Acoustic cover of “Not Fade Away,” a song written in 1957 by Buddy Holly and Norman Petty and covered by the Stones in 1964. I had the Rolling Stones’ version in my mind while I was covering it. I play my acoustic guitar and my G-tuned harmonica.
** EDITOR’S NOTE: **
For his second Guest Session, Federico has chosen one of the all-time great cover songs. After all, Buddy Holly may have written “Not Fade Away,” but the Rolling Stones took it to the next rock’n’roll level as their first single.
A few other artists and bands have covered it since, like Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen.
Although I enjoy the Rolling Stones version better, there really is an innocence to the Buddy Holly & the Crickets version from 1957. I’m listening to it as I type, and that guitar sound may be simple, but the Fifties band vibe is inimitable.
So thank you, Federico, for bringing your recording of this classic song to the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video blog!
Good evening, cover song music video fans. I’m coming at you this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a selection from a band that will be releasing a brand new studio album tomorrow. The band is Spoon, and the album coming out tomorrow is Transference. I’ve only heard the single “Written in Reverse,” but that one song was enough to capture my interest.
And I couldn’t be happier, since there is little that makes me as excited as having a reason to go to the music store on a Tuesday afternoon/evening.
So, to help bide my time until tomorrow, I learned and practiced a different Spoon song this weekend and finally recorded it earlier today. The song is “Jonathon Fisk” and it is from Spoon’s 2002 album Kill the Moonlight. I had this album recommended to me by a friend just after New Year’s Day, in anticipation of their upcoming new release. I listened to it a couple times, then put it aside. Out of nowhere last week, I had the urge to hear it again, and now I can’t get enough of it. Kill the Moonlight is quirky and upbeat and experimental — all the aspects of great alternative rock music that I love!
So, it is with great pleasure that I pass along “Jonathon Fisk” to you for your consideration. Apparently, the song was written about a bully that songwriter Britt Daniel had experience with in school. Later, according to Daniel, the real-life “Fisk” attended a significant number of the band’s shows.
Interesting how life turns out…
Speaking of the oddities of our modern lives, has anyone else seen Up in the Air? It was every bit as good as I hoped it would be, but what a downer! Let’s just say that one of the characters turns out to be a… Well, a big fat doo-doo head, for lack of a better euphemism. I literally sat through all of the credits just staring at the screen in disbelief. Really though, without saying too much, I would highly recommend this one, if for no other reason than the fact that George Clooney is awesome.
Some say that we have the same chin, which I take as the highest form of compliment. Go ahead, try not to stare dreamily at my chin while you’re watching my video tonight.
In unrelated news, I’m coming up on crunch time here, as the second marking period for my school ends tomorrow and midterms run until next Monday. What does this mean for me? Well, I have essentially a week to enter and finalize grades for all my classes. I’m currently in the middle of the pile I wanted to finish by this evening, so I naturally decided that I had plenty of time to kick back and watch a couple hours of television. Now that that’s over, it’s back to work for me.
Thankfully, I had this Laptop Session post to write, so I’ve been able to procrastinate just a little longer…
But, at long last, it’s back to gradin’ for me. I hope you enjoy tonight’s video and that you’ll come back soon for another week’s worth of new material at the greatest cover song music video blog on the web today.
For J.J. Cale / Eric Clapton chords and lyrics, CLICK HERE!
By Chris Moore:
Okay, so before I explain my song choice tonight, I have to briefly address the music video I just watched. I really do love music videos, and it seems a lost art. Interestingly enough, it seems that the MTV show “Total Request Live,” or TRL for short, both furthered the popularity of music videos… and led to their demise. I mean, what’s better than a show devoted to showing music videos? Oh, wait — TRL, not unlike commercial radio, ended up circulating only about ten popular videos on any given day. Oh yeah, and the show only aired clips of those ten music videos! What?! Who decided on this format? No wonder they finally took it off the air!
To be fair, I heard that the show had recently adopted a more progressive format, utilizing online resources to poll viewers, etc. But I stopped watching the show loooong before that.
Anyway, back to the music video I just watched. I was on Yahoo and saw a link to Coldplay’s new music video for “Life in Technicolor II” — it’s a great one! I was impressed with the overall progression of the video, as it documents a children’s puppet show that turns into an all-out rock’n roll concert that includes the puppet versions of Chris Martin and company playing their instruments, and Martin not only jumping around (hanging as though suspended in the air as he sings “Now my feet won’t touch the ground”) and crowd surfing. It ends with them being picked up, in true rock star style, by a helicopter that exits the room by smashing through a window. Which begs the question… how did it get in in the first place?
And this is wonderful…
…except for the fact that the Barenaked Ladies already did this! Certainly, Coldplay’s video is not a plagiarism of BnL’s music video for “Pollywog in a Bog” last year (I wonder if they even saw it), but it seems odd that they did a puppet show so soon after BnL. I guess that just goes to show how ahead of the curve they are. If you haven’t seen these videos, you should definitely go watch them. BOTH of them — it’ll be worth the six minutes of your life it will take! (Just search on YouTube for “Barenaked Ladies Pollywog” and “Coldplay puppets”). The BnL video is especially worthwhile, if only for the really cute animal puppets that look creepily similar to the respective band members. Such a fun and funny video!!
Okay, so back to my video for tonight…
Those of you who regularly frequent the blog will already know that my goal this year is to tie every “Chris Moore Monday” in somehow with the following New Music Tuesday. So, you may be wondering what a J.J. Cale song that is over four decades old has to do with new music… Well, J.J. Cale is releasing a new album tomorrow entitled Roll On, his first solo album since 2004. His most recent success was The Road to Escondido, an album recorded in 2006 in conjunction with Eric Clapton. This was certainly not their first interaction, as Cale wrote the songs “After Midnight” and “Cocaine,” both of which Clapton popularized. When I was growing up, my dad would often play his “Cream of Clapton” greatest hits, which included both of these songs.
Thus, it is my honor to bring you an old Cale track in honor of his new release, which (again) comes out tomorrow. This song may have been written in 1966, but he’s still writing and recording in 2009 at the age of 70, and that is nothing short of amazing!
Don’t forget to rush back tomorrow for an all new Jim Fusco Tuesday…
My cover of “Into the Great Wide Open” by Tom Petty. I play the main verse pretty much the way Petty does, as far as I can hear. I’ve re-arranged the chorus section a bit to try to closer mimic the multiple instrumental layers you hear on the album.
** EDITOR’S NOTE **
The title track to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ 1991 album of the same name, “Into the Great Wide Open” may not have topped the charts, but is an excellent song that deserves appreciation. Even though it fell a full sixty-four slots shy of its predecessor “Learning to Fly,” Petty did manage to produce an outstanding music video for this song. And it even starred a young Johnny Depp as Eddie Rebel with supporting roles by Chynna Phillips (of Wilson Phillips), and Matt LeBlanc (of Friends fame).
They truly don’t make music videos like this anymore, so if you haven’t seen it, you should really take the time to do so. Go ahead, that’s what YouTube is for, right?
What makes “Into the Great Wide Open” such an excellent candidate for an acoustic cover? Well, there’s the catchy, powerful acoustic strumming before the chorus, never mind the fact that this is certainly a song that comes across well when played with a minimal arrangement.
As per usual, Jeremy has demonstrated great taste and considerable ability in his performance of this Tom Petty classic. I had forgotten how much I love this song and this album, and I’ve already watched Jeremy’s video several times over the past few days, enjoying this stripped down rendition. On behalf of the Laptop Sessions, I thank Jeremy for yet another wonderful video. Here’s to many more in 2010!
