Tag Archives: youtube videos

“All Along the Watchtower” (A Bob Dylan Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Now, this is truly a day of firsts for me. Three firsts, if I count them accurately. In order of occurrence: (1) I woke up on my own, on a Saturday, at a decent hour, and got right out of bed. Anyone who knows me on any personal level to any degree knows how amazing that truly is. (2) Then, I recorded my Saturday cover video in one take, including rehearsals. When it comes to these cover song sessions, I am probably more of a perfectionist than I should be. Thus, I repeatedly practice and record the music videos until I’m satisfied I could not do any better. Suffice it to say that usually takes anywhere between five and twenty-five takes. Today, one!! And, finally (3) I came upstairs from FMP Studios to find Jim, having just woken up, in an excellent mood. This is nothing against Jim — and I’m admittedly a bear (not one of those friendly, cuddly ones you might see at a show with a trainer, but one of those angry, blood thirsty ones that attack campers and hikers without provocation ala the John Candy movie The Great Outdoors) if you try to wake me from nodding off during a movie, etc. — but Jim’s just not a morning person. We sat and talked about the music blog, brainstormed some new ways to improve our views and content, and then laughed quite heartily about bathroom humor, the details of which I’ll spare you.

All told, really not a bad way to start a beautiful, sunny summer day!

But let’s get down to business. My acoustic cover song for today is Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower.” Ironically, you are probably more familiar with the Jimi Henrix’s cover version than you are of Dylan’s original music. And, even as a HUGE Dylan fan, I have to admit that Hendrix’s cover song is the definitive version. Even Dylan admitted as much — his live performances of the song still reflect Hendrix’s arrangement. That being said, Dylan’s original is heavily acoustic, so I felt that would be a better version for this acoustic guitar music video. So, I grabbed my acoustic guitar, dusted off my harmonica rack, and gave it my all. One take. Could it have been better, more polished? Yes, I suppose. But this is what the Laptop Sessions are all about — this is a snapshot in time, as though you sat down with me in my living room and I just played it for you, on a whim. I hope you enjoy it!

And, of course, don’t miss the unveiling of an all-new acoustic cover song from Jeff Copperthite — his next quality cover video will be posted here tomorrow…

See you next session!

**EDITOR’S NOTE: This video is no longer on YouTube, but please check out our other Bob Dylan cover songs here on the music video blog!

“Wish You Were Here” (Pink Floyd Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to your Saturday edition of The Laptop Sessions!  I promised a hat trick of Pink Floyd Acoustic Cover videos, and today I deliver the third in my mini-series.  This song is by request of our own Jim Fusco, but as I mentioned before this was in my potential song list for a while.  Maybe by the end of our session-a-day project I will get to the 4th and 5th songs I was considering.

Today’s song is “Wish You Were Here” from the album of the same name.  This is among the simpler songs to play, and the soft acoustic guitar riff that is constant in the song comes out nicely in this video.  I did freestyle the lyric timing a bit here and there, but it works quite well in my opinion.

I hope you enjoy my last video before I go on vacation #2 of the summer.  I will be doing my next two or more videos from our hotel room this upcoming week.

Oh, and as far as the homerun derby mentioned Wednesday…let’s just say my new sponsor is Hoover vacuums…because I sucked.

Stay tuned tomorrow to your Super Sunday edition where Jim will break out his latest and greatest acoustic cover song.  See you 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!

“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.

“Bastard” (Ben Folds Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Tonight’s session, Ben Folds’ “Bastard,” is the opening track to one of the most memorable albums in my collection. Songs For Silverman was released in 2005, a few years after I had really gotten into listening to albums. When I say “gotten into,” I mean that albums quickly became one of the few subjects that truly captured my attention and imagination as a high school senior. As I got into college, I quickly found a slew of new albums that I thought were incredible, ranging from the classics like Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde to new music from Paul McCartney and the Wallflowers. I will always look back at that period of my life and fondly recall how new it all felt.

By 2005, I unwittingly began to fall into the traps that I had scoffed others for, specifically those like the Dylan fans who booed him when he went electric. Was it different? Yes. But, was it amazing music? Absolutely! I couldn’t fathom how close-minded people could be to new music. Unfortunately, two albums that I disliked upon their release — the Wallflowers’ Rebel, Sweetheart and the aforementioned Ben Folds’ Songs For Silverman — I later went on to greatly respect. I had to ask myself, why didn’t I initially fall in love with them?

The answer to this question lies in expectations. I expected Songs For Silverman to be as dynamic a record as Rockin’ The Suburbs, his previous and debut solo release. I expected him to play all the instruments and sing all the harmonies. When I listened to the album, there was a consistent sound throughout each of the tracks. He used a bass player and a drummer to augment his piano. It simply wasn’t what I expected. And to top it off, magazines like Rolling Stone were praising it for being more mature and overall better than Rockin’ The Suburbs, an album that I absolutely loved.

It is for this reason that Songs for Silverman holds a special place on my CD rack — it is an album that I didn’t give a fair chance. Ever since this realization, I have tried to approach each new album for what it is — a new album. It may not be the same or even as good as previous work, but if I give it a chance, I might enjoy it or even find it to be better! I know how much Jim Fusco and my sister, Jaime, love the songs on this album — Jaime didn’t take this CD out of her car for weeks after its release — and I’m glad I finally came around.

Well, I hope this makes up for my lack of post on my “7 8 9” video three days ago; I was just so tired that I couldn’t think straight. And I felt that video spoke for itself; it was amazingly fun to record. With Jim there to add acoustic flairs and background vocals, we knocked it out in a couple takes. We would have recorded some more from our long duet list — about ten or fifteen at this point — but hunger (and the need for ant traps) set in…

I hope you enjoy “Bastard.” You’ll get to hear my embarrassing and mercifully rare falsetto. You’ll get to hear me flub a couple of words noticeable only to the Ben Folds fanatic. You’ll get to see me (most likely) create enemies because I’ve broken Ben Folds’ general no-guitars policy and recorded an acoustic cover song of this song.

See you next session!