Daily Archives: March 25, 2009

“On For Miles” (Jim Fusco Original Song)

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By Jim Fusco:

Why doesn’t anyone post Original Wednesdays anymore?  Well, I’ll just chalk it up to the fact that my brand-new album is coming out in less than two weeks- “Halfway There”!  If you’ve been to the music video blog before, you’ve probably seen advertisements for it.  You may have even heard a bit.  I hope you’re liking it so far- it’s a loooooong time in the making!  If you’ve been here before, you’ve probably also noticed that we cover almost 200 bands- a new video three times a week.  You may not know that on a weekly basis, we post original songs, as well!

Tonight, I bring you track 3 from the upcoming “Halfway There” LP.  On the album, you’ll notice that this song is much punchier and has a more modern sound to it.  Okay, so maybe it doesn’t have a modern sound, but it’s as modern as you’re gonna get from me! 🙂  The song has some cool effects and features a very intricate five part harmony on the chorus- it’s so cool to listen to it in the car because the chorus seems to “widen” the speakers as soon as it kicks in.  It does that on the first chorus of the song “Halfway There”, as well- I’d love to hear reactions when the album comes out!  I got this effect because of the new mastering techniques I learned.  No longer does it sound like a wet burlap sack is draped over the speakers when listening to a recording of mine.  I’ve actually even remastered my last album, “What About Today?”, in the same way- you should HEAR how much better it sounds!  One of these days, I’ll get a digital copy up on the FMP Store.

Anyway, “On For Miles” is supposed to be “single-worthy” in the sense that it’s the third song on the album, but it does follow two superb ones (if I do say so myself) in “Go Back To Him” and “Our Love Doesn’t Translate”.  I knew I needed to follow-up those songs with something really catchy, as well, but that also got you into the feel of the whole album, rather than listening to a collection of singles.  It’s tough to describe.

So, this version, which is only me and an acoustic guitar, has a much different vibe- but that’s when a cover song on acoustic guitar is really interesting.  It’s never interesting to take a song that was done acoustically in the first place and just do it live in front of the camera.  It’s fun to take a fully-produced song and pare it down to the bare bones and play it just as a “song” and not a production.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s original song and I hope you’re as excited as I am about the release of “Halfway There”.  I just got the UPS tracking number for the shipment- looks like I’ll be getting them a week earlier than expected, but you’re still going to have to wait until the 7th to get your copy! 🙂  I live for anticipation.

Have a great rest of the week and I’ll be back with only my second Beach Boys tune for the year on Tuesday.  I figure once a quarter is good to keep the loyal fans happy!  The only question is, “Which one?”  You’ll have to wait and see for that, too!  Geesh, I’m just teasing everyone tonight, huh?  Oh, wait, I guess I did just post two videos in a row…so, you can afford to wait a few days!  See you then.

“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” (Elton John Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Two for the price of one sale today on Jim Fusco videos, as our internet was down on Tuesday, preventing me from posting my all-new acoustic cover song video!  Tonight, I bring you another new artist to the music blog in Elton John.  INCREDIBLE that we haven’t done a song by him yet- ten Pearl Jam songs and not one from EJ?  Yikes!

Anyway, tonight’s song is one that I knew only a certain section of before I truly learned it for my acoustic video.  I knew the “Ah…” part in the song because it’s so catchy.  I must’ve heard it on the radio a bunch of times and that’s what I took away from it.  Listening to the entire song and really paying attention, I noticed that this is truly a great recording.  I LOVE the guitar that come in on the chorus, playing these electric guitar arpeggiated notes.  Heaven!

There’s also some great backing vocals going on during the song- it creates such a lush sound and everyone knows how I love a good backing vocal choir!  My roommate Dana helped me out tonight, as this turned out to be one of his favorite songs- he knew every word and helped me out a TON when it came to the inflection on the singing, especially on the choruses.

This song wasn’t an easy one to play or sing.  But then again, isn’t that what the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog is all about?  We don’t take the easy way out, folks- we challenge ourselves on a daily basis.  Chris, Jeff, and I have held-off playing certain songs for months because we wanted to perfect them.   I still have to hear it from my father every week that I haven’t done “Here Comes the Sun” or “God Only Knows” yet.  But, for those songs, you need to perfect them before debuting them to the world.  And that’s what I plan on doing.

You should’ve seen Dana’s eyes when I told him I was covering this song on acoustic guitar.  I proceeded to tell him, however, that the videos I get the most views on are the ones where people go, “Wait, someone did that song on GUITAR?  I gotta see this.”  Everyone always goes in so skeptical (I get a lot of messages saying, “I thought this would suck, but I was pleasantly surprised!”) and I can understand why- I mean, look at the 99.999% of YouTube cover videos out there that truly do STINK.  But, as we said a long time ago here on the music blog, the goal of the Laptop Sessions is to put an end to bad YouTube covers forever!

I hope you enjoy my rendition- I practiced it about twenty times and made sure everything was correct.  I’m happy to debut Elton John’s music here on the music video blog and hope that Chris and Jeff will decide to tackle some of his songs in the future.  But if I hear Chris singing “Candle in the Wind”, I may have to break his acoustic guitar. 🙂  Until…well…next post…a couple minutes from now…have a great one!