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 was releasing a brand new studio album the next day. The band is Spoon, and the album coming out the next day was 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 the release, I learned and practiced a different Spoon song that 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.
Okay, okay, so I know what you’re thinking: how could I have screwed the lyrics up so badly at the end of the song. You see, when I say, “That’s the real thing, ain’t it?” it should actually be “That’s the real thing, i’n’t it.”
Hopefully you can see past my error…
Seriously though, I welcome you to the Monday night Laptop Session. This is my first song choice in anticipation of a new music release this year — in this case, tomorrow’s release of Ringo Starr’s Y Not. Based on the quality of Ringo’s past several albums, I can only imagine that this oddly titled release will be excellent. There appear to be some promising collaborations with such artists as Van Dyke Parks, Ben Harper, Joss Stone, Richard Marx, and — most exciting — Paul McCartney.
I’ll be honest — the title does throw me off a bit. After all, can there ever be a good justification for a man of Ringo Starr’s age and stature to use Instant Messenger shorthand in his album or song titles? I certainly can’t think of one. And this isn’t the first time that Ringo has utilized such abbreviations. As you can tell, my song choice tonight was based on the fact that “R U Ready?” — from 2008’s Liverpool 8 — uses IM shorthand for “Are You.” I can’t tell you why Ringo made this decision when writing the song, but I can tell you that it is indeed a great song. It was fun and easy to play, and I got to break in my “D” harmonica. Ever since I started exploring the different keys in my array of harps, I’ve been having more fun than ever breaking them out and playing them.
I’ll have to think of another harmonica-ready song for another session…
But, for now, I hope you’ll enjoy my cover version of “R U Ready?” Then, consider taking a listen to the new Ringo Starr album Y Not, released Tuesday, January 12th, 2010. He has truly been on a roll these past several years, releasing outstanding records in 2003, 2005, 2008, and now a mere two years later in 2010. I knew where I’d be heading after school the next day — to my local Newbury Comics store for a copy of Y Not.
With Ringo’s recent track record, I ask you: y not?
For Death Cab for Cutie chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!
By Chris Moore:
Hello and welcome to the first all-new Laptop Session of 2010! It is my pleasure to kick off another great year here for the best cover song music video blog on the Internet today. This past year has indeed been a year of changes, of many comings and goings for most of us here, and now we’re setting out to make this the best year yet.
There’s a lot to live up to, given the past two years and more of contributions.
Still, I think we’re up to it.
What can you expect? Well, for now, you can expect a Chris Moore Monday and a Jim Fusco Tuesday each week. Although Thumpin’ Thursday is no longer regularly filled, you never know when Jeff will get the itch again… As for Guest Sessions Friday, it is my sincere hope that recent regular Jeremy Hammond will continue to send me links. In fact, he’d already sent me the link to his video for that Friday’s post, and I can tell you that it’s a song that I remember fondly. I first heard it on one of my dad’s “hits of the seventies” cassette tapes. (Remember those? They were THE media before CDs…) From what little I know of him through our email conversations, Jeremy seems like a really interesting guy with some great ideas for cover songs to record. Finally, as for Saturday and Sunday, there will be one edition of “The Weekend Review” each week. On top of all that, you have the “From the Music Blog Archives” feature to look forward to each and every time you visit the site; we’ve gotten to the point where there are so many posts available to draw from that many are ones that I read as though for the first time…
If you haven’t already, I hope you’ll check out my “50 Best Rock Albums of the Decade, 2000-2009” list and liner notes, posted over the past several days. Now, my next project is to finish off my “Best of 2009” lists.
First, though, I need to take a breather!
Today was the first day back to school, and what a relaxing start it was, due mostly to the 90 minute delay we had. I didn’t sleep in, but I did get a lot of grading done. When I finish this post, I’ll be returning to that seemingly endless task until I’m off to a BK Lounge run with Mike and three hours of live TNA. This feels in many ways like the biggest single show since my friends got me interested in professional wrestling a couple years ago, so I’m looking forward to it as a full three hours of relaxation before school gets back into full swing tomorrow.
Which brings me, at last, to the session of the night. I’m bringing you my cover version of Death Cab for Cutie’s “The New Year,” which is the opening track to their strong Transatlanticism album. I’ve already recorded one song from that release, “The Sound of Settling,” a while back, but I couldn’t think of any better song for the first post of the New Year, 2010.
I hope you’ve had a relaxing and productive holiday, and that the promise of more Laptop Sessions and related posts gives you something to look forward to throughout 2010.
