Daily Archives: March 30, 2013

“Passing Friend” (Beach Boys/Culture Club Cover)

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For Beach Boys / Culture Club chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

The general public’s response to my video tonight will most likely be:

“Culture Club?  Finally!”

Since I’ve been focusing so heavily on more recent music, I decided tonight to go back to one of the best bands of all time, the Beach Boys!  (You might be thinking: “Wait, I thought he said ‘Culture Club,’ and you’d be right.  Be patient; all will become clear soon…)  For the past week, I’ve been listening back and forth to newer and older music.  In the car, it’s been newer — Wilco and Marcy Playground — and in the house, it’s been older — Beach Boys and George Harrison.  (I’m trying to iron out my George Harrison essentials playlist; I made the first selection of tracks months ago, but the recent release of the Let it Roll CD has inspired me to finally make the next set of cuts necessary to carve out the compilation.)

For tonight’s session, I’ve chosen to cover “Passing Friend,” a track from the Beach Boys’ self-titled release back in 1985.  This song was penned by George O’Dowd — better known as Boy George — and Roy Hay of Culture Club.  (So, I suppose, this technically isn’t a Culture Club song, but it’s as close as we’re going to come on this blog at least for now!)  “Passing Friend” is generally considered to be a disposable track on what is often considered a disposable album in the Beach Boys catalog.

Nonsense!

Okay, so maybe “Passing Friend” is somewhat disposable.  But let’s be very clear here that The Beach Boys (1985) is one of my favorite albums of all time.  I think that I’m one of only two people who would give it that distinction, but it really is an enjoyable, versatile, all-around great album.  “Passing Friend” isn’t one of the strongest songs on the album by any means, but it’s still a solid track.  I was surprised by how easy and fun it was to learn, play, and record an acoustic cover of the over-produced studio version.

The story behind the song is based on members of the then-popular band Culture Club — singer Boy George and guitarist/keyboardist Roy Hay — writing a track for the Beach Boys to record.  It seems that the Beach Boys were experimenting with new ways to regain some semblance of relevance in a musical climate that was drastically different from their 1960’s hey day.  At the time, Culture Club had taken a break after touring England.  Hay was involved in a new band (This Way Up) and Boy George was making the rounds on the club scene.  Although they came together to write this song, Culture Club was destined to disband the following year due to tensions within the band and Boy George’s addiction to drugs.

Thus, we have “Passing Friend,” a deep track if I’ve ever heard one!  I hope you enjoy this stripped down version.  Maybe it will even encourage you to give The Beach Boys (1985) either a shot or a second chance…

To address old business, I had promised in last week’s cover song music video post that I would bring you a double header this week.  Well, today was a tremendously busy day, so I decided to hold off, as I need just a little more time to focus and figure out the chords for the second of the two songs.  I won’t give them away just yet, but suffice it to say that I’m presenting an all-new band to the blog.  They are big time one hit wonders — probably for good reason — and I’ll be recording a video of their hit single, as well as the single from their most recent album.  More on that next Monday…

But this is certainly NOT the last time you’ll be hearing from me this week.  You can look forward to a very special post — one that is very near and dear to me — coming on Wednesday and then another post on either Saturday or Sunday.

I realize this is all very vague, but believe me: these posts promise to be well worth your time clicking back to the best acoustic cover song blog in the universe!  (And we’re modest, too…)  Just think: you’ve got Jim Fusco Tuesday tomorrow (maybe more Beach Boys cover songs?), then I’ll be back on Wednesday, Jeff Copperthite’s “Thumpin’ Thursday,” and at least one more post this weekend.  Don’t miss any of the musical fun!

See you next session!  (Or, in this case, sooner…)

“Yesterday” (Beatles Cover)

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By Jeff:

Let us continue our Beatles cover songs streak!

Oddly enough, I read an article today that The Beatles are breaking records (again) from album sales in the past couple of weeks.  So why not continue to post about possibly the best group ever.

So here’s a great classic song from their 1965 album “Help!” called “Yesterday”.  It’s a great ballad about a surprise departure.  Kind of odd that my song from last week was about a surprise arrival.

This song was recorded late at night.  Forgive the brevity of this post.  I’m busy as anything.

And it’s almost the end of September.  Already.

And why aren’t you following me on Twitter 😀  I’ll update more than twice a month of I get more than two followers.  Oh, and that doesn’t include the stupid auto-followers who include their virus loaded web sites on their profile page.  Stay away if you’re one of them.

So enjoy this song and i’ll see you next week for another great video!  Come back Monday for the next installment from the latest Fab x (that x is for how many people Jim will be playing with – substitute at will!)

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and original music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

“A Singer Must Die” by Steven Page and the Art of Time Ensemble – The Weekday Review

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By Jim Fusco:

Do you know how much work I have to do tonight?  In addition to running three miles?  It’s a LOT- take my word for it.  But, I just had to write this article- that’s how strongly I feel about this.

Let me start off by saying that I love Steven Page’s music. I believe him to be the greatest songwriter since Brian Wilson.  Quite simply, he’s the man.  But, with “A Singer Must Die”, his first official solo effort, he proves once again that, with few exceptions (George Harrison being one of them), the whole (his former group, Barenaked Ladies) is greater than the sum of its parts.  Now, it might not be fair to judge his new solo career based on one album yet (and I won’t, as his real solo album with original songs comes out later this year), but I feel it necessary to get my two-cents in.

I hadn’t purchased the album (and I’m glad I didn’t)- my brother Mike let me borrow his.  I noticed that it got all of one play rotation in his car, as he readily handed it over just a few days after getting it himself.

As a person who records covers each week, you’d think I’d be open to this release.  But, this doesn’t sound like an “album”- it sounds like a collection of songs.  The styles all too different to make it sound like a cohesive album.  And when I hear Steven Page’s voice, I want it to be singing his own songs in his own style.  Hearing it on other people’s songs sounds odd and “untrue” because he didn’t write it.

Then, I put the CD in my player in the car.  I’ve never been so disappointed.

The first song was forgetful, at best.  But then, it all went very, very wrong.

“I Want You” (an Elvis Costello song) may possibly be the worst recording I’ve ever heard.  Not only is the song terrible, but the out of key strings and the weird timing makes it almost unlistenable.

Then, it’s followed by a Rufus Wainwright durge that I lasted only about a minute into.

Then, the most embarrassing track of all- Steven Page’s own cover of his OWN song, “Running Out of Ink”.  No drums, no harmonies- just strings and him.  It was like he was making fun of himself.  I was crushed.  I listened to about a minute of this one, then switched the track one more time.

“A Singer Must Die”, another real jump-starter to the album (by now, I hope you know that I’m being facetious), and I just sighed disgustingly and took the CD out of the player so fast you’d think it was physically hurting the machine.

With all due respect to amateur reviewer Chris Moore of the Laptop Sessions Music Blog, this album could NEVER garner itself four stars.  I’m wondering who paid him off to write such a review.  For me to think that an album like Ringo’s “Y Not” was given two stars and this atrocity four stars really, for me, takes away a lot of credibility from “The Weekend Review”.

“I’ve said my piece and I leave it all up to you.”

“Surrender To Me” (McGuinn, Clark, & Hillman Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to your Monday, Monday edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!

If you take a look at the last few posts, you’ll notice all the work I’ve been doing over the past 24 hours.  I’ve managed to mix, master, and put online three concerts worth of material.  The last one has 35 songs!  Then, I finally posted my photos from our TNA Wrestling show back in May.  Finally, I went through and backed-up literally 100 gb of data that was clogging up my laptop’s harddrive.  I put all of it on DVDs, which meant that I needed to complete everything before I backed it up and deleted it from my hard drive.

This is the first time in about nine months that the coffee table is clear of five spindles of DVDs.

Today, I bring you a song that Chris, Becky, and I have been playing since the beginning.  Back in late high school, I fell in love with the music of Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, and Chris Hillman.  I mean, I was already a fan of the Byrds, but we had recentely gotten this album called “McGuinn, Clark, and Hillman”.  It was recorded in the mid-seventies, long after the original Byrds broke up and reformed.

A few tracks on this album, including the first track (which Jeff did as a Laptop Session- Click HERE to view it!) meant a lot to me at the time.  I was with my first girlfriend (and so proud that I had a CD player in the car- my 1990 Camaro) and the way we got together was a little weird.  We kinda had a thing going a year or so earlier, but then something happened to make us not talk for a long time.  I’m being vague not because I want to be, but because I honestly don’t remember.  That’s why I wrote in a journal every single day, I guess.  I’ll have to go back and read up on it.  Anyway, when we finally made it happen, I just thought the song “Long Long Time” was perfect for it.  I hope you’ll listen closely to the words in Jeff’s version and you’ll see what I mean.

“Surrender To Me” is a great song for a couple of reasons- mostly because of McGuinn’s incredible guitar work.  I actually based our live version half on the album version and half on the acoustic demo with Hillman and McGuinn.  Having Chris there to play the rhythm guitar (back when we first started playing live, he had a ton of trouble doing harmony parts while playing), Becky singing with me, and me playing a guitar solo I could actually handle, this was a prime choice.  I just wish more people had heard of it.  But, that’s okay- most people probably think it’s an original, which is major points for me!

Actually, this song is a cover itself.  Neither McGuinn, Clark, or Hillman wrote this tune.  But I still think it’s a great one and a standout track on the album.  Coming up on my next Session starts my suite of videos recorded in the great outdoors.  These videos are part of what the Laptop Sessions is all about, coupled with those Jeff did while on vacation- they’re LAPTOP Sessions!  We can record them anywhere and bring them to you from whereever you may be.  Enjoy today’s Session and make sure to come back tomorrow for Chris’ video, Wednesday for Jeff’s Original Wednesday (which I hope he comes through and plays us his new song), and to download all the new concerts!