Tag Archives: unplugged

“Pinch Me” (Barenaked Ladies Cover)

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By Mike Fusco:

This song was done on the first take with the help of my bro Big Fusc, which was a lot of fun to do on the fly.  I heard this catchy pop song first in the Meriden Mall shopping and it was after I was into BNL, but before I realized “Wow, this song was THEM!”  And I cracked up at the line “I could hide out under there… I just made you say underwear”, which, comically enough, Jim JUST got this joke on Sunday night.  (how many years???  haha make sure to give him grief over that!)  This is from the album Maroon, a great album, and this song captures how I’m feeling right now… Not necessarily bad or down, actually very upbeat.

But,  I still feel like I’m walking around in a state of disbelief.  (so, Pinch Me!)  I hope you enjoy this acoustic cover me and my brother whipped up for the guitarbucketlist.com blog!

Leave me some love!

~mikey

“Unexplained” (Quilt Original Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

You know, it is time to ask the age-old question that I have asked multiple times this year.  I think i’ve lost count just how many times.

Any idea what it is?

Ok, here it goes.

“Why does Youtube feel like it’s time to have a maintenance only when it is my night to post for the day?”

Yes that’s right.  Youtube will be undergoing scheduled maintenance in a short while – probably after I finish typing this post.

But thankfully, I have uploaded the video already!  Ha!  And it’s a good one too.  It’s “Like bashing in the head of whomever schedules the time for Youtube maintenance so badly he looks at you and vows never to do it again and you force feed him various videos involving Mister Ed and movies with Paul Reiser until his eyeballs can’t take it anymore and he screams for mercy” good.

But seriously, it’s Original Wednesday – the BEST day of the week!  Where you get to hear another original tune from the library of yours truly.

The song I have chosen for tonight, ironically, is my own self-declared “Most Depressing Song i’ve ever written”.

From the 2003 Quilt album Expressions, the song is “Unexplained”.  There was a time towards the end of my senior year in college where I suddenly realized how “aware” I was of the world.  It’s what my teachers talked about throughout my years of school that “you’ll have to grow up and realize you aren’t invincible, there’s people around you, etc.”  It’s really a kind of awakening.  But that sudden awareness of things around you includes the positive…and the dreadfully negative.  I wrote this song after a period of questions that are embedded in the lyrics of this song.

It’s weird though.  Nowadays I tend to think about that subject matter at night as I drift off to sleep.  It’s discomforting for sure.  Funny thing is if you saw me at any point of the day where I was awake, you’d think I was the happiest person alive.

Well, I am quite happy.  I’ve got a great job, great wife, great condo, and an overall great life (my wife wants me to put “wife” first, but she doesn’t understand the literary prose that is at work here).  I even wrote in the liner notes of this album that the lyrics do not reflect my true overall state of thinking.

I decided to throw in some fingerpicking into this song, despite the recorded version having all normal picking.  The recorded version is also a bit slower than this one.  Also, 5 years later, I have more insights of how to sing songs properly.  I’m really pleased with the quality of this video!

Now, you know that tomorrow is Thumpin’ Thursday.  I’m still mad at my voice for supplanting my previous Thursday.  However, Jim “Like three octaves of pure unadulaterated BAM for your ears Good” Fusco will be here to show us his 2nd consecutive Thumpin’ entry.  It’s going to be that good.

I’ll see you in 3 days!

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!

“Never Without You” (Ringo Starr Cover – Jeff’s 100th session!)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening and welcome to your weekend-ending Super Sunday session w/ me, Jeff Copperthite!  I’m happy to expand my personal “bands covered” library with today’s session, which happens during a great landmark.

Tonight is my 100th Laptop Session!

And tonight i’m bringing you a sentimental dedication song by Ringo Starr.  This song is from his recent 2003 album Ringo Rama (though not his latest album) and was composed in remembrance of the late great George Harrison.  The fact that i’m wearing black in the video is just a coincidence, but it is well fitting for this video.

I am well behind on Beatles’ trivia, but Ringo Starr’s name is Richard Starkey.  The whole time i’m reading credits for the Ringo Rama album i’m going “Who is Starkey in the credits?”.  Should’ve guessed that it was him since it sounds a lot like Starr being derived from that.

I am excited that I have reached the 100 session mark.  Through the past year or so I have accomplished a lot during the course of these 100 sessions and I have made a lot of fans and recorded a lot of cover songs.  I’ve had to fight the urge to quit quite a few times, mostly due to negative comments (which we do get from time to time).  I’ve been told to throw my guitar out a window, stop insulting songs, and yes, i’ve even been told to inflict a self-mortal wound (paraphrased naturally).

But aside from the occasional negative comment, I have gotten huge amounts of positive feedback and that is the stuff that makes me continue to bring these videos to you.  I don’t intend for them to “get me anywhere” (as someone so kindly pointed out how i’ll never make it, despite me not really trying to do so) – I do it for fun and for your enjoyment.  And even if it’s a few people who truly enjoy seeing our sessions per day, if we have made it better because of our series, then that’s all the confirmation I need.

Here’s to 100 more sessions!  Come back tomorrow for Jim’s latest session – i’m sure you’ve missed him since his double dose last week.

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!

“Astronomy” (Blue Oyster Cult Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening to you, and welcome to your newest addition to The Laptop Sessions library!  It’s Jeff here bringing you a somewhat surprising song.  One can make the argument that we have not covered a band like this on this site.  But I hope that, if you never have heard of Blue Oyster Cult before (BOC), that you will enjoy this cover video.

BOC is the topic today (another new band!  I guess we had like New Bands 3.0 this week or something) and I have a great song by them from 1974.  Now if you don’t know who this band is, I will tell you a song that will instantly make you say “oh that’s who you’re talking about” – that song is “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”.  Yeah, they wrote that song.  It was also the same song that was being portrayed as recorded in an SNL sketch, where the now famous line was uttered by Christopher Walken – “needs more cowbell”.

Well, tonight I am not covering that song – but I am learning how to play it and I will be recording it before the year is out (may save it for a Thumpin’ Thursday – it is an awesome song).

Today I have a song from their 1974 album “Secret Treaties” titled “Astronomy”.  This song has a nice soft feel to it, and a completely kickass solo from their lead guitarist Buck Dharma.  Eric Bloom is their lead singer, and I discovered I can emulate his voice quite well.  Therefore, you’ll notice that my voice is a little different in this session.

I was introduced to this song because I heard a version of this song by Metallica from their 1998 covers album “Garage, Inc.”.  I decided I wanted to stay true to the original BOC version, so if you’re comparing this cover to the Metallica cover, you will notice quite a few differences between them.

For the performance, I tend to be a bit more “forgiving” of myself when the song is long.  This song’s recorded version clocks in at nearly 7 minutes.  I cut out a lot of the last “solo” time so that I would not have to play near-perfect guitar for 7 minutes.  The arpeggiated parts that I play in the song are not as clean as i’d like them to be.  But if I ever wanted to finish recording this video and upload it on time, I had to allow a minor glitch here and there.  I actually think this is one of my better singing performances, however.  I hope you feel the same way.

I am glad I was able to bring a new band your way this evening, and on Monday, i’ve got another new band – heck, let’s make it 4 new bands in a row by me by making next week’s Thumpin’ Thursday a new band as well!

Tomorrow Jim will return to his library of cover songs and lay another on us.  Come back for that – you know I will!

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!