Tag Archives: acoustic rock

“Here, There, and Everywhere” (Beatles Cover)

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Welcome to a new era in online music videos: The Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!

Modeled after Ed Robertson’s (of Barenaked Ladies) incredible “Bathroom Sessions,” YouTube acoustic music video series, we will be recording songs on video using the built-in camera on our Macbook laptops. So, wherever the laptop goes, we’ll record a new cover song video!

Tonight, I start the series off with a song from the Beatles, “Here, There, and Everywhere,” a great tune by Paul McCartney (and John Lennon, for copyright’s sake). I recorded it at 2 am in my living room. This is a great song from the “Revolver” album- it shows Paul’s softer side. I remember reading a story about this song. The Beatles wanted to do some nice harmonies for the background vocals. So, George Martin (their producer) helped them out and came up with the nice background vocal part you hear on the original record. Well, the Beatles loved it and that’s what you hear on the final record. When asked about the harmony part, though, George Martin pointed out that there really was nothing to it- he basically just played a chord and gave a note to each member. They call that a “block” harmony. Simply put, each member just sings the next note (up or down, depending on the tune) in sequence. There isn’t any cross-harmonies or anything complex. If the melody goes up, your note goes up. It’s the easiest way of doing harmony. But, for “Here, There, and Everywhere”, it was exactly what the Beatles wanted.

I’m not sure why I chose this as my first video. I think it’s one of those songs that I always loved and when I saw how to play it, I really just wanted to give it a try. In the process, I thought I would record a live acoustic version of it. This song was played at my parents’ wedding and it’s always had some importance to our family. I know the recording quality isn’t great, but when I recorded this, they had an option of recording live right onto YouTube’s video servers. So, I had little control of the video quality or (especially) the sound. You can hear the whirl of my Macbook laptop’s fans in the background and the color (and the video angle) leaves much to be desired. But, every great project must start somewhere and I’m glad it could be with such a great song in “Here, There, and Everywhere”.

These videos are meant to show our passion for music and our love to play constantly, so look for updates every couple of days. That’s right: days!!

Enjoy and we hope to see you back here on the music video blog often. We’ll be featuring many acoustic cover songs and original music for your enjoyment. Please remember to subscribe to the music blog so you can be the first to know when a new video is uploaded!  And make sure to check out all of our Beatles cover songs– I’m sure there will be many!

Welcome to the new Laptop Sessions Covers Music Video Blog!

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Hello everyone and welcome to a new era of Fusco-Moore Productions!

I’ve decided what this site really needs…new musicians…

After Chris and Jeff shot that idea down (I wonder why), I decided the next best thing would be to start a blog where we can update our growing list of fans about ALL of our creative projects. “Updating” is the name of the game, and we’ll try our best to keep things fresh…

We’re also making a concerted effort to add new multimedia (music, videos, etc.) to the site CONSTANTLY. We realize the way to make people come back is to give them something to look forward to when they do. So, that means all new podcasts, free tracks, world premieres, and videos galore!

So, stay tuned for plenty of updates and make sure you get EVERYONE you know to subscribe to our blog so they can always be up to date on the latest from the Fusco-Moore galaxy!

~Jim

“Let It Be” (The Beatles Cover)

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So, this is how the whole “Laptop Sessions” acoustic cover songs music video blog got its humble start.  It’s also the first edition of a Beatles cover songs here on the music blog.  This is the day I decided to change the face of cover song videos forever!  You see, on YouTube, there’s a video of a guy playing “Let It Be” by the Beatles on piano. He’s got like 12,000 views on it. It’s not bad, but it’s not even in the right key!

So, I posted a comment to that effect, and someone wrote back that I was being nitpicky (is that even a word?) and that not many people can sing in the range of the original key.  Let me tell you- if you can’t sing it in the original key, you can’t sing the song at all and you shouldn’t be doing a cover of it.  How “high and mighty” of me.  I’ve always thought that was a good barometer for a musician, especially one getting on in age.  You see, I’m all for older musicians to keep playing, but they can’t just go up there and be shadows of their former selves.  Especially when they’re charging well over $100 a ticket!  Anyway, it seems to me that if you can’t sing your own song in the original key, you should probably just hang it up.  That’s one of the things that really impressed me about seeing the Monkees in concert.  Those guys have been playing for over 40 years and they STILL sing all of those songs in the original key!  And the Monkees’ songs were pretty high-pitched, especially the ones Mikey Dolenz wrote.

Anyway,  I had to back up my statement about that cover song in the wrong key on YouTube with a video performance of me playing and singing the song in the original key. I chose to do this cover song music video on guitar because it was the most handy at the time.  I think it’s what helps make the Laptop Sessions great- taking a song everyone knows and turning it into an acoustic interpretation.  You’ll notice that I’m playing my Arrow nylon-stringed acoustic guitar.  It’s a classical guitar that I purchased while on vacation in Italy.  I love how mellow it sounds and it’s incredibly easy to play.  It also allows me to sing over the music without having to shout.  That’s especially helpful when you’re trying to get more emotion out of the performance.  Even though it doesn’t sound as good as a steel-string guitar, I think it’s a great fit for the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs video series here on the music blog.

You’ll also notice that this video isn’t exactly of the best quality.  Well, when starting the Laptop Sessions, I wanted to make it a way to record a music video that wouldn’t require a ton of setup- it would allow for a spur-of-the-moment performance.  At the time, YouTube had a “Capture Now” feature that would record directly off of a webcam.  Well, my Macbook has a webcam and that’s what I ended up doing.  The only thing is that recording live like that degraded the quality.  But, I keep this acoustic performance here on the music blog to show the start of the Laptop Sessions and tell you what it’s all about: great acoustic cover songs!