“Somewhere Near Japan” (Beach Boys Cover)

Posted on by
Reply

Okay, request time here at The Laptop Sessions! This one’s going out to Peter (aka thebeachboys on YouTube).

This is one of my favorites and I thought no one else really ever paid any attention to it. “Somewhere Near Japan”, written by Mike Love and Terry Melcher, is one of the only saving graces on the 1988 EP/album “Still Cruisin”.  Actually, I like the album a lot, but it’s not really a full album.  There are a few old Beach Boys songs tacked onto the end of the album because they were “featured” in movies out at the time.  And, you can pretty much throw away the Fat Boys’ version of “Wipeout” which featured Brian Wilson singing the backing vocals.  It’s nice to hear Brian in there, but honestly, why did that song end up on a Beach Boys album anyway?  You’ve also got “Kokomo”.  Love it or hate it, it’s one of the biggest songs they ever did.  So, the album had some notoriety behind it.  Songs like “Still Cruisin'” are just fun songs to me, and the Beach Boys even played that song during their 2012 tour!  Personally, I really like the songs “Make It Big” and “Island Girl”, especially because they feature Carl Wilson and Al Jardine, respectively.

Carl Wilson, Al Jardine, Mike Love, and Bruce Johnston are all featured on lead at some point on “Somewhere Near Japan” (ala “Add Some Music” from the Beach Boys’ 1970 classic album, Sunflower) and I think that always added to my enjoyment of the song.  I’ll admit it- when Terry Melcher and Mike Love wanted to write a good song, they really hit it on the nose.  Think of the classic song “Gethca Back” from the Beach Boys 1985 album.  Even a couple years after the Still Cruisin’ album on 1992’s “Summer In Paradise”, Melcher and Love wrote a few great songs.  Now THAT is an album that doesn’t get any respect.  I think songs like “Island Fever”, “Lahaina Aloha”, and “Strange Things Happen” are really great songs.

Tonight’s acoustic cover song music video is one of those “let’s hear how it sounds stripped-down” versions. The late-80s production might have turned some people off to this Beach Boys song, but I think the song stands up great on it own!   So, these 80s/90s Beach Boys songs may have cheesy lyrics now and again (and that 1992 drum machine is pretty bad).  But, that’s one of the reasons why I record cover song videos here on the music blog.  I’d like to think that I’m pretty good at spotting a good song, even if it’s hidden underneath terrible production and synth instruments.  And, with that ability, I strip all of that stuff away to give you an acoustic-guitar-driven version.  I hope these videos open people to songs they otherwise wouldn’t listen to.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s cover video, and keep those requests coming! I’m doing a new music video every two days this year. If you request something, please be patient, but we’re always here to please at The Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!

“Home” (New Indie Music – Cover)

Posted on by
Reply

By Jim Fusco:

This edition of the Laptop Sessions is the first installment of what we like to call “Original Wednesday”, where we pick an original tune from someone in the Fusco-Moore Productions galaxy and play it for our Laptop Sessions video podcast series!

This Wednesday edition, I’m playing a Jeff Copperthite song called “Home”, which is for his EP “Greenlight”.

I love this song and so does my mother. It’s a very sincere song and I just can’t get that ending tag out of my head. Even as I write this, I’m trying not to think of it so I won’t get it stuck in there again. I’m desperately holding on to Jeff’s Laptop Session of the Wallflower’s “God Says Nothing Back”.

Anyway, this is a cool song, and just as any musician feels when he hears a cool new song, I wondered how it would sound if I gave it the Jim Fusco treatment! So, I hope you enjoy and I hope the video does Jeff proud. Go check out Jeff’s version of my song, “Harmony”, too!! It’s sure to please.

The Moody Blues Concert, Video Blog Updates, & a BIG Announcement!!

Posted on by
Reply

By Jim Fusco:

Ladies and gentlemen… I have a HUGE announcement for you!!

But, you’ll have to listen to the Fusco-Moore Productions Podcast to find out what it is!! But, I can say this- there’s definitely something in it for YOU if you listen in!

How, you ask? Well, click HERE to visit the Fusco-Moore Podcast’s feed, and click HERE to open it up in iTunes (if you have iTunes installed on a Mac or a PC- it’s free!!).

Let’s get those numbers growing!!

Okay, now for some other news:

Obviously, I’m as thrilled as Jeff about our growing popularity on YouTube (my version of The Laptop Sessions is got 1,000 views in only 11 days…the FIRST 11 days!!), and Jeff’s and Chris’ numbers are also growing fast. I can’t wait to see where this all goes… Please, please, please tell your friends and relatives to subscribe to all of our podcasts and YouTube feeds. Why? Because these things are “viral”, and believe it or not, that’s not a bad thing. In this case, “viral” means that if places like YouTube, Google, and Yahoo! see that we’re gaining popularity, they’ll consider it more important. And when they consider it more important, it goes in front of the eyes of MANY more people. And, it just snowballs from there!

That’s why you see some videos go from a few hundred views to over a MILLION views in just a few days! So, it’s flu season…and let’s all get viral.

Another great way you (yes, YOU!) can help to promote us is by going on message boards (not the Brian Wilson one, though- we’ve already made some great connections there) for the bands we do covers of. For instance, Jeff did a Wallflowers song. So, find a Wallflowers fansite, join their message board or forum, and tell them about us! Put links! Get in conversations! You may go on to promote, but in the end, you’ll find some great new friends. I never had the intention of advertising on the Brian Wilson site- they’re just great people that saw my love of his music and loved it, too.

Speaking of music I love, Chris and I went to see the Moody Blues in concert at Foxwoods a couple weeks ago. What a show!! Of course, I’ve seen them plenty of times, but Chris has only just become a HUGE Moodies fan, so this was a special treat. We had a great night. Chris won a bit on the slots (of course) and I played for an hour and 20 minutes, only losing ten bucks!! And, everyone knows that on a Friday night, that’s a BIG win.

The Moody Blues are not in the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. These guys had 3 number one albums (the Beach Boys with…one) and had PLENTY of hit songs including “Go Now”, “Nights in White Satin”, and “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere”. It pains me, especially because they’ve been around for 40 years now, are still touring, and each one of them is one of the BEST at their instrument. And, as you’ll see with many of the bands I like, each member of the band writes his own songs. Some albums actually have an equal number of songs from ALL FIVE MEMBERS! Plus, they’re all great.

Moody Blues Concert 1

Here are some illegal photos I snuck while at the concert. It was a blast, as usual, and the dinner at Hard Rock Cafe was a great cap to the week. It’s been really crazy at work and with things in life now. I’m so happy I have things like the concert and the great response I’ve gotten to the Laptop Sessions to come home to. I’m happy to be sleep-deprived and overworked to make these things possible.

Moody Blues Concert 2

Well, this is one hefty post- I hope you’ll go on and subscribe to the podcast to hear my big announcement!! Talk to you soon,

~Jim

“Night Time” (Brian Wilson Cover)

Posted on by
1

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!