“With or Without You” (U2 Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to what feels like “just another manic monday” (damnit, I just had to quote the Bangles – shoot me now).  One of the busiest days of my…entire…existence.  And I still found the time to bring a session to you today.  Session-a-day must roll forth.  Getting right there to the end of 2008 will see the release of 365 videos between four performers.  Simply amazing that we are nearing the end of the year.

Ok, away from that, today’s session.  I have to admit, this is a song i’ve known how to play for a long time, and i’ve kept it in store for a day like today where practice time was small at best.  A hit by U2 from their album “The Joshua Tree” is the song “With or Without You”.  This song, similar to a previous session by Tom Petty “Learning to Fly”, features a repeated four-chord pattern that plays through the entire song.  Again, however, the original song is not based on an acoustic guitar so again, making it a Laptop Session is really interesting.

I did a decent job singing this one, but did mistime one word, and one chord slightly.  Since I imagine many youtube viewers don’t read the entire description, i’m sure i’ll have to filter out some comments in the near future about those very small mistakes.

Anyway, enjoy today’s session, and make sure you’re here tomorrow for 100KJim’s newest session!

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: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.

“With A Little Help From My Friends” (Beatles Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good afternoon to you! Welcome to your Tuesday edition of the Laptop Sessions, where we are getting more known each day, especially for our Beatles cover songs.

I bring you a song that has been covered many, many times (did I mention many?). It’s from the Beatles and the classic album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (also a favorite of my music teacher from high school). “With A Little Help From My Friends” is among their most well-known songs, and is also one that Scott & I covered frequently in our jam sessions. However, I usually played the bass to it.

I think I did a good job on this performance, although I sang the backup vocal part at the end, rather than the high note. Other than that this version came out quite well.

Check back tomorrow where Jim will be performing an original song. Have a great rest of the 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!

Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.

“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!

Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.

“Misunderstandings” (Indie Music – Acoustic Rock!)

By Chris Moore:

Hi, and welcome back to another all-new edition of “Original Wednesday” here at guitarbucketlist.com! This is a song from Jim’s My Other Half album — a double CD release that highlighted some of his earliest guitar work. Of course, I’ve swapped out his guitar solo here for a rip-roarin’ harmonica solo! 🙂

I’ve always enjoyed playing this song, and I wanted to share it with you.

[WARNING: shameless plug in 3, 2, 1…]

And, if you’re interested in hearing the fully-produced studio version of this song or buying other Jim Fusco albums, you can go to the F-M store at www.fusco-moore.com/store! This is also where our free MP3 downloads of the Laptop Sessions will be available in a few weeks.

As always, thanks for listening! Jeff will be back tomorrow with another all-new, non-“original” Laptop Session!



Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.