. This will be the first cover from STP’s third album “Tiny Music Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop”. We’ve had long song titles before, but not long album titles. I look forward to hearing some even longer titles.

Well anyway, tonight’s session is a single from the album called “Lady Picture Show”. Always a favorite of mine. I always thought this song and album were underrated. The track selection is unique and unlike anything from their library, and produced two of their best singles “Big Bang Baby” and “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart” (speaking of long song titles…).

This song translates well as an acoustic cover. My voice was a bit tired from baseball this weekend though (a whole lot of called strike 3’s can be tough on the vocal cords). I also said one wrong word in the final verse. It should be “she hides behind the bedroom door”, but I said “she hides behind the bedroom wall” instead.

I hope you enjoyed “Title Track” week, and if you found our series as a result of our article in the Record Journal today, we welcome you and hope you enjoy our series so much that you come back every day.

Also, as a side note, I crossed 15K views on Friday night, and this video marks my 60th Laptop Session! Don’t worry – there are plenty of acoustic cover videos to come from Chris, Jim, and myself!

Stay tuned for Jim’s latest and greatest session tomorrow. Have a great day!

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!

“No One Else” (Weezer Cover)

By Chris Moore:

It’s hard to believe “new bands week” is almost over! It’s been a lot of fun — hopefully we’ll do it again soon before we run out of new bands!

My song for today, “No One Else,” is from my second favorite Weezer album, their self-titled debut known among fans as “The Blue Album.” For some reason, I had a hard time getting into the album when I first heard it. When I listened again about a year later, I really fell in love with its sound and energy. It’s about as close to garage rock as my preferences go… I felt this song translated easily into an acoustic version, and it was fun to learn a song from a band I have never covered before!

Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for the seventh day of “new bands week” — Jeff’s up again. And, of course, don’t forget to check back here on Sunday when he releases his new album Greenlight!

“Only Happy When it Rains” (Garbage Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

You know me – i’m not one to decline a challenge.  When I read Jim’s Thursday post that he was covering a female artist, and echoed by Chris, who followed up Jim’s post with an extremely….scary cover (how appropriate – I don’t think i’ve been put on a holiday yet).

Well, here you go.  Jeff’s covering a band with a female lead singer.

And yes, I admit i’m not as attractive as Shirley Manson.

But nonetheless, I present a song from her band Garbage.  The song is “Only Happy When It Rains”, which was a popular song from their debut self-titled album.  I always did enjoy the songs from this band, and I also enjoyed the fact that Butch Vig was their drummer (and the producer of the quintessential alternative rock album Nevermind by Nirvana).  They had catchy riffs, good vocals, and Shirley is quite impressive in the singing department.

I didn’t have to raise my normal voice pitch all that much, given Shirley’s tendency to sing in the low range.  Because of this, I didn’t need to use falsetto.  I think I did a good job of this.  I threw a capo on the guitar to make playing it a lot easier, since the singing part was going to be somewhat challenging.

This goes to show – we aren’t afraid of the female-lead bands!  Perhaps I’ll throw in a Fleetwood Mac song in the near future…

Tomorrow Jim will entertain us with his Super Sunday edition.  I’ll be back to check it out, and i’m sure you will be too!

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!