Tag Archives: acoustic rock

Ranking every Beach Boys album/song: “Shut Down Vol. 2” (by Songwriter Jim Fusco)

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By Jim Fusco:

Each song gets a ranking out of a possible 10.

ALBUM – SHUT DOWN, VOL. 2

Fun, Fun, Fun – 8
The Warmth of the Sun – 10 (doesn’t get much better than this)
Don’t Worry, Baby – 10 (see last song)
Pom Pom Play Girl – 4 (too Jan and Dean for me)
Why Do Fools Fall in Love – 6 (again, not a big fan of covers, but this one is very well done, especially that vocal break in the middle)
*I Do – 6 (even though the verse is a clear re-tooling, the chorus is pretty amazing)
In the Parkin’ Lot – 8 (I really like this song- it’s got great harmonies and I love the tag at the beginning and end)
This Car of Mine – 6 (I love Denny’s vocals on this one!)
Keep an Eye on Summer – 9 (just wow)
Louie, Louie – 1 (ugh- why guys, why??)
Shut Down, Part II – 3 (okay, but only because Carl wrote it!)
“Cassius” Love vs. “Sonny” Wilson – 2 (Can this even count? They can’t even get the jokes right! But, it is cute.)
Denny’s Drums – 4 (I hate that Dennis doesn’t get a lot of credit for his drumming, but he clearly has the chops here)

** You have five or six songs that are not only great, but classic on this album and it makes this album a great listen. In my opinion, the Boys really honed the harmonies on this album- not a bum note to be found. Plus, showing off the talents of Dennis (singing and playing) and Carl (writing and playing) is just great. Brian was truly in his prime starting with this album. I find it hard to talk down to any album with the likes of Don’t Worry Baby and The Warmth of the Sun on it. Their greatness truly cancels out any mediocrity the few clunkers on the album express. **

“The Way It Is” (Bruce Hornsby Cover)

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By Chris Moore:

Welcome to your Sunday installment of the Laptop Sessions! Coming on the heels of Number Ones week, I decided to play one of my father’s favorite songs from Bruce Hornsby & the Range, “The Way It Is.” Only after I recorded it did I realize that it, in fact, was a #1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 for one week in 1986! So, it appears that I’m subconsciously having a hard time leaving the #1 songs behind…

I remember making mock-radio shows on my stereo when I was in middle school, even before I owned a CD player. I used to make shows for my father to listen to while he was working in the garage, so I wanted to find music that he would enjoy. I spent countless hours with a blank cassette tape in the stereo and switching stations constantly, waiting intently to hear a disc jockey announce that “The Way It Is” would be on next. I finally got a version recorded for my show, but I got to the record button a bit slowly, so a good chunk of the intro was cut off.

I did buy him the Bruce Hornsby greatest hits CD years later, when I finally caught up with technology.

I really love this song for a couple reasons. I love how it’s powered by piano, but sacrifices none of the soloing and backbeat that I value in rock music. I also love how the chorus is built around the G – Fmaj7 – C riff (which I duplicated in only a rudimentary fashion). The song was also a lot of fun to sing!

I should mention that everything that could have possibly interrupted my recording did, in fact, interrupt my recording today. My first take was lost for the incredibly raucous chirping of the birds downstairs. (Yes, that’s right–I wasn’t even on the same floor with them). My second take was lost due to stubbornness, as I refused to close my door and the birds continued to chirp. A later take was lost to the vibrating of my cell phone.

The funniest by far, and certainly the most ironic was when my cell phone alarm went off loudly during a good take — it was the alarm I had set to remind me to record a Laptop Session today!

My most perfect take was lost when I forgot the second to last line of the final verse. But, this one will have to do!

Thanks for watching; I hope you’ll leave a comment for me if you liked the song or have any requests for future songs.

See you next session!



“Glass King” (America Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:
Welcome to Saturday’s edition of The Laptop Sessions, where I bring you another song by request. This song, while being an Itunes-only purchasable track, is easily one of the coolest songs by America.

The song is called “Glass King” and is written by Dewey Bunnell. It has a great bluesy guitar riff and sung in that classic Dewey style. It easily translates to acoustic since both Dewey & Gerry Beckley are on acoustic guitars when they play this song live. I became an instant fan of this song once I bought their album “Here & Now” on itunes.

Speaking of which, it is a great, great album. This song should really have been part of it, instead of as a bonus track. Don’t get me wrong – the songs that are part of the “official” album are all great in their own right. After all, it’s America – one of the greatest bands of all!

I hope you enjoy this song, as I am sure this will be added to my live song library for The Laptop Sessions Live Tour (remember, May 16 @ George’s II in Wallingford!)!

Be sure to come back tomorrow, where Jim will kick off another specialty week here at https://www.guitarbucketlist.com – #1 week! We’ll see you tomorrow for that!

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!

“Times Like These” (Foo Fighters Cover)

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By Jeff Copperthite:

Welcome to your Thumpin’ Thursday edition of The Laptop Sessions. Today I bring you a song by request. It’s one of the Foo Fighters most well known songs, and most agree that the acoustic version of this song is better than the original, full-band version.

Well, the song is “Times Like These”, of which there is a terrific video of Dave Grohl playing the song on the acoustic, with piano and string accompaniment on Youtube.

I had just purchased new guitar strings and this is the 2nd video I recorded with them. I had recorded this song in the same session as my previous video, but the new strings make this song sound a heck of a lot better, so I did it again.

The song is off their great album “One By One”. I’ve always been a Foo Fighters fan since their original self-titled release.

I hope this translates well to the acoustic version, although you may notice that I do not do the “screaming” chorus, because my voice…well, it just isn’t suited for screaming.

I hope you enjoy today’s edition, and keep checking https://guitarbucketlist.com/ for more from FMP, and for pictures/video from our live performances!

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!