“How’s It Going To Be” (Third Eye Blind Cover)

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to another Laptop Session, your source for quality acoustic cover songs! I’ve been taking it easy this past week, recording songs that I know and love, from bands I’m very comfortable with, such as the Band and Bob Dylan. This week, however, I’m endeavoring to expand my range a bit, and I think I have. I have a busy week coming up, as it’s the last week of school before summer, and there’s papers and exams a-plenty to be graded. To compensate for that, I recorded my three video blog entries today, which will cover me for today, Original Wednesday (when we songwriters get to showcase our own material!), and next Saturday.

My contribution to the Laptop Sessions cover songs blog is “How’s It Going To Be,” one of the singles from the same Third Eye Blind album that boasted their hit “Semi-Charmed Life.” This is a great song and very much conducive to being translated acoustically for this session. It was a fun experience, as I don’t think I’d ever fully grasped what the words to the verses were! But, I broke out my copy of the album — yay for buying physical copies rather than digital downloads! — and consulted the booklet, and I was in business.

This is the best way to record a cover song, in my personal opinion — unless you have an incredibly reliable memory for these things, like Jim “iPod for a brain” Fusco. Go to the original and play along, check your chords and tune, and then go off on your own. It was a bit challenging, as the chorus is different each time it’s played, not to mention that there’s a middle part that is practically shouted on the studio recording. I did the best I could with it, and I’m pretty happy with the outcome. To be truthful, there is one flubbed line by yours truly in the middle, but the middle is difficult to understand to begin with AND the words for that part are excluded from the lyrics section of the booklet! Not cool…

Well, I’m back to grading papers after having a fairly enjoyable couple hours here recording songs for the week. I can’t wait for my Original Wednesday, when I will play a song from my very first album working with a band, and Saturday will bring an artist that I have not covered before, but Jeff and/or Jim has. Any guesses?

Check out the Laptop Sessions archive for more excellent sessions from Jeff…

See you next session!



Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.

More Laptop Sessions covers

“Easy” (Jeff Copperthite Original Cover)

Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to Original Wednesday!  It’s Jeff today giving you an original song for our Wednesday edition.  It’s our favorite day of the week here.

Today I bring you yet another video from my 2008 album “Greenlight”.  The song is the last track of the album and is called “Easy”.  Jim was so kind to enlighten me that on Greenlight, I have two songs that are also Barenaked Ladies songs.  I think i’ll have to see if they are coverable songs and do them for kicks.

Of the songs I wrote for Greenlight, this was the first one I wrote in 2007, which was 2 years after another song on the album (“$500).  It set off a nice set of songwriting for me – probably the best of my life.  This song got written in two parts – 1st verse while I was in the old apartment, 2nd verse while in our new condo.  It was also the song that convinced Jim that I should consider recording a new album (which happened thankfully – that was a lot of fun).

And yes, if I can get some more solid songs together, another album in the future is certainly a possibility.

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!

Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.

More Laptop Sessions covers

“Mourning Train” (The Wallflowers Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

I’m back after a short hiatus!  Welcome to your special Friday edition of The Laptop Sessions.

Tonight’s song is the first Wallflowers cover in a long time.  I have selected another song from their 2nd album “Breach”, and I planned on closing out my 2008 run w/ the Sessions with another song from this album (I did mention it in an earlier post which song it was going to be)

As you know by now, I am a huge Wallflowers fan.  I enjoy all their albums and they are so easy to listen to at any time of the day.  My wife enjoys this band as well.  This cover is still a first for me though.  Up until now, i’ve covered their upbeat songs, and this is the first that is among their slower, gentler tunes.  It allows me to really sit back and play a nice, neat song with the cool writing of Jakob Dylan.

And yes, that is Bob Dylan’s son (in case you didn’t know).

We need not go into further detail, but know that we are committed to bringing you the best cover songs!  Jim, Chris, and I will continue our dedication not just through this year, but into the next.  We couldn’t wait to announce when you could look forward to more cover songs from the three of us!

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!

Editor’s note: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.

More Laptop Sessions covers

“Glide” (Stone Temple Pilots Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Yes!  It’s me again two nights in a row!  I have the privilege of bringing you another previously covered band (yeah I know, it seems like it’s new to cover a band we’ve already covered, but hey).  And not only that, another cover of a song you may not have heard before (just like yesterday).  I hope you enjoyed “Mourning Train”, because it’s just another impressive hit that I am happy to bring to you.

Well today here’s another song I have always liked from another favorite band Stone Temple Pilots.  Despite their rocky past and continually shaky future, they remain a favorite band of mine.  I enjoy their catalog from the beginning to end.  However, their later material has always shone much more to me.  This is because they geared more towards a “bluesy” and guitar-driven sound, rather than the reliance on power chords of the typical 90’s alternative bands.  This made them stand out much more to me.

Tonight’s song is “Glide” from their album “No. 4”. Glide is a very unique song in that the chords are all based on the same root for all the verses.  Despite the countless inversions and add 9s in the guitar part.  Like a song I have covered earlier in the year (“Spies” by Coldplay), it’s a unique guitar part but I am happy I pulled it off (mostly) on video.

I really tried my best to relax and belt this song out.  Combine the guitar part commentary mentioned above with a huge jump in notes and the use of falsetto, and you see I picked a doozy to cover.  I decided to be a bit more forgiving of myself in the mistake department, so you may spot a couple of misfingerings here and there.  To me it does not detract from the flow or the overall feel of the song in any way.

I recorded this song in the same session as the previous cover, and I had also attempted to record another song for a future session, but after this song I was just plum out of energy.  That was ok – that cover still showed up on Tuesday!

The next posts brought our regularly scheduled Jim Fusco acoustic cover, and then Chris Moore made Monday a bit less manic.  For me, i’m just gonna “glide” on upstairs to beat my wife in a game of Gin Rummy!

Until then…

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: this post was originally published before December 2015; the exact original date is uncertain.

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