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“I Am Mine” (Pearl Jam Cover)

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For Pearl Jam chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to a very special edition of the Laptop Sessions.  This is Chris Moore writing for the first Monday — the first day, for that matter — of June.  And June 1st is a special day for entertainment, as this is the date of the very first Tonight Show hosted by Conan O’Brien on NBC.  As I type this, I’m watching the beginning of the episode and loving every moment.  For me, Conan is the ultimate late show host, and I truly hope that he will establish himself as a primary late show host in the minds and hearts of viewers throughout the nation.  I wasn’t sure what to expect tonight, as I haven’t watched an episode of Late Night for years.

I haven’t been disappointed.

As I’m watching the first segment with Conan’s “run to California,” his opening monologue, and his “tram tour” video, I’m remembering why his late night show was one of my favorite reasons to stay up past midnight in college.  Well, that and late night Burger King chicken fries and burgers, of course.

My song choice tonight is directly inspired by Conan’s first night on the Tonight Show.  His first musical guest — a band which he said he was delighted “to the bone marrow” about — is Pearl Jam.  Thus, although I was planning to record and post the first Relient K Laptop Session, I decided instead to record a Pearl Jam song.

As a special treat (I hope), I’ve recorded a Relient K song to tide you over until I can get back to the one I wanted to record.  In fact, this is probably for the best, as I started to work out the chords for “At Least We Made It This Far” and found that all online sources for Relient K chords were terribly inaccurate.  So, I’ll keep working on that one and get back to it soon.

Tonight’s session is my cover song version of Pearl Jam’s “I Am Mine” from their 2002 album Riot Act.  The first single off the record, “I Am Mine” is a great track that tackles existential issues.  My favorite line is “I know I was born and I know that I’ll die; the in between is mine.”  What a great line.  When I’m stressed out, I sing this line in my head to remind myself that I’m in control of my life, at least to a certain degree.

Although I like the music and vocals on this song, to be fair, it is not perfect.  Case in point: I’m not so crazy about the line “The oceans are full because everyone’s crying.”  There’s something about that line that cheapens the overall impact for me, kind of like the line “It sucks to grow up” turned Jim off to the Ben Folds song “Still Fighting It.”

Regardless, this is a great song, and I worked very hard to do my absolute best to record an enjoyable cover session for you.

I can’t believe that I actually stayed up late enough to watch the entire Tonight Show, but here I am.  This leaves two truths:

1)  I will be setting at least a couple extra alarms for tomorrow morning.

2) I got to see not only the Will Ferrell interview, but I’m about to watch the Pearl Jam performance, which is supposed to feature material from their new album.  Can’t wait!

So, that’s it for me tonight.  I wish you a great week, and hope you’ll come back to enjoy new videos all throughout the week.

See you next session!

“Just Breathe” (Pearl Jam Cover)

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For Pearl Jam chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to an all-new week of cover songs at the best acoustic cover song music video blog in the universe — guaranteed, or your money back!

I guess the guilt falls to me for breaking the Beatles marathon…

It’s been a blast reviewing Beatles albums, recording Fab Four covers, and watching the Traveling Acai Berrys’ and Jeff’s renditions, but now it’s time for me to inject a little fresh music into the timeline of the Laptop Sessions.

“Just Breathe” is track five from the new Pearl Jam album Backspacer, and is truly a perfect fit for the Laptop Sessions format.  The studio version is primarily Eddie Vedder singing and playing acoustic guitar, so it only took memorizing the words and transcribing the chords.  As usual, I started online and found a site with chords and lyrics that were almost right.

Well, “almost right” doesn’t fly around here.

The middle is NOT comprised of C and F chords; that “C” simply didn’t sound quite right.  It should be Am instead of C.  In addition, there were some minor lyrical inaccuracies — “all” instead of “are,” “save” instead of “take,” etc.  The person who transcribed the song included a personal note about the song at the bottom, and he seemed like a really nice guy who truly loved this song.  And he made figuring out this song much easier than if I had simply started on my own.

But that’s what we at the Laptop Sessions pride ourselves about — our commitment to performing songs as faithfully as possible, cross-checking our facts to be certain what we write is accurate, and always knowing when a song has already been recorded as a session.

Oh, right.  About that last one…

I need to apologize to Jeff for recording “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” as though he had never recorded it.  The funny part is that, when I went back and read his post later, I clearly remembered reading it.  I recalled his mention of Eddie Vedder (whose music I barely knew and wasn’t enthusiastic about at the time), and I remembered being intrigued by his “Semaphore” reference.  Apparently, flag semaphore is a system of symbols for conveying information through waving flags or bare hands.  Although photographer Robert Freeman had the idea to have John, Paul, George, and Ringo spell out “HELP” in semaphore, they decided on a different arrangement — “NUJV”– that was more aesthetically pleasing as the cover art for Help!

Going back to the song of the day, I should acknowledge that I originally planned to record “The End,” and I practiced it a number of times with that intention in mind.  In fact, a former student of mine emailed me with the idea of recording it, so I was reluctant to admit to myself that the chorus is just too far out of my range.  I still posted the chords and lyrics, though, so others might be able to enjoy learning and playing it.  Guest session, anyone?

As I was preparing for my session last week, I had been listening back to some of my recent sessions and realized something.  Since I moved from the Fusco-Moore Experience to my current apartment, I have never worn the same shirt twice while recording a music video.  Here’s a quick retrospective:

July 13 – Bob Dylan Together Through Life t-shirt (thanks again, Fusc!)

July 20 – Vermont t-shirt (thanks, Mom & Dad!)

August 4 – plaid, western-looking collared shirt

August 4 (second video) – Dodge Charger t-shirt (thanks, Jim!)

August 11 – tan and blue striped collared shirt

August 17 – blue and white striped collared shirt

August 23 – 40th Anniversary 1969 Mets t-shirt (thank you, CitiField!)

August 31 – Abbey Road t-shirt from London (thanks, Nicole!)

September 28 -black Bass fishing t-shirt

Today marks my tenth video, and thus it is my tenth shirt.  My goal is to never wear the same shirt twice.  Even though I’m running out of t-shirts, we are heading into winter, so my long sleeve shirts will be featured soon.  When spring comes, it should get interesting.  I wonder if I can fit into Nicole’s shirts…

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my video.  This completes my recent Pearl Jam run, adding both a full album review and a one-sentence review of Backspacer, chords & lyrics to three songs, and now a full Laptop Sessions post.

Aside from an ever-increasing stack of grading on my desk at school, life has been hectic but good recently. I’ve been really excited about the music on my iPod and in my car this past month.  After going through quite the dry spell during the summer — Third Eye Blind and Sister Hazel, anyone? — the Arctic Monkeys and Pearl Jam have added some excitement to my “Albums- 2009” playlist.  In addition, my birthday weekend has been pretty laid back, but a lot of fun.  I heard from just about all my closest friends, and Jaime even came up from New York to visit on Sunday and give me the beautifully designed “Chris Moore Birthday Bash!” mix CD!  I’m itching to start tweeting about the FYE gift card that Mike got me, Nicole bought me (among other awesome items ranging from practical to academic to entertaining) a book of essays about Bob Dylan written by scholars, I got a text message from Alb that brought me back to our summer of video gaming, and I’m officially, finally having breakfast next week with one of my dearest friends who I haven’t seen for over a year.  Good stuff all around.

See you next session!

“Alison” by Elvis Costello – Chords, Tabs, & How to Play

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“Alison”
Elvis Costello

Intro:  A   E   A   E

E               A                                           E
Oh, it’s so funny to be seeing you after so long, girl,
E                  A                                                 G#m                  C#m
And with the way you look, I understand that you were not impressed.
A                                          G#m       C#m
But I heard you let that little friend of mine
D                                 B7
Take off your party dress…

A                             G#m        C#m
I’m not going to get too sentimental like those
A                            G#m        C#m
other sticky valentines.
A                                                     G#m           C#m
‘Cause I don’t know if you’ve been loving somebody;
D                             B7
I only know it isn’t mine.

A    E     A              B7         G#m   C#m
Alison, I know this world is killing you…
C#m    A    E    A    B7     E
Oh,      Alison, my aim is true.

Well, I see you’ve got a husband now.
Did he leave your pretty fingers lying in the wedding cake?
You used to hold him right in your hand;
I’ll bet he took all he could take.

Sometimes I wish that I could stop you from talking
When I hear the silly things that you say.
I think somebody better put out the big light,
‘Cause I can’t stand to see you this way

Alison, I know this world is killing you.
Oh, Alison…  My aim is true.

My aim is true. (repeat & fade)

** 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. **

“Broken” by Jack Johnson – Chords, Tabs, & How to Play

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“Broken”
Jack Johnson

D
With everything ahead of us
We left everything behind
But nothing that we needed
At least not at this time
D                  G
And now the feeling that I’m feeling
G                                                      D
Well it’s feeling like my life is finally mine
Em                                      G                           D
With nothing to go back to we just continue to drive

Em
Without you I was broken,
Em      G                                                         D
But I’d rather be broke down with you by my side. (x2)

I didn’t know what I was looking for
So I didn’t know what I’d find
I didn’t know what I was missing
I guess you’ve been just a little too kind
And if I find just what I need
I’ll put a little peace in my mind
Maybe you’ve been looking too
Or maybe you don’t even need to try

Without you I was broken,
But I’d rather be broke down with you by my side.  (x2)

INSTRUMENTAL

With everything in the past
Fading faster and faster until it was gone
Found out I was losing so much more than I knew all along
Because everything I’ve been working for
Was only worth nickels and dimes
But if I had a minute for every hour that I’ve wasted
I’d be rich  in time; I’d be doing fine.

Without you I was broken,
But I’d rather be broke down with you by my side. (x4)

** 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. **