Tag Archives: guest sessions

“She Belongs to Me” (Bob Dylan Cover)

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We’re looking for more Guest Sessions submissions! So, sit down, pull up your acoustic guitar and camera, post the video on YouTube, and CLICK HERE!

As I always say, it’s never too soon for another Bob Dylan cover video!  Personally, I’ve attempted to restrain myself from recording a comfortable, enjoyable Dylan cover this year.  However, tonight’s installment of the Guest Sessions is a Dylan cover song music video with an interesting twist.

First of all, this is a song from Dylan’s 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home.  This is perhaps one of his best albums, and it was a transition point for him, half of the album being full band renditions and the other half being classic acoustic-only compositions.  (For his next album, Highway 61 Revisited, he would dive deeply into the world of electric rock…)

So far, I’ve recorded two covers from this album — “Subterranean Homesick Blues” for the members-only area of the site and “Love Minus Zero/No Limit.”  No one here has yet dared to take on the more noteworthy songs, such as “It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)” or the song that the Byrds launched to chart success, “Mr. Tambourine Man.”  This being said, I was truly impressed with the apparent ease with which Stan Denski, our guest tonight, played “She Belongs to Me.”  Granted, this is a fairly straightforward song, but he changed the tuning and plays in an interesting fashion.  His version is true to the original, yet very much his own and sung well.

Thank you, Stan, for sending this very entertaining video!

I’ll let him introduce the video — Stan writes,

This is a cover of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs To Me.”  It is played on an old Guild 12-string tuned to an open D and played by barring chords from the top of the neck which allows the highest strings to ring open and create diminished chords.  It also uses a lot of harmonics struck at the 12th fret.

I was showing a friend how to play this version and he videotaped it and, later, stuck it up on YouTube.

Stan Denski, Indianapolis

“Turn To Stone” (Electric Light Orchestra – ELO Cover)

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The Guest Sessions tonight comes at you with a great ELO tune written by the one and only Jeff Lynne.  “Turn To Stone” is an ambitious tune and definitely one that’s hard to capture just using an acoustic guitar.  But, my friends, Mr. Les Groby has done it here with this acoustic cover song music video.  His sweet singing voice and solid playing have made this just the second ever Guest Session here on the Laptop Sessions music video blog!

Here’s what Les had to say about his submission:

“I love finding good songs hiding under complex arrangement and production. Solo performers rarely cover ELO, but under their lavish recordings are some good, simple songs that work well solo.”

And isn’t that the the essence of the Laptop Sessions right there?  I tell you, Jim’s videos with the most views are the ones where he took a very lavish song and turned it into an acoustic solo performance.  And that’s what Les has done here with this fine cover song.  We hope that you’ll continue sending in your submissions, as a new video will be featured once a week here on the best music video blog ever created- the Laptop Sessions!  Congratulations Les!



Chris reaches the 80,000 YouTube views milestone!

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By Chris Moore:

Well, it’s been a slow climb uphill, especially considering that I’ve seen many individual cover songs (not unlike my own) that are individually at tens of thousands of views.  That being said, every notch in the belt towards 100,000 is reason for excitement.

So, I took a break from getting dressed and ready for work to report that I have officially reached 80,000 YouTube views!

Every time I hit one of these increments, I get even more determined to see six digits.  So, even though the session-a-day project is over, I’ll just have to find new and different ways to make fewer videos get more views.  Maybe I can start by posting fewer of my favorite songs that are completely unknown to the YouTube community as a whole.  I have to admit that I understand the balance that needs to be struck, but I just love the feeling of accomplishment I get when I record the songs that I truly love.  And I honestly thought that some of my long shots, such as Wilco’s “Wishful Thinking” or even Big Star’s “Thirteen” might pick up some attention from the indie music crowd on YouTube.

Some of the videos that I have recorded recently — covers of Bob Dylan, the Barenaked Ladies, and the Beatles, for instance — have become fairly popular videos, at least for me.  However, many of my other videos are getting fewer views than my average even, say, six months ago.  Some videos — like the Wilco ones — pick up steam after a while, but many others — like Leonard Cohen, the Fruit Bats, and, of course, Big Star — just stagnate.  I like what Jeff has done, cornering the Laptop Sessions market on recording songs that were popular in the 90s but that are not necessarily from popular bands.  As Jim pointed out the other day, Jeff and I seem to be the 90s and 2000s wonder boys.  I guess I’m more of the 90s and 2000s kid with a lot of obscure records in his collection… 🙂

Regardless, I hadn’t intended to write a “State of the Tube” address for myself, but there it is!  I hope you enjoy Jeff’s Thumpin’ Thursday post tonight, stop back for another all-new guest session on Friday, and then I’ll see you back here on Monday!