Tag Archives: 12 string

“Here Without You” (The Byrds acoustic and 12-string electric cover song)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to yet another Jim Fusco Tuesday here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog.  Actually, tonight, you get two for the price of one: I have Chris Moore with me to record this session!  And boy, did it come out great.  If your connection can handle it, click the “HQ” button and listen to the better audio feed of this one.  It’s in full stereo (I LOVE my microphone) and the levels are perfect!

And tonight debuts my brand new 12-string electric guitar!  And what a way to bring it in.  I knew I had to do a Byrds song.  No, it’s not a Rickenbacher.  Who can justify spending literally 8 times more for the same essential thing.  My version is from Dean and I love it.  It looks great and plays even better.  The sound is there, too- just like all my favorite 12-string songs.  Look for more in the future.  I can’t wait to bust out my new lap steel guitar, as well.  In a couple weeks, I’ll be getting an HD cam, so all my Laptop Sessions will be in high definition.  How cool is that?  At that point, I’ll be able to start my new mini-series entitled “Jim’s Guitars”- stay tuned.

Gene Clark wrote tonight’s song and it was off of the Byrds first album, “Mr. Tambourine Man.”  Now, this isn’t the greatest album, but it really could have been.  That is, if half the album weren’t Bob Dylan covers and other cover songs.  Not to knock cover songs, but the songwriting of Gene Clark (and in the future, the rest of the band) was so far ahead of its time and his songs are simply timeless.  This song takes me back to when I was at Wesleyan for 5 weeks in the summer of 2000.  I was at a program called “CCY”, the Center for Creative Youth.  Good fit, eh? 🙂

Anyway, those five weeks seemed like a whole lifetime at the time- everything that happened in one day seemed like a year.  So, even not seeing someone for two days made it seem like you were living “here without you”.  Needless to say, this song was all I listened to when I got back that summer.

I have to keep tonight’s post short because of my marathon video editing job last night.  I need to catch up and this is my only opportunity.  So, without further ado, I hope you enjoy the great effort put out by Chris and myself tonight on the Byrds’ classic song, “Here Without You”.  You won’t be here without us for too long, as Jeff will be back on Thursday for another great cover song music video.  Until next week!!

“I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” (Byrds Cover)

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Here on the Laptop Sessions, I give you my favorite song of all time: “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” by the Byrds. Gene Clark, the writer of this song, wrote MANY great songs over his career, and you’ll be hearing a lot of them on the Laptop Sessions in the months to come. But, this song is just PERFECT to me, and here’s why:

It’s got everything I love in a song. It’s got a great guitar sound (courtesy of Roger (Jim) McGuinn), a cool riff, great words, chorus harmonies, and a killer jangly guitar solo. I love everything about this tune and hopefully I’ve done this song justice.

Of course, in order for me to give the song the respect it deserves, I recruited Chris Moore ( http://www.youtube.com/user/chrismooremusic ) to help me with harmonies and rhythm guitar.

So, I hope everyone enjoys this version. I’ll be playing one of my other favorite songs in the next couple weeks, so stay tuned!