Acoustic cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Sister Morphine,” from their 1971 Sticky Fingers album.
** EDITOR’S NOTE: **
As Federico referenced above — and as you can see at the beginning of the video when he holds up the album cover — “Sister Morphine” is a deep track from 1971’s Sticky Fingers. The album has received very positive news, so this, along with the fact that “Wild Horses” hails from this record and Federico saw fit to pick from it, has made me believe I should make this my next Rolling Stones purchase.
I hesitate to admit this, but I’ve never listened to a Rolling Stones album…
Perhaps it’s time.
“Sister Morphine” was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards along with Marianne Faithfull, who released the track as a B-side in 1969. It apparently took some legal intervention to get Jagger and Richards to include her name in the credits on the album.
Regardless of who had what part in writing it, Federico has brought his A-game as per usual, and has extended the great Laptop Sessions tradition of presenting an acoustic cover song that gets others interested in the original recording.
For now, enjoy his version and hurry back for more new material on the blog this weekend!
Welcome, everyone, to another edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco! Tonight, I present my first acoustic cover song music video as a member of the YouTube million-view club! Well, I don’t know if there actually is such a club for YouTube channels that have over a million unique video views, but if there is, I’m glad to now be a part of it! I honestly believe the second million is going to happen ten times faster than the first and I can only hope that number goes astronomically higher from there! I want to issue a heartfelt THANK YOU to everyone who has supported the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs series over the years and I hope you’ll stay with me now and in the future!
Let’s get to tonight’s music video:
Tonight, I bring you a solo acoustic live performance of The Rolling Stones’ classic song, “Let’s Spend the Night Together”. It’s such a great song and is by far my favorite tune from the Stones. You know, we haven’t done enough Rolling Stones cover songs over the years and this is my first step in rectifying that situation. Honestly, when I look back on the days when we used to do a video every single day, it blows my mind that such immensely popular bands like the Stones weren’t covered more often. Now, I’m only doing about 15 to 20 cover song videos a year, so it’s a coveted spot. I take a long time to choose the songs I’m going to do, and I hope all of my regular viewers have noticed. I want to choose songs that will have some staying power, but still remain true to my love of obscure (but still great) songs, too.
Today’s video, “Let’s Spend the Night Together”, is famous for a couple of reasons. First, it was a big hit for the Rolling Stones in the mid-60s. I love how the recorded version kind of has a party-like atmosphere. You can tell the focus was on the energy of the song- not making sure every instrument or background vocal was done perfectly. The second reason for it’s fame? Well, the Rolling Stones also made a big splash when they came to America to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show. They chose “Let’s Spend the Night Together” as the song they’d play for the show. Well, the subject matter was a bit taboo for the time and Ed wanted them to change the lyrics of the song to “Let’s spend some time together.” I shouldn’t even say, “wanted”- it was more like “forced”. So, Mick Jagger went along with it, though he did roll his eyes at the camera when singing the line.
I bring “Let’s Spend the Night Together” to you with the original lyrics in tact, with my favorite line being, “We can have fun just groovin’ around.” Let’s just say it took me a few takes to get that right, as the word “groovin'” really isn’t used anymore and I kept saying what people would normally say nowadays. Anyway, I think this song was perfect for an acoustic cover version- I hope you agree! I’ll be back in two weeks with another music video for you and hopefully some more updates to my new album, “Those Around Us”. This week, I received the final masters of the music and secured Ben Quesnel to paint another album for me! He painted the “Halfway There” album cover (amazing!), too. See you next time!
