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“Burnin’ Up” (Goo Goo Dolls Cover)

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By Jeff:
Welcome to your Thumpin’ Thursday edition of The Laptop Sessions – not pre-empted by power failure!

I’ve got a great song tonight that is an album cut from The Goo Goo Dolls.  They are another band I pretty much grew up with, and among the few that I have seen in concert more than once.

Tonight’s song is called “Burnin’ Up” and it’s the 2nd track.  Robby Takac, their bassist, sings lead on this song.  It’s funny that most of the songs that become singles for radio play are sung by their guitarist Johnny Rzeznik.  They have even acknowledged that the songs he sings tend to have more commercial appeal.  Takac was actually the original lead singer and sang most of the songs all the way through their first 3 albums.

One of the songs I have lined up for the future is actually a song from an even earlier album and it’s a humorous song as well.  If you know their catalog, you will get the song right away (and it’d be appropriate for an acoustic cover – i.e. there is no mention of a baseball bat).

I got to go out golfing for the first time this year today, and shot a miserable +15 on a par 3 course.  I did par one hole and get a couple of bogeys, but for the most part I played above par golf.  I hope I don’t play this bad tomorrow when I play 9 holes at a regular course.

Well that’s it for this 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 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!

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“No Excuses” (Alice In Chains Acoustic Rock Cover)

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By Jeff:

Welcome to Thumpin’ Thursday!  I’ve got a great alternative song that I had completely forgotten about up until recently.

Two weeks ago my wife & I bought a Nintendo Wii after a long time of debating whether we wanted it enough to buy it.  Well, thankfully that answer is yes.  We bought a few games we knew we’d like, which included the line of “Wii” games (including the Wii fit, which i’m happy to report is actually quite effective), and I also bought Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero: Metallica.

Well,  next week I hope that I can actually…cover a Metallica song!  An acoustic cover?  You bet!  I’m sure those that are reading this will probably narrow the possibilities down to about 3 songs.

But the reason I mention Guitar Hero: Metallica (besides the fact that I love it and am currently working on 5-starring all the songs on Hard) is because today’s song is in this game.  It helped to remind me that it existed, and that it would make a great session entry.

So today I bring you “No Excuses” by Alice in Chains from their 1994 album “Jar of Flies”.  This song always sounded like it’d be more difficult than it actually is.  The lyrics and song always made me sing along throughout my teenage years.  I love the chorus that fits right in to the mood.

The song is very easy to play.  Tune the guitar down 1/2 step, and play a standard A barre chord, but only press down on the low E string with your index finger, leaving the B and high E string open the entire song.  Slide that up to the 7th fret, and back again for the verse.  For the chorus, bring it down to G, then A, B, A, G, A, then E in standard position (I use my middle, ring, and pinky to play the chord so it allows me to return to the barre position for the verse).

I tried to use a slightly different position today, facing the sound hole from the guitar towards the camera.  It seemed to work for “Hello, it’s Late” from last month.

I hope you enjoy today’s entry, and next week perhaps I’ll see you for another great session!  TTFN!

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!

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!

More Laptop Sessions covers

“Bridge Song” (Dishwalla Cover)

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By Jeff:
Welcome to Thumpin’ Thursday – another busy day in the life of Jeff.

But thankfully that busy-ness includes the posting of another video.

Today’s song is by the obscure band “Dishwalla”, and I shall be throwing my two cents into the ring from some obscure songs that I have lined up.

They’re only known by true fans as well, and this one fits that description.

The song is called “Bridge Song” and it’s from their album “And you think you know what life’s about”.  This album is not as well known, and did not sell nearly the same amount of copies as “Pet Your Friends” did.

This cover has more of a personal touch to it because I did not stick to the same structure that exists in the recording.  Again, you’d have to know the song to know what I did differently.

I’m also experimenting with slightly different camera angles.  This is because I continue to receive comments about my voice being “boomy” in the condenser microphone in the camera.  So i’m trying to sing off to the side to see if that helps things.  Tonight I did have graduation so I was a bit tired.  I wouldn’t say this is my best performance by any means.

But still, please enjoy the song.

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!

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!

More Laptop Sessions covers

“Hello It’s Late” (Stone Temple Pilots Cover)

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By Jeff:

Assistant Editor/Historian’s note: This post was originally posted in May 2009.  STP had reunited and has since been rebranded due to legal proceedings.  A lot has happened since this post – reunion, firing of Scott Weiland, and the original band being named “Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington”.

That’s right, back to our usual normally scheduled Thumpin’ Thursday schedule!  This time, I promise it’s a song that has not been covered.

I have been lining up more songs to cover since that debacle last week, but it’s not a huge deal, and Chris, Jim, and I all got quite a few laughs over it.  Well, I can only assume.

So I am going to return to one of my favorite bands of all time (as it is known), and not The Wallflowers.  It’s Stone Temple Pilots!  I can add this song to the long library of STP songs that have been covered on this site.

The song is from the album “Shangri La Dee Da”, or “The album we made before we broke up” called “Hello It’s Late”.  I have enjoyed this song because there’s a simple sublety to the guitar riff and the lyrics.

I don’t know about you, but I tend to figure out the meanings of songs easier when I play them.  I must detach myself from the meaning of the lyrics as I listen to a song.  But playing it forces me to follow the lyrics.  That being said, I still don’t know what the true meaning of this song is.  I suppose it could be googled, but i’m discouraged after trying to google what Peter Griffin was saying in the episode “PTV” when he was talking to his wife and getting airhorned every other word.

I had an absolutely wonderful day in school today.  I definitely lifted a huge weight off my shoulders.  Some of you know what i’m talking about.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of the youtube users who have left me some really positive and encouraging comments over the past month.  It’s really awesome when I tend to get more positive comments than dumb troll comments.  The former seems to be on the upswing, and i’m very appreciative of that.  I can only hope my subscribers do find their way over here to read things like this about them.

Also, 120k views!  And this is my 139th session – 11 before the next landmark.

And…well, you know what my last line is.  It’s the same one from the past few posts.

More Laptop Sessions covers