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!
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!
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!
Well, this just seems like deja vu too soon. Even though I just posted a video on Tuesday, I’m back with not only another all-new acoustic cover song, but also to bring an all-new band to the Laptop Sessions! And, by all-new, I guess I mean old… That’s right: for once, Jim’s not the only person to dig out a classic from the sixties!
This is my first cover of a Rolling Stones song, “The Last Time.” Today being Yom Kippur, I didn’t have to go to school, so I decided to sleep late, but record my cover video early. As Jim mentioned in yesterday’s post, I had a late meeting on Tuesday, so I went back to my Dylan reserves. Thus, I felt it was about time to bring in a new band. So, I gathered all the necessary items from my room — my Rolling Stones greatest hits CD, my laptop, my iPod, a pick, and of course my acoustic guitar. I sat downstairs and flipped through my iPod selections, reading along on the greatest hits CD. Even though this is an early song, my iPod was on shuffle, so it took me about fifteen tracks before I got to “The Last Time.” I immediately felt that this was the Stones song for me — simple, but catchy and right in my vocal range. After all, I don’t want to embarrass myself on my first Stones video… I’ll save that for a later session!
And I learned a lot about this song that I didn’t know before. I’ve always liked it, but I didn’t realize that it was the first single co-written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards to reach #1 in England. It was only a little less successful in America, reaching #9. Reading through Wikipedia’s post about the song, I was interested to learn that the guitar riff (a Brian Jones contribution) running through the song was one of the earliest example of a song with a perpetually repeating riff. Also, some say that the song is based on the traditional gospel song “This May Be The Last Time,” recorded in 1955 by the Staple Singers.
My recording of the song was easy to learn and fun to play. I didn’t realize it at first, but following Jim’s mention of the three-chord song, I realized that this is also a three-chord song. For any of you out there learning the guitar, this would be a great one to try — it’s written by the legendary Rolling Stones, it was a top ten hit in both the USA and Britain, and you need only know the chords E, D, and A!!
Now, if I understand correctly, I won’t be back until Monday to bring you another new song. That will be Columbus Day, which is ironically another day that I will be off from school. Maybe that’s a sign that I owe you loyal viewers and readers of the greatest acoustic cover song and original music blog on the web another all-new band.
Don’t be left wondering… Hurry back to find out!
And you shouldn’t wait until Monday. After all, you have two in a row to look forward to from Jeff Copperthite, and you can kick off your week with Jim Fusco’s Sunday cover song music video…
