Wrestlemania 25 Recap, Results, and Review – Twitter Style!

Hello loyal Laptop Sessions viewers.  This is an example of how busy things have been over these past couple of months: back when Wrestlemania 25 (or XXV) aired in March, my cousin Sarah wrote to me with a recap of the night’s events.  I thought her recap was great- to the point, but detailed enough and with some great commentary.  I asked her if I could post it on the blog, and she said I could.  But, I never got around to it, and here it is, almost June, and I’m finally posting it for the first time.  I hope you’ll still find it relevant and can use it as a reference guide in the future.  She did it Twitter-style, as she typed it out on her Blackberry Curve.  I think it really sums up the night well- thanks Sarah!  Now, on to the review of Wrestlemania 25!

-wrestlemania 25. Promises to be a 4 hour event and at $55 it damn best be! Bring on the fanfare

-match 1 Money in the bank ladder match: mvp, kane, christian, mark henry, shelton benjamin, cm punk, finlay, kofi kingston – winner cm punk. Sorry christian, guess you should go back to tna

-Kid rock performance wayyyyyy too long medley of bawitdaba, rocknroll jesus, cowboy, all summer long, and so hott intros diva 25 battle royal – no divas announced – don’t know who is who – santino wins in drag, does 5 min eye gouge-worthy dance in drag

-jericho vs ricky steamboat, piper, snuka, flair in corner. Each HoF’er gets to do signature move then gets pinned. Steamboat actually kicked some ass. Jericho wins. Mickey rourke called out; boxes
jericho. Doesn’t pull punch, gets jericho right in back of head. Jericho down. Hysterical.

-hardy bro match, matt wins cheap, no holds match. Sadly boring. Time: 8:41pm no hogan yet?? No classic moments montage. Still time left

-Mysterio vs jbl HAHAHAHA 21 seconds long, mysterio wins. Mysterio dressed as joker. Wow, no words for it.

-shawn michaels vs taker (16-0 record) michaels, in white, decends on a pulpit from above. Undertaker, dressed in black, ascends from hell. Felt like 1 1/2 hour; taker wins. Best match of the night, worth the money. So far not one ‘slobberknocker’ from jim ross.

-Three way heavy weight champ match, cena – edge – big show Shitload of cenas line aisle in eminem clone style, do ‘you can’t see me’ salute as cena runs down. Cena benches 735 lbs – lifts show & edge same time- cena wins. Vicky guerro gets speared again by edge

-Hall of fame old men parade + stone cold + the fink! Short nod to new inductees, Stone cold leaves line up, tears out on atv down aisle, has 10 min indulgent beerfest

-wwe title match, triple h vs orton. Preface shane and vince for 30 seconds on screen, they don’t even speak. First and only sight of mcmahon all night. Triple h beats ortin. One word: Anticlimatic. 1
“slobberknocker” in 4 hrs by jim ross.

-4 full hours. No montage of past great matches, no old timers/tributes save new inductees, no hogan?!? At 25th wrestlemania?? No starstudded pre-show. Complete lack of fanfare – did mcmahon even plan this? Yet again, not worth the money.

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“Bye Bye Love” (The Everly Brothers) Cover Music Video

By Jim Fusco:

Hey hey- it’s another Jim Fusco Tuesday here on the music video blog.  Hopefully over the next few weeks, we’ll be putting some more time into the site and getting our views back and rockin’ once more.  Tonight, I’m a little depressed because I have this great new HD video camera and can’t even use it for the Laptop Sessions yet.  Why?  Because I can’t get my microphone to work with it and it doesn’t work as a webcam.  So, I’m really stuck.  Turns out that the unit has a stereo microphone built-in, but the microphone input is only in mono.  What’s the deal with that?

The video quality is very nice, however.  It’s such a shame- I thought I had it all figured out.  So, it’s back to the drawing board for me.

Moving on to tonight’s video:

Chris and I performed “Bye Bye Love”, the classic song sung by the Everly Brothers- yet ANOTHER band we haven’t done yet here on the best music video blog ever!  Man, this is a good tune.  We kind of look the Everly’s, too, don’t we?  I’ve wanted to do this one for a LONG time now, but Chris and I operate on two different schedules and I never got the chance to grab him for the session.  Things have calmed down a bit on his end, so we’ve gotten to do a couple of duets.  This was a fun one, but I wasn’t in the greatest of moods after the whole camera thing.

It was going to be very poetic, as well, as this is one of the older songs I’ve done and we would’ve been in crystal-clear, state of the art, 1080p digital video.  So much for that!

This song has an interesting structure.  It’s not unlike other songs of the time- a very familiar tune to the chorus.  But, the verses have this very interesting twist.  They go to an E chord towards the end of each verse and it makes the song sound very unique when you compare it to other songs of the period.  What a cool twist!

Make sure to check out the video I did with Chris, as well, (see below) as for the first time, I’m playing my brand-new lap steel guitar!  The video came out great and I actually sound like I know what I’m doing on that thing!  What a great sound- I’ve been looking for that sound for a long time and can’t wait to incorporate both that and my new 12-string electric into some original tunes.

Finally, to echo Chris’ sentiment, a friend and fellow musician, Tony Persia, died yesterday.  He was one of the original members of Danny and the Juniors and played that great piano on ‘At the Hop”- one of rock music’s all-time classic songs.  He was a good guy and always enjoyed talking to us.  We even got to sing with him!  I loved hearing his stories and he will be missed by many of us that loved to see him and hear him play year after year.  I know he’s rockin’ somewhere with Elvis and John Lennon.

Have a great night, everyone, and I’ll catch you very soon for another Laptop Session.  Will it be a duet?  Will it finally be in HD?  You’ll just have to wait and see- talk to you then!!

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“The Jolly Banker” (Wilco / Woody Guthrie Acoustic & Lap Steel Cover)

For Wilco/Woody Guthrie chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

This is quite the story for a session.  It seems that, in order to outdo my previous “new release” Laptop Sessions, I needed to call in some outside help…

In the form of one Jim Fusco on his brand-new metallic blue lap steel guitar!

Oh, and if you’re a Wilco fan, then I hope you can appreciate how exciting it was for me to host the first Lap-(steel)-top Session.  Throughout their catalog, they have incorporated country tinges with instruments such as this.  Most recently, even as they continue to play around with more experimental forms, Nels Cline plays beautifully on the lap steel in several of their concert set list mainstays, from the older deep track “It’s Just That Simple” to more recent material off of Sky Blue Sky, their 2007 album.

This track, “The Jolly Banker,” was written by Woody Guthrie and originally recorded on March 22, 1940 (as reported in the Library of Congress records for these sessions with folk music expert Alan Lomax).  Nearly seventy years later, Wilco has recorded their own version of this song — which is eerily relevant as of its release on April 30th, 2009 — and released it as a free download online.  Technically, they suggest/request that you donate at least $2 to the Woody Guthrie Foundation — this is quite funny, as one of the three options for downloading states “I am/was a banker/hedge fund manager/credit default swap trader. I know times are tough, but I’m just fine thank you. (Suggested minimum donation $100.00).”

Tonight, I jokingly challenged Jim to not only play this song as his debut performance on his new guitar, but to actually record a Laptop Session on the spot.  He must have taken me seriously or at least had the urge to give the Rogue brand lap steel an official test run, because he didn’t skip a beat when we set up downstairs.  As you’ll hear — and I hope you’ll agree — this is a great, loyal rendition of Wilco’s cover version, right down to the tapping opening count and the aforementioned lap steel.  I was initially thinking that this would be just another session with me recording just another version of a simple song.  Instead, I am proud to say that this is one of my favorite sessions I’ve recorded in a long time.

Unfortunately, although the actual playing of the song with Jim was very fun and relaxed, the events around the recording were frustrating.  As I’m sure Jim will explain in “tomorrow’s” post (don’t forget that I forgot to remember to record on “Memorial” day… there’s some irony for you), he just got his new HD video camera in the mail.  We tried to record the session with the camera — and the video quality was amazing — but the audio quality was terrible.  Jim finally gave up for the night, but I’m sure he’ll come up with some plan to augment and/or jury rig the setup before next week’s Jim Fusco Tuesday.

Maybe then I’ll bug him to record a saxophone solo for a Bruce Springsteen cover…  (Kidding!)  🙂

On a side note, today started off sadly, as I awoke to find the news of former Wilco multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett’s death on my iPhone AP News app.  While I haven’t followed his work outside of Wilco, I was sad to hear this, especially as I read a quote from Bennett from a couple weeks ago about how excited he was for his new album and the future in general.  It all came in a burst for me, as I also just learned yesterday of the lawsuit Bennett had filed against Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy calling for $50,001.00 in back royalties he felt he was owed, citing the YHF documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart as a film for which he did not sign a proper release form.

Some say Bennett was being unreasonable.  Others say he was instrumental (no pun intended… okay, maybe a little) in Wilco’s mainstream breakthrough and that he deserved additional money.  (Apparently he couldn’t even afford a hip replacement that he badly needed.)

Regardless of which side you take, the bottom line is that he has passed away, and at least for the moment, no one is exactly sure what happened.

I also learned today that our oldies/rock acquaintance, Tony Persia, also passed away recently.  I was saddened to learn about this loss, as he has really set the tone at the annual Carbutti Christmas parties that both Jim and I attend.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with him, he was probably best known as the piano player for the classic Danny & the Juniors single “At the Hop.”  He was an incredibly kind, charming man who met many great music stars in his life and played lots and lots of music — I know I speak for Jim, Mike, and I when I say he will be sorely missed, particularly this December…

On a happy note, I just downloaded the Wilco iPhone app, and it’s great fun.  You can access all the latest band news, photos, and listen in full(!) to every song from their official catalog, including both Mermaid Avenue releases and their live Kicking Television concert album.  If only my other favorite bands would jump on the iPhone application train…  (cough, nudge – “Dylan, Beach Boys, Barenaked Ladies, Moody Blues, Pearl Jam” – cough, nudge)

Without further ado, I will leave you to watch this collaborative session.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed recording it…

See you next session!

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“The Jolly Banker” by Wilco (A Woody Guthrie Cover) – Chords, Tabs, & How to Play

For the music video of this Wilco/Woody Guthrie cover, CLICK HERE!

“The Jolly Banker”
Wilco (a Woody Guthrie cover)

G                                            C
My name is Tom Cranker, and I’m a jolly banker,
G                                                  D
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
C                                            G
I safeguard the farmers and widows and orphans,
G                                             D               G
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.

When dust storms are sailing, and crops they are failing,
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I check up your shortage and bring down your mortgage,
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.

When money you’re needing, and mouths you are feeding,
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I’ll plaster your home with a furniture loan,
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.

If you show me you need it, I’ll let you have credit;
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
Just bring me back two for the one I lend you,
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.

When your car you’re losin’ and sadly your cruisin’,
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I’ll come and foreclose, get your car and your clothes,
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.

When the bugs get your cotton, the times they are rotten,
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I’ll come down and help you, I’ll rape you and scalp you,
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.

When the landlords abuse you or sadly misuse you,
I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
I’ll send down the police to keep you from mischief,
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.
Singin’ I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I.

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