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“Good Times” (Marcy Playground Cover)

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For Marcy Playground chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to the second installment of a double header here at the Laptop Sessions, two sessions in honor of Marcy Playground singles, both past and present. Tonight I’m standing in for Jim, who’s away for one more week on his honeymoon. I can only imagine what kinds of photos and songs he’ll bring back with him from his exotic — yet domestic — locale.

My cover song music video tonight is from Marcy Playground’s latest album, Leaving Wonderland… in a fit of rage, just released last month. “Good Times” is a song about accepting whatever difficulty or hardship you may face and moving on from there.  He invokes the classic phrases, “It’s all right” and “This too shall pass,” and although the lyrics are extremely simple, “Good Times” has a Jack Johnson-esque feel-good vibe to it and I enjoyed playing it.

My one hesitation in endorsing this as a great track is that lead singer John Wozniak refers to himself twice in the song.  (I tried inserting my name into my version, but it just didn’t feel right…)  In the first bridge, he refers to himself both as “Woz” and “John.”  Initially, this was distracting for me.  Then I realized, after playing it over and over again before recording my session today, that his personal reference works in the context of the song as a whole.  In the first half of the song, he’s essentially singing a song about and for himself.  By the end of the song, however, he refers much more generally and universally, inviting all people to join him in appreciating the “good times” and dealing positively with the bad.

Right about now, I think all three core members of the Laptop Sessions are enjoying the good times.  After all, Jim is on his honeymoon and Jeff and I are on summer break from school.  Sure, life is always going to be busy for guys like ourselves who are constantly working and writing and playing, but that only makes our leisure time all the more enjoyable and relaxing.

Speaking of free time, I’m off to do laundry and vacuum!

Seriously, though, I hope you’ll come back soon for more sessions.  As for me, I’m picking up some real creative steam now that the moving process is complete and the summer is in full swing.  I’m working on finishing my third poetry book (FINALLY!), a couple novels (which translates to a lot of writing, jumping back and forth, and thus a very slow process), and songwriting for my next album (I’ve written eight songs in the past three weeks that I’m very proud of — I think some of these are the best songs I’ve ever written, and I’m anxious to find a way to translate them to tape or, in this day and age, to computer).

This all adds up to some great new updates by the fall and some new Original Wednesdays for me in the near future.  For now, though, if you’re interested in hearing what my new material sounds like, you can check out a file that I “tweeted” a few weeks ago: CLICK HERE.  The song is called “Work Time, Get In Line,” and it’s a taste of what it sounds like when I tinker around with GarageBand, my MacBook’s built-in mic, and my Fender acoustic guitar.

See you next session!

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“Good Times” by Marcy Playground – Chords, Tabs, & How to Play

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To see how the song is played in the cover song music video, CLICK HERE!

“Good Times”
Marcy Playground

Intro: D   Bm   F#   G   Bb – A – D  (sing: “Do-do-do…”)

VERSE:
D
When life has got you down
Bm                      F#                        G             Bb – A – D
And everything about it makes you blue:
Pick up, keep moving on,
‘Cause that’s the very best thing you can do.

BRIDGE:
D                             A                G    F#
Say, hey, Woz, whatever this is, it’s all right.
D                 A                     G              F#                 Bm
Hey, John, this too shall pass; it’s a season in your life.
F#      G
Yeah, yeah, well, I’m…

CHORUS:
D                                              A                                     Bm             G – F#
Kickin’ down the back streets; people wanna break my stride.
D                       A                                  Bm              G – F#
Everyone has a time when they lose their pride,              but…
Bm          F#         G        D
When I’m old and in my chair,
A            Bm     F#        G
Thinking back, looking back,
A               D
What will I remember?
D         Bm           F#                      G              Bb – A – D
All the good times — they were all right…

(Intro)

VERSE:
When every morning brings
A struggle just to get up from the bed…

BRIDGE:
Say, hey man, whatever this is, it’s all right.
Hey man, this too shall pass; it’s a lesson in your life.
Yeah, yeah, well…

CHORUS (once)
(different chords for last line, as below:)
D         Bm           F#                      G           A(hold)     D
All the good times — they were all right…                    Do-do-do, do-do.

** These chords and lyrics are interpretations and transcriptions, respectively, and are the sole property of the copyright holder(s). They are posted on this website free of charge for no profit for the purpose of study and commentary, as allowed for under the “fair use” provision of U.S. copyright law, and should only be used for such personal and/or academic work. **

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“It’s Too Late” (Carole King Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Could it be Jim Fusco covering a woman’s song…in the original key??  Then you KNOW it’s the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog- the BEST music video blog ever created!

This is a great song, isn’t it?  It’s off of Carole (not to be confused with “Carol”) King’s classic hit album, “Tapestry”.  I’ll admit that I don’t have the album and just know the single from hearing it many times on the radio.  But, after hearing what a great tune it is (you know, actually just sitting and listening to it), I think I may give the album a try.  It’s a fairly simple song and reminds me (especially the ending, which ends on the same chord and with the same pattern) of a song my brother Mike and I wrote a long time ago called “Stuck In A Dream”.  You can listen to that song, which is off of the “Meaningless: Echoes of Dreams” sessions, by clicking HERE!  We wrote that song about six or seven years ago, so you know that this song, even though it uses some great Major 7th chords, is still pretty simple.  On the piano, it’s much easier than it is on the guitar.

But, it’s got some great guitar parts in the original recording- a very cool solo.  Plus, it’s got that nifty little piano riff thrown in there, which again, for some reason, strikes me as something only a rudimentary songwriter would put in.  You know, someone that’s just tinkering around with the piano and came up with it.

So, I finally do a song from a female artist and here I am picking it apart, calling it amateurish.  No, I don’t mean that at all.  That’s one of the reasons why I want to hear the rest of the “Tapestry” album- if some of the other songs strike me as “professional”, I’ll know she came up with this song on purpose, and I do believe that’s the case.

This is a pretty powerful song, especially the part about “not trying”.  Too many relationships fail not because the people weren’t compatible, but because they just stopped trying.  Effort is truly the number one factor in a relationship, in my opinion.  I mean, this song isn’t saying what I’m really thinking right now- I’m getting married in less than two weeks and, contrary to what everyone insists on telling me, I’m full of hope and happiness for this.  I’ve promised time and time again that I will always put as much effort as possible into my relationship, as it’s the single most important thing to me.  Not music, not anything else- my relationship with my family (which will include my new wife) and my closest friends.

The way this song relates to me right now is that I kind of feel I’m not getting the same effort back from some of the people I consider close.  And some, like the song says, are irreparable.  That’s not to say that myself and the other person won’t be happy again- we certainly will.  It just won’t be as a result of one another.  The only thing I can hang my hat on at the moment that makes me feel any better is the “fact” (at least from my point of view) that the decisions that got it to this point were not mine at all- if it were up to me, everything would’ve stayed the same.  But, alas, just as Carole King sings, it’s just too late, baby.

I hope you enjoy my acoustic rendition of this classic song tonight.  I had a b***** of a time getting it right, as I must’ve done about twenty takes and even after I got the perfect one, I realized it had all kinds of inexplicable pops and clicks in the audio, which I’m trying to fix now.  I hope you can listen past the imperfections and hear one of my better performances underneath.  Have a great week!

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“Dancing in the Moonlight” (King’s Harvest Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Well, well, he’s back, folks!

Sorry about last week, everyone- I had an incredibly painful medical experience that put me on the shelf for a couple of days.  Thankfully, it’s “passed” now (ha, ha) and I can get on with my life.

Tonight is a weird night for me.  It’s the first night of about only ten or so nights of my life that I plan on spending alone.  Obviously, there’s always the unexpected, but tonight really is a rare night in my life.  You see, I share my condo with no one right now and it’s still a couple weeks before I get married to the person I’ve wanted to marry for about a third of my young life now.  Things just kind of worked out this way, I guess (the whole living situation), as the original idea was to have my roommates move out early so Becky could move in her stuff at a slower pace.

However, turns out that we bought a new house (that’s just a piece of land at this point) and didn’t end up needing that extra time.  So, I find myself alone on this Tuesday night.  Actually, I couldn’t be happier- my brother Mike came over for a nice shrimp fra diavolo dinner and I’ve been doing odds and ends on the computer all night.  I’m going to cherish this time alone- no need to worry about how loud the TV is at night, when I go to bed, or whether or not I have to alert anyone that I won’t be home for dinner.  It’s a freedom that only comes when you don’t live with your significant other before getting married.

It also makes me realize how much I love my condo and how big it is!  I’m not moving out of the condo because anything’s wrong with it- quite the contrary.  I love this place and in two short years, I’ve really made it my own.  But, it’s that feeling I have that I want a place that’s truly mine, and a condo just doesn’t fit that bill for me right now.  It’ll be a sad day when I leave this place, but it’ll close a chapter that truly needed to be closed, as I clearly had some bad vibes with my prior arrangement and I’m glad that’s over with.  Time to be movin’ on.

Speaking of moving on, let’s get to tonight’s post!

Tonight, I bring you another one hit wonder band in King’s Harvest, the group that performed “Dancing in the Moonlight”, a song everybody knows, but no one knows who did it.  Actually, listening to the studio version, I noticed how good the vocal harmony parts were on the chorus.  It was then slightly less of a surprise to me that this group consisted of Beach Boys touring band mainstays Ron Altbach and Billy Hinsche.  Turns out that the Beach Boys actually got King’s Harvest signed to a record deal.  They made one record that didn’t go anywhere and broke up after that.  Members of this group even played with Dennis Wilson on the “Pacific Ocean Blue” album and were part of Mike Love’s short-lived band, Celebration.

This is one of those tunes I heard on the radio in the store one time and thought, “Yes, another Laptop Session awaits!”  It’s pretty easy to play- first fret capo and play Em, A, D, and Bm.  That’s it.  The whole song.  Verse.  Chorus.  Everything.

Of course, tonight, I’d be pretty stupid to dance in the moonlight, as it’s pouring outside.  We’re in the middle of yet another thunderstorm.  And after the heat I’ve suffered through at work the past couple of days, I’ll be glad for a break in the weather.

Have a great night tonight, wherever you are.  Hopefully there’s some moonlight for you!  I’ll be back tomorrow with an Original Wednesday song to make up for my lack of post last week.  See you very soon!

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