Daily Archives: November 5, 2007

“Night Time” (Brian Wilson Cover)

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Tonight’s Laptop Session is a song from Brian Wilson’s 1988 solo album, aptly titled, “Brian Wilson”! I saw a YouTube video of him playing this on Letterman in 1988, and hearing the overproduced “80s” sound made me want to give it the Laptop Sessions treatment, as I did with Brian’s song “I’m So Lonely” (from the Beach Boys 1985 album).

No, this isn’t one of Brian’s greatest songs, but I think a lot of people write it off because its production, and not necessarily because of the quality of the song. But again, that’s one of the big reasons why I’m doing the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs series.  I don’t think songs should be ignored because of the time-period of which they were produced.  Giving a song a fresh sound, done in a solo liver performance on acoustic guitar will allow people to hear the song and not just the recording.

“Night Time” is one of those songs from Brian Wilson’s first solo album that his therapist (who called himself “producer” at the time) Eugene Landy said he had a hand in writing.  I’m not sure about that, but from everything I can gather, Brian was still in a pretty fragile mental state.  It was only a year earlier that he was passed-over (or declined, depending on who you ask) to work on the Beach Boys #1 hit single, “Kokomo”.  I can only imagine “Kokomo” with Brian’s voice in there.  It would’ve been great.  Of course, I’m glad they ended up giving Carl Wilson a chance to shine on the “That’s where we wanna go…” line.  So, I guess it wasn’t all bad that Brian wasn’t a part of “Kokomo”.

Brian Wilson’s first solo album was critically acclaimed.  It really has some great songs on it.  All of them have an incredibly polished late-80s sound to it.  Though, it does sound like a Brian Wilson production.  It almost sounds like an updated “Love You” album with better synthesizers.  Fans of “Love You” will remember that it was a fairly revolutionary album at the time because of the synthesized keyboards Brian Wilson used throughout.  I, for one, could do without them- it would make the album sound less dated today.  But then again, it also gives me the opportunity to record a bunch of Beach Boys and Brian Wilson cover songs for you!  Therefore, the synthesizer, and all 80s music, seems to be my friend.

I think it’ll be a treat for hardcore Brian Wilson fans out there, too, who probably already like “Night Time” and the entire “Brian Wilson” album.  If you haven’t heard “Night Time” before, I really hope you’re in for a treat.  Enjoy tonight’s Laptop Sessions Brian Wilson cover song!

“Wishing You Were Here” (Chicago Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello all and welcome to another installment of the Laptop Sessions!!

Here’s a neat one because of the collaborative effort on the original. This song, Wishing You Were Here, written by the great Peter Cetera, is one of my favorite Chicago songs. I love many of their other songs as well, and you’ll be hearing them in the coming weeks!

But, this one has to be one of Cetera’s best. I mean, he got bandmate Terry Kath to sing lead on the verses with a real raspy voice, then the Beach Boys (well, Carl Wilson, Al Jardine, and Dennis Wilson, anyway) come in with the rest of Chicago and sing those great harmonies on the “Wishing You Were Here” part. Plus, Cetera even sings a great lead on the middle 8!  I’ve always been drawn to this Chicago song, even before I knew the Beach Boys were on it.  I guess when you like a certain style of music, certain tones just strike a chord with you…no pun intended. 🙂

Over the years, I’ve also come to appreciate the subject matter of “Wishing You Were Here”.  Lines like, “Same old show in a different town, on another time,” tell us about how life on the road in a band can be tough.  Fans can only see the good things- the wealth, the fame, and the opportunity to sing and play music.  What could be better than that?  But often, I find myself thinking that I would very quickly miss my family and friends.  In fact, it’s one of the reasons why I never just dropped everything to pursue music!  It’s the subject of my 2009 album, “Halfway There”, available on my website at http://jimfusco.com.  On that album, there are original songs that talk about my passion for music, but also my want to get married and settle down.  It was quite the dueling conflict with me for a while. I think I summed it up pretty well on that album- I hope you think my songwriting gets the sentiment across.  Anyway, when you’re in a very popular band making hit songs like Chicago was in the 70s, you realize that the fans only want to hear the songs they heard on the radio.  Hey, there weren’t any free internet radio stations like WCJM Radio back in the day to play all of the obscure tracks.  So, the fans wanted to hear all the hits…so as a band, you had to play the hits everywhere you went!  It’s still that way now, but I just think Peter Cetera pointed out that fact of “popular band life” in “Wishing You Were Here”.

I’ve been playing this song since I learned to play a G minor chord, and thanks to my brother for buying me a Chicago music book! It’s definitely come in handy…

Anyway, this is definitely one of those “check it off the list” songs for me, because I’ve always wanted to pay homage to this tune. I hope you enjoy this Chicago cover song!