“Society”
Jerry Hannan (Covered by Eddie Vedder for the Into the Wild soundtrack)
INTRO: Am (hum over chord)
C G C
It’s a mystery to me;
We have a greed
C F G
With which we have agreed.
G F
And you think you have to
G Am
Want more than you need;
F G
Until you have it all,
G Am
You won’t be free…
Am F
Society,
F C
You’re a crazy breed.
C G
I hope you’re not lonely
G Am
Without me.
When you want more than you have,
You think you need.
And when you think more than you want,
Your thoughts begin to bleed.
I think I need to find a bigger place,
Cause when you have
More than you think,
You need more space…
Society,
You’re a crazy breed.
I hope you’re not lonely
Without me.
Society,
Crazy indeed;
Hope you’re not lonely
Without me.
INSTRUMENTAL: Over verse and chorus chords
There’s those thinking more less,
Less is more.
But if less is more,
How you keepin’ score?
Means for every point you make,
Your level drops,
Kinda like you’re startin’ from the top,
And you can’t do that…
Society,
You’re a crazy breed.
I hope you’re not lonely
Without me.
Society,
Crazy indeed;
Hope you’re not lonely
Without me.
Society,
Have mercy on me;
Hope you’re not angry
If I disagree.
Society,
Crazy indeed;
Hope you’re not lonely
Without me.
** These chords and lyrics are interpretations and transcriptions, respectively, and are the sole property of the copyright holder(s). They are posted on this website free of charge for no profit for the purpose of study and commentary, as allowed for under the “fair use” provision of U.S. copyright law, and should only be used for such personal and/or academic work. **
For Green Day chords, tabs, and lyrics, click HERE!
By Chris Moore:
Hello and welcome to your all-new Monday edition of the Laptop Sessions. It’s been a while since I’ve featured a recently released song, so I’m going to put an end to that right now.
Tonight, I present to you “Peacemaker,” a track from Green Day’s 2009 album 21st Century Breakdown. This is perhaps my quickest turnaround time from the release of a song to the recorded Laptop Session, as this album just hit the record store racks on Saturday. I don’t know why Green Day opted for a “special Saturday release,” but it was kind of cool to have something brand new (and on sale!) on the shelves when I was browsing Newbury Comics this weekend.
What is my take on the album, you might ask? Well, it DID knock Bob Dylan’s Together Through Life out of the number one spot in the UK, but I suppose I can overlook that…
Seriously, I don’t really know why I keep buying Green Day records. One of my favorite lines from the movie Fracture is when a doctor asks the Ryan Gosling character, “Do you always keep asking the same question until you get a different answer?” He responds, “I’m a lawyer. That’s what I do.” In this case, I’ve never been a fan of the band. I liked early hits like “When I Come Around,” but I couldn’t get into their acclaimed album Dookie. I’ve never really given it a fair shake, so it has ended up back in my “To Be Listened To” pile (currently housed in my Best Buy-exclusive Together Through Life crate — thank you, Mike!).
I finally picked up their 2004 album American Idiot after recommendations from several friends and critical acclaim from multiple music magazines, but I have yet to get into that album, as well. I have consistently found it somehow too blunt. Even the songs that I like — yes, mostly the overplayed radio hits — strike me as too formulated, too stamped out for the enjoyment of the average mainstream listener. Who knows; perhaps someday I’ll be able to break the code of this concept album.
That is indeed why I picked up this latest installment in the Green Day catalog: it’s a concept album based loosely around the story of two characters named Christian and Gloria. As with American Idiot, I much prefer to pay attention to the thematic threads. Now, whereas in the 2004 album I have never been able to appreciate the lyrics, I have found several tracks on this new album that I like for several reasons — the lyrics, the overall instrumental sound, and Billie Joe Armstrong’s vocals. Not to sound even more critical or anything, but Armstrong’s vocals on American Idiot have a tendency to get on my nerves. That being said, he plays with his range and style in several different ways on this album. Some songs are stripped down to basic piano or acoustic, and some songs are layered from top to bottom with spot-on vocal harmonies and distortion guitar blasts. From start to finish, the album generally knows when to slow it down and when to kick it up a notch.
I have only heard the album three times in full, so I should reserve any final opinions for the future. What I do know is that I like this concept album much more than American Idiot, from the sound all the way down to the album art. Like their previous album, the cover artwork and liner notes are beautiful, carefully designed pages that feature the handwritten lyrics and various background designs. If nothing else, this is a band that tries really hard to create an album that works as a whole. And, after five years since their last album — more time between releases than ever before — they’ve certainly had enough time to perfect this one!
Without further ado, I’ll let you move on to my cover song music video of “Peacemaker.” This is sure to be one of Jim’s favorite sessions of the year, so it may be difficult to outdo myself next week. And yet, I suppose I’ll just have to try… 🙂
To see how it’s played in the cover song music video, CLICK HERE!
“The Sound of Settling”
by Death Cab for Cutie
C#m B E F#m A C#m
I’ve got a hunger twisting my stomach into knots
C#m B E F#m A
that my tongue has tied off.
My brain’s repeating, “If you’ve got an impulse, LET IT OUT!”
But they never make it past my mouth…
E F#m B Asus2 E F#m B Asus2
Ba, ba… This is the sound of settling. Ba, ba. Ba, ba…
Ba, ba… This is the sound of settling. Ba, ba. Ba, ba…
Our youth is fleeting; old age is just around the bend,
and I can’t wait to go gray.
And I’ll sit and wonder of every love that could have been
If I’d only thought of something charming to say.
Ba, ba… This is the sound of settling. Ba, ba. Ba, ba…
Ba, ba… This is the sound of settling. Ba, ba. Ba, ba…
Ba, ba… This is the sound of settling. Ba, ba. Ba, ba…
Ba, ba… This is the sound of settling. Ba, ba. Ba, ba…
I’ve got a hunger twisting my stomach into knots.
** These chords and lyrics are interpretations and transcriptions, respectively, and are the sole property of the copyright holder(s). They are posted on this website free of charge for no profit for the purpose of study and commentary, as allowed for under the “fair use” provision of U.S. copyright law, and should only be used for such personal and/or academic work. **
Hello and welcome to another all-new week of great material at the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video blog! Before I address my session for tonight, I should begin by announcing that this will be a jam-packed week of sessions, reviews, and other posts. There’s Monday and Tuesday accounted for as you can always depend on, and rest assured that there is a Guest Session lined up for Friday. In addition, I have some bonus chords coming your way, as well as a bonus Weekend Review post before the week is out. All this when I’m beginning one of the busiest weeks of my life!
First of all, let’s get down to the session at hand. For today, I’ve recorded “All of the Time” from the band Locksley’s second release, Don’t Make Me Wait. This is one of those rare — but very exciting — CDs I came across quite randomly in the used CD rack at Newbury Comics. I can’t really explain what possessed me to buy the album, but I was thrilled by what I heard. Now, before you get your hopes too high, I should admit that their sound is some kind of cross between garage rock and early Beatles. It’s a bit derivative, but I have a very good feeling about this group of guys, and I feel like they are going to evolve and come out with an album that is all their own in the future.
Hopefully, that “future” would come with their next album!
Funny enough, the band that gave us Don’t Make Me Wait and the accompanying title track has also, just as of last week, delayed the release of their new album, Be in Love, by nearly a month and a half. Apparently, an opportunity to engage in a higher-profile marketing campaign arose recently that they couldn’t pass up. The only problem was that they needed to hold off on the release to complete the necessary preparations.
Of course, I had decided to record this song today based on the Be in Love release date of the next day, January 26th, 2010.
Still, this will give me some more time to enjoy this album and wonder what the new one will be like. I suppose that could be a good or a bad decision, as expectations often have a way of killing the real experience…
To return to the present, my version of “All of the Time” is based on the 2008 reissue version of the aforementioned album. I was really pleased with the way this song translated to an entirely acoustic live Laptop Sessions performance, complete with my first recorded use of my “G” harmonica. Unfortunately, I screwed up lyrically; it’s just one word that I missed, but it doesn’t make as much sense the way I sang it. The most frustrating part is that I was singing it correctly before I hit record!
I think…
Regardless, this was my best take, and I hope you enjoy it. I know I enjoyed learning and playing it, especially since it was one of my rare two-takes-and-I’m-done Laptop Sessions experiences. That’s why it truly does help to practice days in advance and sing along in the car a ridiculous number of times! But, as much fun as it’s been learning and recording the song, posting my Locksley-themed Weekend Review, and writing this post, I’m off to get some work done now so I can sleep well before continuing a week of grading exams and papers, closing out the semester by Thursday, closing in another sense on Wednesday, and moving five minutes closer to work on Saturday.
