The Laptop Sessions Cover Songs & Original Music Video Blog

For Kevin Renick chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to another week of new material from the best acoustic cover song music video blog in the universe!  We’re glad you’ve chosen to stop by and we hope you’ll read the posts, watch our music videos, and leave us some comments and requests.

Let me begin my post tonight by explaining the new background.  Although I think I will eventually establish the living room as my backdrop — better lighting, better acoustics — I wanted Laptop Sessions regulars to see that my “wall 0′ CD’s” has been rebuilt in the condo.  I just recorded this video, so there wasn’t any natural light to speak of.  Thus, the image is a bit yellowed.  Additionally, I spent the weekend working on installing surge protectors, organizing my bookshelf, maximizing space in the closet, etc., so there aren’t any posters.  The walls look pretty plain, but I promise there will be a more complete backdrop soon.  I have a cool Beatles poster that came free if you bought two or more Beatles remasters at Newbury Comics, and I’ve been itching to put that up.  And, of course, there are the Bob Dylan posters that have been with me since I lived with my parents, so it will be nice to get those up soon, as well.

Until then, let’s just focus on the music…

I’ve wanted to record this song since I heard it in the closing credits of Up in the Air a month ago.  I had planned to record it right away, but Spoon’s new album, an Elvis Costello phase, and the aborted Locksley new release all intervened.  I had considered milking the Who publicity for a session and I was looking for a fitting Jimi Hendrix song for today, but I just couldn’t put this one off any longer.

If you haven’t heard of Kevin Renick, well, that’s kind of the point.  Apparently, he wrote “Up in the Air” a couple years before he heard that director Jason Reitman was working on a film adaptation of the book.  The version you hear in the film is the original recording Renick handed to Reitman after he heard Reitman speak.  The cassette recording begins, “Hi, Jason.  My name is Kevin Renick, and I’ve written a song called ‘Up in the Air.’ I wanted you to hear it.  It goes like this…”

What follows is a home recording that is simple and wonderfully suited for the film.  Of course, it was literally no work to translate this into a Laptop Session as, for all intents and purposes, it already is.  When I read more about Renick tonight, I became even more excited about posting this session.  He is not signed to a record label.  He has never released an album before.  Being unemployed himself, he sings his song with conviction, and it was relaxing to learn, play, and record.

The lyrics, like the song, are deceptively simple.  There are some great lines here — “When people ask me what I’m doing with my life, I say, ‘It’s up in the air’” and “I’m hearing from friends; it’s that tired, old advice again: ‘You just cannot keep floating all around; oh, you got to get your feet back on the ground.’”

I can’t understate how well this song encapsulated the feel of the film and of the other excellent music chosen for the soundtrack.  The Up in the Air soundtrack includes one of my favorite Elliott Smith songs, “Angel in the Snow” (from the New Moon posthumous release), a couple of cool Graham Nash songs (one with Crosby and Stills, one solo demo), and Dan Auerbach’s “Goin’ Home” (from Keep It Hid, my pick for the #10 best rock album of 2009).

So, that’s the story behind “Up in the Air.”  Once I’ve finished posting this session, I’m off to grade some senior papers before dinner, and then I have two things I’m looking very much forward to.  The first is watching — and yes, your nerd-o-meters are about to go crazy — Star Trek: Voyager with Nicole.  I haven’t watched Voyager for YEARS, not since I watched from the sixth season or so on with my mother.  Every week, we’d meet and watch that show until it went off the air.  And I loved it!  But I never thought to go back, so that’s been my recent television indulgence.

In music-related “news,” the second activity I’m looking forward to tonight is finally being able to relax and read the booklet to the posthumous Jimi Hendrix collection First Rays of the New Rising Sun.  I unfortunately had to return a Christmas present, and although I put it off for weeks, I finally exchanged it last Friday for this Hendrix CD.  I’ve been mildly interested in it for a few years, but I wasn’t sure what it would be like.  I’m generally of the opinion that the overall consistency and quality of Hendrix’s albums started at near-perfection with Are You Experienced? (1967) and declined from there, particularly on Electric Ladyland (1968).  That’s not to say that he didn’t make some tremendous, outstanding music after his debut album — “Wait Until Tomorrow,” “Castles Made of Sand,” “Bold as Love,” “Crosstown Traffic,” and his cover of “All Along the Watchtower” — but the second and third albums themselves just weren’t as tight or compelling as the first.

Let me tell you: it’s a SHAME that Hendrix never finished First Rays of the New Rising Sun.  Even as a 17 track collection compiled “under the direct supervision of the Hendrix family,” this disc is easily the best, most dynamic work he released after Are You Experienced? Given the time, Hendrix may very well have topped even that.  Anyone who owns the greatest hits collection Experience Hendrix already knows the rocking “Freedom,” the jaw-droppingly beautiful “Angel,” and “Dolly Dagger.”  If you like those tracks, you should check this out as well, especially for great work like “Night Bird Flying,” “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun),” and “In From the Storm.”  Great stuff indeed.

Well, that about does it for me this week.  Of course, you should hurry back every day of this week for fun new material — you can bank on another full Laptop Session, a three-part “Yes, No, Maybe So, Retro” series, a Guest Session of a great Buddy Holly song, and an all-new Weekend Review.  Don’t miss any of these great music-related posts — you’re only going to find them here…

See you next session!

To see how it’s played in a music video, CLICK HERE!

“Up in the Air”
Kevin Renick

C    G            C
I’m up in the air,
C                       G                C
Choices drifting by me everywhere.
C       Am                Em
And I can’t find the one
Em             Am                                        Em
That would help me do the work I’ve left undone,
Em            G            C
‘Cause I’m up in the air.

I’m making some plans,
Finding out there’s always new demands.
And I can’t be precise;
When people ask me what I’m doing with my life,
I say, “It’s up in the air.”

C    G                  C
I’m hearing from friends.
C                   G                C
It’s that tired, old advice again:
C      Am                                        Dm
“You just cannot keep floating all around.
Dm        Am                                             Dm
Oh, you got to get your feet back on the ground.”
Dm      Am                Em
But it’s hard to come down
Em               G             C
When you’re up in the air.

C         G                    C
Daaaa, da-da, da, da-da.
C         G                    C
Daaaa, da-da, da, da-da.
Am      Em     Am             Em
Daaaa, daaa; daaa, da-da-da
C
Mmm-mm…

I’m traveling in my car,
Always lost, though I don’t go that far.
I find that I can live most anywhere.
Everyone I meet has so much they can share.
But I don’t settle down,
‘Cause I’m up in the air.

I’m thinking of my past,
The comfort in my home that couldn’t last.
Now my family tells me work for your success,
And they want to see me find some happiness.
But I’m not sure where that is,
‘Cause I’m up in the air.

I’m talking with my peers,
Listening to them tell their inner fears.
Some have lives that haven’t gone the way they planned,
And some are trapped in situations they can’t stand.
But I don’t want the same for me,
So I stay up in the air.

Daaaa, da-da, da, da-da.
Daaaa, da-da, da, da-da.
Daaaa, daaa; daaa, da-da-da
Mmm-mm…

I’m out in the woods;
Something here does my heart so good.
I breathe the air, and I know that I’m alive.
And I stare at all the birds as they fly by.
I guess it all comes down to them,
‘Cause they’re up in the air…

This is a Weekend Review SPECIAL REPORT!

By Chris Moore:

SET LIST BELOW!!

I can’t believe it’s already been a year since the Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band Halftime Show, an event that inspired such a high degree of anticipation that people were literally placing bets on which songs would be played. There was a certain degree of mystery around what Springsteen would choose to play, and he gave very few clues as to what the set list would look like. Except, of course, that it would be an action-packed twelve minutes.

Well, we are rapidly approaching the Who’s twelve minutes of fame and they are much less concerned with such anticipation.

As Pete Townshend said earlier this week, “We’re doing kind of a compact medley, like a mash-up of stuff,” he says. “A bit of ‘Baba O’Riley,’ a bit of ‘Pinball Wizard,’ a bit of the close of ‘Tommy,’ a bit of ‘Who Are You’ and a bit of ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again.’ It works — it’s quite a saga. A lot of the stuff that we do has that kind of celebratory vibe about it — we’ve always tried to make music that allows the audience to go a bit wild if they want to. Hopefully it will hit the spot.”

And so, with no new album — either recent or upcoming — to promote, a medley it is!

The Who go acoustic three days before Super Bowl XLIV.

There are certainly going to be those who poo-poo at The Who taking the stage before what is annually the largest crowd assembled for one television program. And yet, their age and the percentage of surviving members (50%) notwithstanding, we’re talking about the Who.

In the hierarchy of rock’n'roll, there aren’t too many who get billing above this band. The Beatles, to be certain. The Rolling Stones. Dylan.

Quite impressive company.

As Ray Waddell of the Macon Daly wrote in what is certainly the most interesting of the pre-Super Bowl articles, “The power and continued relevance of Townshend’s writing are obvious, but few could argue that Daltrey’s supercharged vocals don’t play a key role in the longevity of the songs.“

The Who Super Bowl T-Shirt!

Even for an avid music fan like myself, the Who have passed beneath my radar save for their greatest hits (I have two of those, actually) and Tommy. The more I’ve been reading about them and listening to them this week, the more I’ve realized what a shame that is. The Who have repeatedly received that label that Dylan oh-so-despises — voice of a generation. They pioneered, albeit not initially on purpose, the so-called “instrument destruction” aspect of some emotional rock concerts. This band was among the first rock bands to incorporate synthesized sounds into their records, which were increasingly more conceptual throughout their career.

The list goes on.

And although by most standards they dropped off the map in the early to mid-eighties, here are Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey to take the stage in front of the largest single audience a band could hope for. Very fitting indeed, as this is, of course, the band that set the record for the largest indoor concert in 1975…

There’s not as much for me to predict, bet, or suggest as there was last year, but I can tell you that, while I am interested in tonight’s excellent match-up between the Colts and the Saints, I am very excited for the Who. Say what you will about their last album Endless Wire — and the critics panned it — but that album had its moments of strength. I can’t imagine that tonight will be anything less than one of those strong high points of their recent career.

I’m off to the Super Bowl party with my girlfriend, so that’s it for now. Stay tuned for the set list, or medley order, or whatever it ends up being… I’ll be updating it here, at LaptopSessions.com, minute by minute.

THE WHO’s HALFTIME SET LIST

1 ) “Pinball Wizard”

2 ) “Baba O’Riley”

3 ) “Who Are You”

4 ) “See Me, Feel Me”

5 ) “Won’t Get Fooled Again”

REVIEW:

While the Who didn’t quite match the immediacy and the downright sweaty performance by Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band last year, their set evoked a calm and a confidence that, although predictable, was nice to see. After all, this was a mere twelve minutes of playing hits that they’ve been touring with for decades.

In other words, there was nothing unpredictable about the Halftime Show.
I would have settled for just one guitar being smashed.

Or at least a microphone…

The staging was perhaps the most impressive aspect of the set, as the Who opted out of the by-now-typical mass of fans that crowd the field for the mini concert. Instead, their stage was expansive and incorporated a variety of light patterns – spelling out “The Who,” lyrics to songs, and more. With Townshend’s well-known hearing issues, I was surprised, but happy, to see the fireworks display.

And did you see those classic blue, white, and red cymbols on the transparent drum set?

Overall, this was a very entertaining show. Again, it was nothing phenomenal and there will undoubtedly be those who will disparage these sixty-something rockers, but there was never a dull moment. Most songs were — the theme of the night– predictable (Townshend told us, after all, and, come on, how could they avoid playing “Who Are You” on CBS??) but I didn’t see “See Me, Feel Me” coming.

The onside kick that followed the concert overshadowed the set, but it was fun to see the Who and I, for one, hope the Super Bowl continues to call on these classic acts!

By Federico Borluzzi:

Unplugged cover of Bob Dylan’s “Every Grain Of Sand” (from the Shot Of Love album – 1981), with acoustic guitar and harmonica.  I changed the two harmonica solos to fit my harmonica skills (I have a lot to learn before I can play exactly what Dylan plays) and the possibilities of my G tuned harmonica.

** EDITOR’S NOTE: **

In his first contribution to the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video blog, Federico has chosen a beautiful little number.  I wonder if he was aware of my love for Bob Dylan when he decided to submit this video…

He certainly couldn’t have been aware of how much I love this underrated gem of an album, Shot of Love.  Often considered the third in his “born-again Christian trilogy” of studio albums, Shot of Love is actually more of a transition album.  Critics tore this release apart, often with the exception of “Every Grain of Sand.”  And, truly, Federico couldn’t have chosen a better song to translate into an acoustic cover.  Although his harmonica is not spot-on, it is clearly because of the key the harmonica is in.  He has a knack for matching the fingerpicking pattern as well as the harmonica tabs — any Dylan fan will be able to hear how close his solo is to the original, all except for the key, that is.

And, again, I’m thrilled at his choice of album.  Shot of Love may have been panned by fans and critics alike, but there are some excellent tracks.  Consider “Heart of Mine,” percussion by none other than Ringo Starr.  Then, there’s the striking “Lenny Bruce.”  “Property of Jesus” may be dismissed as just another “Christian song,” but it’s a catchy and effective one.  And, although it wasn’t included on pressings until four years later, “The Groom’s Still Waiting at the Altar” is a phenomenal Dylan track.

So, listen to Federico’s first session, and get out there and listen to Shot of Love if you’ve been missing out all these years!

By Jim Fusco:

Here I am, baby, with another edition of Jim Fusco Tuesdays here on the best video blog you’ve ever seen!  How do I know that?  Well, I’ll give you a few minutes to look around, then come back…

…

…

Back?  Yeah- I thought so.  We have the greatest selection of acoustic cover songs you’ll find ANYWHERE on the internet.  Where else can you find a Wilco song juxtaposed next to a Stevie Wonder song…done by two pasty white guys in Connecticut?  Well, I’ll tell you where- right here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog.

Onto tonight’s video:

For my Tuesday night edition, I bring you a special Inauguration song in honor of our new President, Barack Obama.  Yes, I’ve been a supporter of the man from the start of the race, but that’s not why I did this song.  As per the quite harsh comments I recieved on one of my original songs, I don’t think I’ll be bringing politics into the conversation anytime soon (join me next week for my exposé on religion…kidding!).  But, I think we should all come together as a nation right now under our inspirational new leader and try to fix what ails this economy and the world in general.

In honor of Motown’s 50th Anniversay (thank you, full page ad in Rolling Stone…), I’ll be doing this and another great Motown hit next week on Jim Fusco Tuesdays here on the music video blog.  I hope Chris and Jeff will help me sing some great Motown numbers, as well, as we’re also very rapidly approaching Black History Month in February.

If you remember Obama’s speeches during the primaries and election, then you’ve heard this song before.  Every time Obama won something, Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours” would play loudly to a group of screaming Obama fans.  “Signed, Sealed, Delivered…” was Barack Obama’s theme song of sorts.  It was always a great motivator that said, “Here I am- you’ve chosen me and I want to be here.”

I hope you got to see the Inauguration today.  My brother Mike was saying that he actually felt bad for former President Bush when the crowd started singing “Na, na, na, na… Na, na, na, na… Hey, hey hey… Goodbye…” as his helicopter exited Washington D.C.  He’s served his time.  He had a lot of bad luck and said some things he really should’ve thought about a bit more before saying and his legacy is…well, we’ll leave History up to that one…

So, I’m happy to honor our new President tonight with this classic Stevie Wonder song.  If you love Barack Obama, or you still need to warm up to him as President, I hope you’ll realize that we’re all in this together and that Obama is here, signed, sealed, delivered and ready to work as President of the United States.  This is a very hopeful day for America and I think that’s something this country sorely needed.  Goodnight and I’ll be back tomorrow with a great Original Wednesday song from MoU!