Hello and welcome to your weekend edition of the best video blog in the world! And we’re humble, too!
Seriously, though, we’ve really been putting a lot of effort into this acoustic cover song music blog — practicing and recording acoustic rock covers, writing detailed and interesting blog posts and articles, adding photos to our posts, and so much more. Next year, after the “session-a-day” project is completed, we have so many ideas for expansion that you’ll just have to check back regularly to experience them all. I can’t say too much for now, but you’ll have to trust me that music fans and even fans of other things will not be disappointed!
And now, to be anything but serious, I bring you Loudon Wainwright III’s most famous song, “Dead Skunk.” My father used to play this for me from a seventies acoustic rock tape that he had. It was always a lot of fun, and I still remember not quite believing that “Dead Skunk” was a real song when he sang the chorus to me before I had heard the studio version.
I’ve heard that Wainwright is somewhat bitter about the fact that this song found so much success — and I can’t say I really blame him; it’s quite the legacy! But this is not the only case of this; just think of the fact that Warren Zevon, with his amazing range of work, will probably only be remembered for “Werewolves of London.” Still, success is success.
Okay, that’s it for now, but make sure to hurry back (as Zevon would sing, “Hurry home early, hurry on home…”) — if you’ve made Laptop Sessions your home, then Jeff Copperthite won’t disappoint with his latest music videos…
See you next session!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
Greetings from the other side of the midnight chimes — this is your latest (and late) Laptop Session! Tonight, I bring you a new band to the sessions… Snow Patrol. Specifically, this is “Run,” the seventh track of their 2003 album Final Straw. This album was first recommended to me by then-fellow Staples Copy Center employee John Fortin, after he heard the Chris, Jim, and Becky album Live in the Studio. He said, based on our album, he thought I might enjoy the band.
At first, I liked the album, but I wasn’t crazy about it. It became one of those albums you go back to every so often, and over time, I grew to like it more and more. Recently, as I went back to both this album and their subsequent one, Eyes Open, I fell in love with the songs of Final Straw. The next album is solid, but lacks the hooks and flairs — really, the strength of individual tracks that are great and stand on their own — of the 2003 release.
My sister has also become a fan of Snow Patrol, so I hope that she gets a chance to read this post and check out the video. Jaime and I have fairly divergent tastes in music, but we have found much more overlap in the past few years — we can especially agree on the awesome-ness of Ben Folds and Elliott Smith! We actually both had a similar reaction to the new Snow Patrol single, “Take Back the City.” Specifically, we were hesitant about the new album based on the strength of this track. I can’t speak for her, but I know that — for me — the song seemed a bit forced at first, as if they were trying to make a hit single that could climb the charts as well as their last big hit, “Chasing Cars,” did. Really, though, what was most off-putting to me was what I initially interpreted as being a line — “God knows you’ve put your life into it tons.” Tons? Really? Is this the poetry I’m rushing to the store to purchase?
Well, those of you who know me will check this off on the list of times that I misinterpret something due to an accent. (Stories for another time…) The line is really “God knows you’ve put your life into its hands.” Lead singer Gary Lightbody’s Irish accent through me off. And, while I’m in a confessional mode, can I also admit that one of the factors that has always prevented me from entirely liking the band was the way Lightbody sings? Yes, it’s true… It took me until a few weeks ago to research and discover that they’re an Irish band. How I didn’t figure that out before is beyond me! But, now that I know, I’ve been going through a Snow Patrol renaissance of sorts.
Their 2008 release, A Hundred Million Suns, is — in my opinion — their best work since Final Straw. I was hesitant to buy it at first, based on their 2006 album and the aforementioned single. But, I’m really glad I did buy it. The opening track “If There’s a Rocket Tie Me to It” is one of my favorite track ones in a long time. Track two, “Crack the Shutters,” is one of my favorite songs on the album and would have been my choice for a single (To date, it has reached #9 on the iTunes alternative rock charts!). Then, track three is the single. Track four, “Lifeboats,” slows it down a bit and is another of my favorites. And it goes on from there…
I found it really interesting to read that the band considered this to be a more upbeat and “cheerful” album than previous releases. I didn’t really interpret it that way, but that could just be my current state of mind. Regardless, I do agree with their statement that it is their best album to date.
Well, that’s enough ranting and rambling about Snow Patrol for one post! In other news, I broke down and bought the first season of the Chappelle show, with hopes that Jim will want to watch some of the episodes. So far, I’ve only watched the first episode, which includes not only my favorite sketch (the Clayton Bigsby, black white supremacist skit) but also the Pop Copy sketch that so wonderfully makes fun of my previous profession as a Staples Copy Center employee! So, as you see, this post really comes full circle. It started with a band that was recommended to me by a Copy Center co-worker and ends with me going off to watch Pop Copy!
But, before I go, I should also mention that I have not made my last post of the day. The Laptop Sessions archive has plenty more acoustic rock cover fun — stay tuned!
See you next session!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
And, just like that, I’m back with my second session of the night!
As a follow-up to my previous music video, this is “Please, Mrs. Henry,” also from Bob Dylan’s 1975 release The Basement Tapes. Generally, I am most impressed with complete, clean studio recordings of songs from my favorite bands, yet there are many instances of great music being created when an artist has stripped away at all the usual standards and practices of studio recording. A most recent — and admittedly weird — instance of this is the re-release of Beck’s early nineties indie rock release One Foot in the Grave. While this album really isn’t the kind of music I’ll be showing off to my friends, there is this really raw and unique sound to it. One of the benefits to these types of recordings is the quantity of music usually available — i.e. 24 Basement Tapes tracks and 32 tracks on the aforementioned Beck album. In the first 16 album tracks, songs like “Cyanide Breath Mint,” “Asshole” (later covered by Tom Petty for the She’s the One soundtrack!), and “Painted Eyelids” would never make it anywhere near the radio. I love the lyrics and sound to some of the bonus tracks, as well — “Favorite Nerve,” “Burning Boyfriend,” and, “Feather in Your Cap” to name a few.
Of course, with these types of recordings, there are always going to be throwaway tracks and songs that will make you want to say, “What was he thinking?!” But that’s to be expected…
Getting back to the Laptop Session at hand, “Please, Mrs. Henry” is one of the songs I initially disliked from this album. More specifically, I found it kind of plain. Now that I’ve gone back to it — specifically during my Bob Dylan mp3 marathon earlier this month — I have a newfound appreciation for the lyrics as well as the music. Where else can you get the perspective of a singer/narrator who is not only telling you he is drunk, but actuallly sounds drunk while he’s doing it? Dylan’s inflection aside, how else can you read lyrics like “I’ve been sniffin’ too many eggs…Drinkin’ too many kegs” or “I’m groanin’ in a hallway; pretty soon, I’ll be mad” or, who could forget, “Why don’t you look my way and pump me a few?”
Great stuff.
With that, I’ll leave you to watch my interpretation of one of the many songs on The Basement Tapes that have been capturing the attention of fans since it was recorded in 1968. Even before the album was officially released, these tracks became some of the most bootlegged songs in rock music history. (Think: Great White Wonder.) And now you have my version to add to the mix. It certainly doesn’t approach the level that Dylan’s on, but it was a lot of fun to try! (Check out the chords, linked at the top of this post, so you can play, too…)
See you next session!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
This is another all-new cover video here at your source for the best cover songs on the web or anywhere: the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music blog! Since I haven’t introduced a brand-new band to the video blog in a while, I decided to record a song that I had considered recording back in the specialty “Number Ones Week.” I never recorded this song, which was a number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the eighties, for that week, and I put it aside — out of sight, out of mind — in my bookmarks menu. Then, I came across it tonight and decided to make it official.
This is “Down Under,” originally performed by the Men at Work. This is an eighties band that you wouldn’t necessarily expect to see here on this acoustic cover song blog. But, my father and I had always laughed and enjoyed this song whenever it came on the radio, so I thought it deserved its fair shake as an unplugged performance. It is an extremely easy song to play — the verse and chorus sections are different only by one chord — and it’s right in my comfortable vocal range.
Truth be told, it did take me quite a few takes. Unlike my last post, which I happily reported on Saturday was a one-take (my first ever!) recording, this took me about ten takes, false starts and all. It wasn’t so much that it’s a difficult song because, as I said before, it’s not. However, I haven’t really listened to the song in full for years, so I needed to find it on the YouTube videos search and watch it a couple times. Well, I really only had to listen to it, but it was so funny to watch that I simply couldn’t resist. I love the flute player in the tree and, of course, the man behind the counter “from Brussels” with “muscles” who gives the singer a “Vegemite sandwich.”
To this day, I’m really not even sure what a Vegemite sandwich is…
I actually just looked it up on Wikipedia now, and I found that it’s a “dark brown savoury food paste made from yeast extract, used mainly as a spread on sandwiches, toast and cracker biscuit.” It’s no surprise that I didn’t know what it was because, even though it is distributed by food manufacturing giant Kraft Foods, it has simply not caught on in Western nations such as the United States of America.
Vegemite knowledge notwithstanding, it really took me a long time because I needed to relearn the song. But, as my fellow FMP songwriters Jim and Jeff probably know all too well, I was very tired and had my mind on other things when I realized that tonight was my night to post another quality cover video. So, wiping the mid-summer sweat from my forehead and ignoring the headache that was creeping in, I did what any responsible video blog poster — or at least one who has committed himself to the session-a-day promise — would do… I recorded a Laptop Session.
I hope you enjoy it, as it really is a fun song, and I only wish that I had been able to record this acoustic cover song with some flute accompaniment… If this doesn’t quench your thirst for quality cover videos, you’ll find plenty more of Jeff’s sessions here on the Laptop Sessions Music Blog.
See you next session!
Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.
