Tag Archives: laptop sessions

“Whatever I Fear” (Toad the Wet Sprocket Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to Sunday’s edition of the Laptop Sessions, and I am VERY excited about this upcoming week. A lot will be happening over the course of the next 7 days, but in all of it we will continue to provide you with a new session every day, and as we roll onto the week all of our sessions will be from bands each of us have never did a session for.

Our first entry to this mini series is a song from a little known band named “Toad the Wet Sprocket”. The band is known for singles such as “Fall Down”, which still may make an appearance in future sessions. But for now, I will do a song from their last album before their breakup “Coil”, the song “Whatever I Fear”.

This song is the album opener, and the album itself is full of introspective melodies, including this one. If you have a chance to listen to it you’ll find a few songs on it that really stand out. The singles that were released didn’t chart except for the song “Come Down”, and the album is probably the least known of theirs.

Regardless, I bring to you “Whatever I Fear”.

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!

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“If You Could Read My Mind” (Gordon Lightfoot Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to yet another all-new edition of everyone’s favorite acoustic cover song music blog! Today, I’m bringing you a song taken from Jim’s list of songs to record. He’s noticed that I’ve been having a hard time recently finding songs from new artists to cover — most of the songs I want (and I have quite the list) are either from artists I’ve recently covered or have difficult singing parts that I need more practice with. So, he suggested I do Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind.” I have always loved this song, and my passion for it was renewed when I picked up a copy of Gene Clark’s album Firebyrd. The album includes a cover song version of this song that I love every bit as much as the original. So, in a way, this is the perfect track to choose for a Laptop Session — a song by a new artist that was once covered by an artist whose material we have often covered on this video blog. If that made sense to you, then you deserve extra points!…

Regular fans of the Sessions may notice that I’m standing up tonight instead of sitting, as I have been for many of my recent video blog entries. Well, the reason is simple — even though this is not an upbeat song, I felt that I just wasn’t doing well with it while sitting. I’m kind of like Robert Redford’s character in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid in that way. In the film, Sundance (played by Redford) is asked to shoot a target in order to prove how good a shot he is. The man insists that he not draw from his holster; rather, he should simply take aim and shoot. He does so and misses. The man grins disappointedly and starts to walk away. Then, Sundance puts the gun back in his holster, draws, and rapidly shoots the rather small target repeatedly.

When the man looks at him, awe-struck, Sundance’s response is something like, “I’m better when I’m moving.”

While recording acoustic cover songs is obviously not anything like firing a weapon, I do often think about this comparison when I’m playing. When I’m on my feet, I tend to take what I’m playing more seriously and I truly feel more comfortable than if I were to sit and play.

Well, now that you have more information about my style of playing acoustic guitar music than you could ever have hoped for or desired to know, I’ll leave you with the actual session. I kind of wore myself down on this one, playing so many takes that, although it is technically solid, I feel that it lost some of the urgency of the earlier takes. Of course, it didn’t help that my computer lost battery power and shut down in the middle of my most perfect take. If only it had held out for two more minutes, I would have been done a half hour earlier than I was!

Okay, without further ado, here’s my version of Gordon Lightfoot’s “If You Could Read My Mind.”

See you next session!



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“Odds and Ends” (Bob Dylan Cover)

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For Bob Dylan chords / tabs / lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

Well, it may not have been recorded in my basement with an as-yet-unknown Canadian rock band, but this is the best version of “Odds and Ends” you’re going to get out of me!  I’ve always loved this song.  It sets the tone nicely for the 23 songs that follow.  Indeed, “Odds and Ends” encapsulates the spirit of The Basement Tapes: often absurd lyrics sung over raw yet warm instrumental tracks.  For Dylan, this set of songs signified his retreat from the “wild, mercury sound” of Blonde on Blonde and the wild world tour of 1966.  At the same time, you can listen as the Band begins to really gel and find their collective voice.

The primary reason I chose this song tonight — one of two that I will post tonight — is in honor of Dylan’s brand-new album being released tomorrow.  It is titled Together Through Life, and I’ve already recorded a Laptop Session of the lead track, “Beyond Here Lies Nothin.’”  There is at least one other song that’s been leaked online, but I’d rather save the other nine tracks for my first listen to the album as a whole.

Instead, I’ve gone back to this 1975 release of these 1968 recordings.

Why choose The Basement Tapes to cover now?

The answer, quite simply, is that I was too busy with other videos and writing to be able to record these songs a couple weeks ago when several Dylan albums — The Basement Tapes, New Morning, Dylan and the Dead — were reissued in digipack format.  I saw them in the stores, and although I really don’t see why anyone who already owns these albums would want to buy the updated versions (aside from sound quality, of course), I can’t help but feel it necessary to celebrate any and all attention that Dylan’s back catalog is given.

It hasn’t been all that long since I would scan the CD racks at stores like Sam Goody, FYE, Best Buy, Borders, and a host of others, looking for Dylan albums to complete my collection.  For a while, I would buy two at a time in an attempt to satiate my thirst for new Dylan material.  Although I don’t feel that same urgency for Dylan’s releases when I walk into a CD store, I have lost none of my passion and respect for his music.

As Jim knows and is probably already thinking (and he’s right), I’ll jump at any excuse to record a Dylan song!!

Okay, that’s it for the first post.

See you next session!

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“Lady (Fallin’ In Love)” (The Beach Boys Cover)

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By Jim Fusco

Welcome to another edition of the Laptop Sessions with Jim Fusco!  It’s been a long time since my last video blog post.  Before my new season of cover song videos begins, I decided to post a few leftover cover songs that I recorded a few months ago.  I guess I never got around to posting them!  Life can get busy…

Now that school is starting up again (my wife is a teacher, so she’s really busy 10 months out of the year)I should have a bit more time to focus on my musical endeavors.  I’m excited to bring The Laptop Sessions Acoustic Cover Songs Music Video Blog to new heights this year!  I just signed an agreement to promote my existing cover songs and I hope that these efforts will allow me to expand the website even further.

Tonight, I bring you an obscure song from The Beach Boys.  Well, it’s not really The Beach Boys- this is a Dennis Wilson solo project put under the Beach Boys’ name.  In the early 70s, Dennis Wilson was creating music at a very fast pace.  “Sunflower”, one of the Beach Boys’ best albums, shows a large contribution from Dennis.  In my opinion, his songwriting was second to only Brian Wilson in the band and after Brian slipped away from participating in the band, Dennis filled the void the best.  I think there was a time when the band decided to push Dennis as the front man of the band.  But, Dennis’ songs didn’t catch on commercially and eventually, they went back to the Brian Wilson formula once again (before he was ready, but that’s a whole different story).  Honestly, I’m not sure if the move away from Dennis as the face of the Beach Boys was due to his songs not receiving critical acclaim, or because of Dennis’ lifestyle.  Like Brian, it’s been said that Dennis had a hard time seeing projects through to the end.  Even though he was prolific during this period, I have a feeling he would get bored with projects very quickly and either not finish them or simply get them done and move on.

“Lady (Fallin’ In Love)” is an interesting song.  Dennis had a great way of taking a simple sounding song and making it lush and beautiful.  “Lady” isn’t the hardest song to play or sing, but the string orchestration (most likely done by Daryl Dragon of Captain & Tennille fame) is breathtaking.  That’s one of the reasons, though, that I wanted to do a solo acoustic cover version of “Lady”.  I wanted to show people what the song would sound like in it’s bare-bones form.  I think it’s still a really moving song.

Dennis’ voice on the original recording is so nice- it’s such a shame that he let it deteriorate so much.  I can only imagine the songs he could’ve come out with if he didn’t allow his personal demons to overtake him.

“Lady (Fallin’ In Love)” was actually the flip side of a solo Dennis Wilson single, which is fascinating to me.  “The Sound of Free” was the A-side.  Of course, the single didn’t go anywhere, but up to that point, only Brian had released a solo single in “Caroline, No” four years earlier.  I’m glad the Beach Boys and Capitol Records finally got it together to release “Lady” on their Summer Love Songs compilation.  This song deserved a new audience.

Enjoy tonight’s Dennis Wilson/Beach Boys cover song music video here on the Laptop Sessions video blog!

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