My two-session tribute to Warren Zevon rolls on with what is probably my favorite Warren Zevon song of all-time, “Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner.” You have to know that I love the song if I’m willing to sing it, mid-song swear and all. I’m not quite certain what it is about this song that I find so appealing; I’ve always found the story mysterious and exciting, and the music fits perfectly with the lyrics. I’ve heard conflicting interpretations of the final line, “Patty Hearst heard the burst of Roland’s thompson gun and bought it.” I thought it meant she was killed, but I’ve heard others read it as her buying the gun at an auction years later.
Regardless of Patty’s fate, this is one of the big check marks on my Laptop Sessions list. You can look forward to many more Zevon tunes in the future!
Hello all, and welcome to your weekend edition of The Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog with me, Jim Fusco. After two strong outings from Jeff and Chris, I decided to pull my ace-in-the-hole and do a Beach Boys song. I always have good luck doing a Beach Boys cover song, as growing up, I would constantly sing these while in the car. After a while, I think my voice just grew into the Beach Boys tone, so I’m able to bring you fairly accurate cover song videos here on the music blog!
This is an earlier Beach Boys song that doesn’t have way too much emphasis on the background vocals, so it was a nice transition into Laptop Sessions form. Normally, I like to take more produced songs and turn them into cover song videos, but tonight, I’m taking a lesser-known song and bringing it to the public’s attention again.
I love the way Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys sings this song. It’s like he’s semi-screaming it at some points, but he’s singing about how someone is “so good” to him! I think this might have been an attempt to sound a bit more “macho” on Brian’s part, and if I were in his shoes, I would completely understand. Of course, I think the “macho” aspect goes away on the falsetto, “And I love it, LOVE it!” line. That’s okay, though, as it’s my favorite part of the song. I’ve noticed lately that one of Brian Wilson’s strengths as a songwriter (and there are many) is his ability to write a great bridge. Those catchy transition periods between the verses and choruses are usually my favorite parts of a song. I’ve been putting a lot of focus on them in my original songs, as well. For instance, in “Good Enough” off of my album, “Those Around Us”, I love the way the bridge came out. It features really cool harmonies and a catchy tune. Plus, I like the line, “And now my heart is hardened like a heart of gold.”
I hope everyone likes this one, even though it doesn’t have my favorite Mike Love low part in there. Gotta get Chris to stop correcting high school English papers one of these nights and do some more collaborations! Actually, this cover song video doesn’t feature any of the background vocals. The “la-la-la” part in the chorus can be considered annoying by some people. In fact, it took away from my love of the song until just recently. I guess it grew on me. But, here I give you a version with no background vocals for the acoustic cover songs music video blog so you can hear just what a great little song “You’re So Good To Me” is!
Welcome to Original Wednesday! How exciting for me, because it only comes once every three weeks.I can’t wait until my new music officially comes out so I can do Sessions of those songs, but for now, I’ll settle for my last album, “What About Today?”
This song is called “Don’t Be That Way” and it kicks off the album. There’s some references to my past songs in here, so if you know any of my older music, you’ll get the “inside lines”. This song goes along those lines of someone taking and not reciprocating as much as I’d like them to. Must be a pretty strong topic with me! 🙂
Well, I recorded this just last night, so you see I’m back to health again. I actually recorded 8 total songs last night! Hey, if you’re on a roll, don’t stop it.
If you really like this song, and I think you will, you can download the original version on iTunes! That’s right- just search my name, the name of the album (What About Today?), or the name of the song and you can get it for only 99 cents!
Welcome to your Super Bowl Sunday edition of The Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog! As a quick note on the Super Bowl, I’m a Jets “fan”, so even though this concerns two northeast teams, I really don’t care who wins. On top of that, I’m a baseball fan, so hearing that the Mets signed Johan Santana, it already feels like a win.
On to today’s acoustic cover song:
I’ve said it before, but Gene Clark is in the running for best songwriter of all time. Those know know Gene’s music share my admiration of it, and even though finding someone who’s even HEARD of him is few and far between, I know this acoustic cover version of “Dark of My Moon” will make a lot of fans very happy.
“Dark of My Moon” and is an “unreleased” song that was formally released only as an acoustic demo a few years ago (long after Gene passed away). This has been a favorite of everyone in my family since we first heard it and I’m proud to bring it to the Laptop Sessions music blog.
This literally took me 30 takes to do. This is a very powerful song and I needed to do it right. I found that the more I played it, the harder it became to sing. But, after plenty of loud obscenities, I finally got the perfect take, which I present to you today.
Listen to the words of this song and listen to how the music rises and falls with the emotions. Not all of Gene Clark’s songs were this slow and sad-sounding, but most of them had this hint of melancholy to them. Even in a fast-paced song like “Feel A Whole Lot Better”, Gene would put this sad tinge on the lyrics. But, what’s interesting about “Feel A Whole Lot Better” is how he says, “I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone.” He doesn’t even know for sure! I think that extra dimension to Gene Clark’s lyrics is what made him so great. He had a way with words and you could tell he looked up to guys like Bob Dylan. For “Dark of My Moon”, you can tell it’s a very personal song. Lines like, “That’s the tenth time that you went and then came back,” make the listener realize that he’s talking about something (and someone) very specific. On songs like that, I usually choose not to do a cover version. But, “Dark of My Moon” is such a great song, I just couldn’t help it. The way Gene Clark sings in the rough demo version is just perfectly suited to the content of the song. This is only the first of many solo Gene Clark cover songs to come here on the video blog (not to mention those he did with the Byrds), so I hope everyone enjoys it!
