Tag Archives: Rock

“The Last Ride” (The Pretenders Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to your Saturday session of the best acoustic rock cover song blog on the web today!  This is actually a combination of my favorite type of post (a brand-new song) and Jim’s favorite type of post (a new artist to the music blog)…  The Pretenders’ “The Last Ride.”  This is a brand-new song from their 2008 album Break Up The Concrete.

I’m not really a big Pretenders fan, but I’m on this big new albums kick for 2008, so I figured I would try out their new album this year.  It’s called Break Up The Concrete and it’s actually pretty good — I especially liked the “First Edition” packaging, which included a piece of paper with the title of the album and name of the band on it.  But it wasn’t just a piece of paper to highlight the specifics; it has instructions on it to dampen it with water, plant it in the ground, and wait for it to grow a plant.  I like this as a piece of the theme of the album — to break up the concrete could include planting new and natural things that, when they grow, break through the man-made pavement. In fact, the back of the album is a picture of a flower.  Most artists include bonus tracks or music videos, but a seed patch… that’s original!

I’ve only heard this song about three or four times, but I decided that this was the one for me to record from this new Pretenders album.  To be honest, I don’t really know any Pretenders songs, but I’ve definitely heard of them.  I think I have a song of theirs on one of my “80s greatest hits” albums.  Let me go check…

And I’m back — I knew I’d heard of them.  The Pretenders had a hit with “Back on the Chain Gang” in the early 1980s.  I first heard this song when I was a senior in high school, trying to learn all the big periods of American pop music.  There was always something about Chrissie Hynde’s voice that I really liked.

Now, is Break Up The Concrete the best album of the year?  No.  But I’ve found it really interesting adding them to my collection this year.  They’ve got an upbeat sound and, if that wasn’t enough, they’ve got my favorite drummer of all time… also known as the fifth Traveling Wilbury… Jim Keltner!  I’m on my way now to do some research on the Pretenders, but their drummer on the new album is indeed Keltner, a drummer who’s not only played with the Wilburys, but has also been a session drummer for such rock acts as Bob Dylan.

As you’re watching the video, you might notice that there’s a blue flash every so often.  That’s the menu of “Mission Impossible III,” which I rented tonight, thanks to the Jimmy Fund promotion at Burger King.  I donated money to the fund and got a scratch off ticket that ended up being a free rental at Blockbuster video.  So a special thanks goes out to Blockbuster — whose ever-increasing rental fees have discouraged me from renting recently — for participating in this worthy cause.  I absolutely loved the first “Mission Impossible” and found the second to be pedestrian at best.  Now, I’m half way through the third installment and loving it.  I had to stop it at 1:03:51, as it’s good enough to be very distracting to me as I type this most recent post on the best acoustic cover song music blog in the universe… the Laptop Sessions!  It was a really cool feeling, coming home tonight and knowing I had to record a session.  I translated and posted the chords to “The Last Ride” earlier this afternoon, and I was really excited to be one of the first people in the world to record a cover of a song from the new album.

What a cool project this session-a-day is…  I realize it’s really annoying and tedious at times.  But, at the end of 2008, Jim, Jeff, and I will have posted 366 (leap year!) videos this year.  What other musicians are as ambitious?  If you haven’t already, you need to check out Jeff’s album at the Fusco-Moore Store (one of the best of the year — and, trust me, I can judge this, as I’ve bought something like 20 new albums this year) and stay tuned for Jim’s best album yet, to be released some time soon; probably early 2009…

Well, that’s it for now.  The last thing I want to mention is how much I’ve been into Wilco and the Counting Crows recently.  They’re both great 90s bands, and I’ll certainly be posting acoustic cover songs from them soon.  But, for now, the focus is on new additions to the blog — I hope you enjoy the first Pretenders song on this music blog — come back tomorrow and the next day for Jeff and Jim.  I’ll see you again on Tuesday…

See you next session!

“Peggy Sue” (Buddy Holly Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

I had such fun going back in time with “Dock of the Bay” that I decided to go even farther back… to Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue”! This is a 1950’s hit that is one of those songs everyone just seems to know. It only made it to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1957, but this song has been in so many movies and played on the radio so much since then…

I actually learned a lot by recording it today. I realized, for one thing, that the song is deceptively simple, in the sense that Holly’s voice is so distinctive and really makes it the hit that it was. Also, there’s no question that it was simple to play, seeing as how it uses only A and D chords, with the occasional E and maybe an F thrown in. This might seem like a good thing, but it only puts the pressure on to make a simple song sound interesting and fun to listen to!

I hope you enjoy this and would love you to leave a comment! Then, of course, don’t forget to come back to https://guitarbucketlist.com tomorrow for an all-new session from the library of Jeff Copperthite!

See you next session!



“Disarm” (Smashing Pumpkins Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to your Super Saturday edition of the Laptop Sessions. Time for another band to join the library of the Sessions.

The Smashing Pumpkins is today’s band, and the song is a terrific one from their album “Siamese Dream”. If you have never heard of this album or this band, go out and pick this album up. It really is something else to listen too.

Anyway, the song is “Disarm”, the more acoustically-driven song on the album. I love playing this song and always have. Billy Corgan (SP’s leadman) has a very unique lyric and guitar style, and I hope I did a good job in living up to his incredible talent.

The only minor flub – if I had to be picky – was a slightly incorrect note in the last chorus. I got a little ahead of myself, but caught it before I had to redo the take. Speaking of which, this was take 3. On take 2 I dropped my pick on the last line of the song, and led out a very loud expletive (The killer in…!*&%!!).

As always, check https://guitarbucketlist.com/ every day for more from Fusco-Moore Productions!

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!

“Round Here” (Counting Crows Cover)

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Happy Saturday to you! Welcome to your Saturday installment of The Laptop Sessions. We’re doing a sort of “twin spin” as WCJM.com Free Internet Radio likes to call it, as I bring you another tune by The Counting Crows, which were featured yesterday by Chris as well (and quite awesomely at that).

One of their most popular songs is today’s performance – “Round Here” from their album August and Everything After. While being one of their best, it is also one of the most difficult to sing and play. My voice still feels it a bit from singing the song.

Lead singer Adam Duritz always has an affinity for improvising a lot of lyrics, and changing singing styles frequently, so I wasn’t too worried about singing on time. I also wanted to combine the electric guitar riff, with the background chords, so I used a capo (although the song by no means requires one) and melded the two riffs so the bass note was hit on each chord, as well as the main riff. While the idea works in this performance, you can see it is quite difficult to sing the song and play this riff simultaneously. However, you’ll see this is quite effective, and I feel you will enjoy this quite a bit.

Just like Chris mentioned, I have also been listening to their new album Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings and I LOVE the new single. Hopefully later this year we’ll do some songs from that album.

Also, be sure to check out the Youtube channel jimfusco.com/albums.html at http://www.youtube.com/user/jimfusco.com/albums.html, as videos from our performance at SCSU have been posted. You can see Masters of the Universe plus myself rocking the house!

I hope you check back tomorrow for another wonderful session from Jim, and I hope you enjoy today’s installment!

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!