Originally posted 2009-10-05 14:00:22.
For Pearl Jam chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!
By Chris Moore:
Hello and welcome to an all-new week of cover songs at the best acoustic cover song music video blog in the universe — guaranteed, or your money back!
I guess the guilt falls to me for breaking the Beatles marathon…
It’s been a blast reviewing Beatles albums, recording Fab Four covers, and watching the Traveling Acai Berrys’ and Jeff’s renditions, but now it’s time for me to inject a little fresh music into the timeline of the Laptop Sessions.
“Just Breathe” is track five from the new Pearl Jam album Backspacer, and is truly a perfect fit for the Laptop Sessions format. The studio version is primarily Eddie Vedder singing and playing acoustic guitar, so it only took memorizing the words and transcribing the chords. As usual, I started online and found a site with chords and lyrics that were almost right.
Well, “almost right” doesn’t fly around here.
The middle is NOT comprised of C and F chords; that “C” simply didn’t sound quite right. It should be Am instead of C. In addition, there were some minor lyrical inaccuracies — “all” instead of “are,” “save” instead of “take,” etc. The person who transcribed the song included a personal note about the song at the bottom, and he seemed like a really nice guy who truly loved this song. And he made figuring out this song much easier than if I had simply started on my own.
But that’s what we at the Laptop Sessions pride ourselves about — our commitment to performing songs as faithfully as possible, cross-checking our facts to be certain what we write is accurate, and always knowing when a song has already been recorded as a session.
Oh, right. About that last one…
I need to apologize to Jeff for recording “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” as though he had never recorded it. The funny part is that, when I went back and read his post later, I clearly remembered reading it. I recalled his mention of Eddie Vedder (whose music I barely knew and wasn’t enthusiastic about at the time), and I remembered being intrigued by his “Semaphore” reference. Apparently, flag semaphore is a system of symbols for conveying information through waving flags or bare hands. Although photographer Robert Freeman had the idea to have John, Paul, George, and Ringo spell out “HELP” in semaphore, they decided on a different arrangement — “NUJV”– that was more aesthetically pleasing as the cover art for Help!
Going back to the song of the day, I should acknowledge that I originally planned to record “The End,” and I practiced it a number of times with that intention in mind. In fact, a former student of mine emailed me with the idea of recording it, so I was reluctant to admit to myself that the chorus is just too far out of my range. I still posted the chords and lyrics, though, so others might be able to enjoy learning and playing it. Guest session, anyone?
As I was preparing for my session last week, I had been listening back to some of my recent sessions and realized something. Since I moved from the Fusco-Moore Experience to my current apartment, I have never worn the same shirt twice while recording a music video. Here’s a quick retrospective:
July 13 – Bob Dylan Together Through Life t-shirt (thanks again, Fusc!)
July 20 – Vermont t-shirt (thanks, Mom & Dad!)
August 4 – plaid, western-looking collared shirt
August 4 (second video) – Dodge Charger t-shirt (thanks, Jim!)
August 11 – tan and blue striped collared shirt
August 17 – blue and white striped collared shirt
August 23 – 40th Anniversary 1969 Mets t-shirt (thank you, CitiField!)
August 31 – Abbey Road t-shirt from London (thanks, Nicole!)
September 28 -black Bass fishing t-shirt
Today marks my tenth video, and thus it is my tenth shirt. My goal is to never wear the same shirt twice. Even though I’m running out of t-shirts, we are heading into winter, so my long sleeve shirts will be featured soon. When spring comes, it should get interesting. I wonder if I can fit into Nicole’s shirts…
Anyway, I hope you enjoy my video. This completes my recent Pearl Jam run, adding both a full album review and a one-sentence review of Backspacer, chords & lyrics to three songs, and now a full Laptop Sessions post.
Aside from an ever-increasing stack of grading on my desk at school, life has been hectic but good recently. I’ve been really excited about the music on my iPod and in my car this past month. After going through quite the dry spell during the summer — Third Eye Blind and Sister Hazel, anyone? — the Arctic Monkeys and Pearl Jam have added some excitement to my “Albums- 2009″ playlist. In addition, my birthday weekend has been pretty laid back, but a lot of fun. I heard from just about all my closest friends, and Jaime even came up from New York to visit on Sunday and give me the beautifully designed “Chris Moore Birthday Bash!” mix CD! I’m itching to start tweeting about the FYE gift card that Mike got me, Nicole bought me (among other awesome items ranging from practical to academic to entertaining) a book of essays about Bob Dylan written by scholars, I got a text message from Alb that brought me back to our summer of video gaming, and I’m officially, finally having breakfast next week with one of my dearest friends who I haven’t seen for over a year. Good stuff all around.
See you next session!
Related posts:
This is one in a series of acoustic cover songs, original music, and free mp3 downloads here on the Laptop Sessions Music Video Blog.
July 31st, 2010 at 1:11 am
Hi there! sounds like you’re a teacher too! English by any chance? I can relate to the papers that get put off as I strum my guitar!
August 27th, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Hi Jason,
You got it! It’s always a balance, and I’ve found that playing music helps settle my mind and refocus, particularly when there’s a lot of grading to be done.