Monthly Archives: October 2009

“Stand By Me” (Ben E. King and/or John Lennon Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to another edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!  Tonight, I bring you the classic standard “Stand By Me”, made famous by Ben E. King and then covered by John Lennon years later.  And, no, I did not base my pick tonight on the cheesy movie we watched while growing up…

Tonight, as it has been in the past with a couple other songs, the version of “Stand By Me” that plays in my head is a combination of the John Lennon version and the Ben E. King version.  I hear the music to the Ben E. King version but John Lennon’s voice.  It’s probably because Lennon did such a spot-on cover.  Man, watching this video of John performing “Stand By Me” just makes me wish he were still alive to make music today.  I know he would’ve still been great today and that he would be coming out with the kind of music that Paul and Ringo are coming out with now (not to mention the great stuff George did before he passed-away).

Anyway, I’ve known this song for as long as I can remember- just listening to the radio growing up.  Then, while jamming with the Acai Berries a few weeks ago, we happened upon this tune and were going to do a cover video ourselves.  But, I figured I could just do it on my own because it doesn’t require another singer or really any other instrumentation (unless you want to be a purist and have someone play the riff constantly in the background).

As much as I don’t like the fact that my studio is gone, I’m really happy with the acoustics I’ve been getting!  You know, it’s terrible to have so much echo and reverb when recording a multi-track song, but it’s the greatest thing ever when recording a solo acoustic video like this.  On another note, I’m trying to justify purchasing an HDV video camera for two reasons: to play the high definition video tapes of our wedding into the computer for editing, and the prospect of having the Laptop Sessions in high definition!  How cool would that be?  We’re getting faster internet next week, too, so my uploads wouldn’t be too painful.  I’m watching an auction on eBay- let’s see what the Mrs. has to say…

We just found out this evening that we are CLEAR TO CLOSE on the house this Friday- right on schedule!  It was a rough ride getting to this point, but everything is finally ni place and we’re hoping that we’re all moved in and set up by end-of-day Saturday.  We bought all new furniture, hired movers, boxed everything up, got the condo rented- what a project.  The best part is that we’re doing it all at once and (hopefully) that’ll mean it will be DONE all at once, you know?  I hate stringing things out.  So, this weekend will be very busy.  But, hopefully things will be stable enough that I’ll be back with a fresh new video next Tuesday!  Then, the Acai Berries are getting back together to record some more tracks- we’ve got a TON of songs in mind, but we’re ready to do about four of them, so stay-tuned.

Have a great week (make sure to stop back on Thursday for Jeff’s post!) and please, please, please wish us luck with our crazy weekend ahead.  It promises to be one of the most important weekends of our lives!  Until Tuesday…

“The Trader” (Beach Boys Cover)

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Welcome to another week of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!  Tonight, I bring you the week’s first video in the Beach Boys’ classic song, “The Trader”.

First, let me say that tonight’s video is potentially the last that I’ll record here in the condo, as we’re hoping everything is still on track for moving in to the new house next Friday.  You’ll notice that this is the first video I’ve done since the studio was painted back to white- it’s sad, but I hope to rebuild bigger and better (and smarter) someday!

Onto tonight’s video: Carl Wilson wrote, in my opinion, one of the greatest songs of all time in “The Trader” for the Beach Boys’ 1973 album, Holland.  I love the album, too- they were just so cool in 1973.  Dennis’ contributions to the album were great and Mike Love gave his best song of all time in “Big Sur”.

But, Carl really stole the show with “The Trader”, a two-part masterpiece about an explorer finding a new land and claiming it for “velvet robes” (royalty).  In the process, he kicks-out the natives from the land and builds shops, roads, etc. through their beautiful countryside.  So many times things like this have happened through history, just because (as the song says) someone comes in, sees someone else already there, and is threatened because they say, “They’re not like me.”

The second part of the song, in my opinion, is supposed to be from the point of view of the natives.  How they see the world is so much different from the imperialistic visions of the “Trader” and, honestly, I always lose myself in the second part of this song.  The imagery that Carl and co-writer Jack Rieley put into their lyrics make me feel so bad for these people that were driven out of their homes and native land.  It’s such an odd idea that the evening breeze, the merging streams, etc. can all be valid “reasons to live” as we all (myself included) rely on such materialistic things.

Obviously, Carl lends an amazing vocal to this track, as he pretty much always did with his songs and others.  I tried to replicate it best I could here and believe I got the vocals down pretty good!  The second part of the song is sung much softer than I had anticipated, but I decided to keep it because it allowed me to sing a bit “sweeter” without having to project my voice.  Believe it or not, after just two false-starts, I was able to record this take.  I guess it helps when you’ve heard a song about 200 times over a span of fifteen years.

I’m currently racking my brain for some ideas on how to increase traffic to the site.  Our numbers are still up over last year’s numbers, but I fear for next year’s numbers.  It’s going to be tough to get back up there again without my ability to bug the other guys to step-it-up (which, in turn, makes me step-it-up).  So much has changed since I started this blog.  It’s hard to believe what’s gone on in the past two years.  Looking through our Original Wednesday posts, it was so interesting to get a once-a-week view of the three of our lives.  One minute, you’re best friends with someone, the next you barely know them.  And one week someone is missing someone, and a few weeks later, they’re not anymore.  So, if you’ve been visiting the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog recently, maybe you should take a look back through the archives and see where we were all at during the past couple of years.  You’ll learn a lot about us and learn how much things can change in such a short period of time.

Until next week, I hope you have a much less stressful week than I’m going to have! 🙂

Jim Fusco Surpasses 400,000 Views on YouTube!

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Seems like forever since we hit a milestone in views- I hope that life will calm down enough to start promotion back up on the blog.

But, in the meantime, I can celebrate 400,000 views on YouTube of my nearly 200 acoustic cover song music videos!  I can’t wait to get the elusive half-million- then, I’ll be halfway to one of my life goals- a million views on YouTube.

To have a million of anything, to me, is pretty impressive.  “Oh, if I had a dollar…” 🙂

Anyway, thanks to all for the support and the views- keep ’em coming!

“The Fool on the Hill” (Beatles Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, all, to a late edition of Jim Fusco Tuesdays here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!

I’m back with my friends Steve and Chris for another Beatles cover song video- tonight, we bring you ‘The Fool On the Hill”.  Chris C. brought this song to our attention because he has an incredible set of recorders (flute-like instruments) that he wanted to play at our practice sessions.  We were going to play “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away”, but it looks like Jeff and Chris M. have that market cornered already!

Anyway, when the Acai Berries’ Chris suggested “The Fool On the Hill”, I jumped at the idea- it would give me a chance to do some great Paul McCartney-like singing and Chris a chance to play his recorder in the style of the flutes on the song.  Let me tell you- he got it right on, didn’t he?

And how about the great 12-string guitar playing by Steve off-camera.  That picking style he’s doing on the D6 chord sounds a lot like “Dream On” from Aerosmith and it adds such a mystical feel to this song.  Paul McCartney said he wrote it about people like Maharishi, of whom people said was just a fool standing alone on a hill.  Those nay-sayers to the Maharishi’s principles would just discount his teachings and brush him to the side.

Come to think of it, this is a pretty universal theme.  I mean, I was just listening to my “old” album “My Other Half” from 2002.  I was a senior in high school when I recorded it and high-school “issues” (relationships, etc.) were very fresh on my mind.  I had just met Becky at the time, but we didn’t start officially dating until about two weeks before the album came out, so the songs on “My Other Half” reflect previous people I was (or even wasn’t) involved with.  There’s a song called “Never Taking Your Chances” (which is so weird, because that song was tuck in my head before I even starting thinking about writing this post) and I say, “Just because I’m not what you see, it doesn’t mean you can walk over me, and never taking your chances with me.”

I was complaining about someone who was a friend to someone I was interested in.  Well, looooong story short, she basically prevented me from ever having a chance with that person.  Why?  Who knows!  She knew nothing about me, but just like the “Fool on the Hill”, she assumed things about me and never gave me a chance.

That’s what Paul’s saying in this song: “They never listen to him, they can see what he wants to do.”  No they don’t!  They just think they see what he “wants to do” because of stereotypes, rumors, conjecture, etc.  I’m pretty happy that I made this connection tonight, as it gives “The Fool On the Hill” much greater meaning to me.

And I hope it gives meaning to you, too!  Anyway, I’m excited about an exciting weekend of TNA Wrestling ahead- three hours of iMPACT on Thursday (not to mention a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my main man Jeff Copperthite!!!) and then the biggest pay-per-view of the year on Sunday, Bound For Glory.  Of course, I’ll be pulling for Sting to beat AJ Styles all the way.  Only 15 days left until the house is done, but man, it’s going to be stressful two weeks.  I get sick to my stomach just thinking about it.

Well, have a great one and I promise that next week’s video will be on time!