Tag Archives: Rock

“A Long December” (Counting Crows Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

I’ve been listening to the Counting Crows’ new album Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings all week now (up until MoU’s new album, Homestead’s Revenge, came out! — You can buy the high quality mp3s or the CD version. Here’s the web address: http://jimfusco.com/albums.html ).

I’ve really enjoyed listening to the Counting Crows, and it reminded me of my favorite songs of theirs from years past. Thus, I decided to record “A Long December.” Although it’s a piano-based song, I think it translates well to acoustic. If I was smart, though, I would have waited until the end of the year to record it…

This song was one of their biggest hits, but that’s not why I love it. I love the lyrics and the tune, and it’s one of those songs that will forever be etched in my memory, synonymous with my youth. I remember my seventh grade science teacher, Mr. Olayos, playing the radio during a quiz, and this song was on. This song really triggers a lot of happy — and, of course — not so happy memories from my past.

I hope you enjoy today’s Laptop Session and decide to comment or rate it!

And don’t forget to check back at https://guitarbucketlist.com tomorrow for an all-new Counting Crows cover from Jeff!


“Learning To Fly” (Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening, and welcome to your Sunday edition of The Laptop Sessions. I’ve got another great song to add to our growing library, and it’s our 2nd song from Tom Petty.

From his 1991 album “Into the Great Wide Open”, the song I have performed is “Learning To Fly”. While simple, the song has been popular since the album’s release. The song has a great set of lyrics and is about a time that Tom saw an interview of a pilot, who said “Learning to fly is easy, but coming down is the hard part”, hence the chorus inspiration.

I hope that if you are in the CT area that you will come see me perform with Masters of the Universe this coming Wednesday! We are playing all kinds of songs and we had a practice session at my condo today. My fingers look like they are blowing bubbles, after practicing on the bass for 3 hours today w/ Chris, Jim, and Mike.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another great session by Jim.

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!

Video Blog Site Update: BIG Event Possibly Coming Next Week…

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By Jim Fusco:

I just got word that something HUGE might be happening next Monday, March 31st. I wouldn’t make any bets on it, but given the time limit, we may be able to make something happen.

I know this sounds very vague, but again, I don’t want to make any promises. The one thing I’ll say is this: the date has significance!

Updates will come as I get them…

“Great Day” (Paul McCartney Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to your Sunday edition of the Laptop Sessions!

Today, I bring you a tune that I covered on my album “That’s All Folks” called “Great Day” by Paul McCartney. It closes out his 1997 album “Flaming Pie”, one of my all-time favorites.  That album, “That’s All Folks”, came about because I had purchased my first good acoustic guitar.  That guitar meant everything to me- it sounded great, played great, and made me feel like a real musician.  I didn’t even really know how to play too well when I bought it.  So, I learned how to play a bunch of songs I was listening to at the time.  That taught me more chords, which turned me into a better player.  And, at the time, I was going through a HUGE Paul McCartney phase.  They had just released “Wingspan” with all of Wings’ greatest hits.  I know those songs probably grate on people after all this time, but they were all new to me- and I fell for it pretty hard.  We were also listening, as a family, to Paul’s albums from the 90s quite a bit.  The first real song I learned how to play (and played it for my parents) was, of all things, “Hope of Deliverance” by Paul McCartney off of the “Off the Ground” album from the early 90s.  I guess you could say that Paul McCartney’s songs really taught me how to play.  And when it comes to rock musicians, you can’t get a much better tutor than him.

This is the perfect acoustic song and gives quite a vocal workout, which you wouldn’t expect in such a simple song.  I decided to do this acoustic cover song on my nylon-string classical acoustic guitar, as it gave me the opportunity to be more expressive in my performance.  This song is very soulful, which you wouldn’t really expect from the lyrics.  I kind of dumbed-down the guitar picking riff throughout because that’s not really my thing.  I’m a strummer and a soloist, but can’t do the flat-picking thing too well.  Paul McCartney, the phenom that he is, is proficient at almost anything, musically.  The man is one of the best bass players of all time, he can play the drums, sing (obviously), write songs, and play any guitar part you throw in front of him.  Oh, and he’s written some of the most famous rock songs of all time on the piano, as well.  That’s a pretty impressive life, for sure!

I hope you all enjoy today’s Session, as I’ll be back on Wednesday with a “political” original song- don’t miss it!