Hello and welcome, one and all, to my favorite type of acoustic cover song — a collaboration with fellow Fusco-Moore Productions artist Jim Fusco. (I’ll be posting another one soon with Jim and his girlfriend — fiance, to be more precise! — Becky Daly.) Tonight, I’m happy to present our rendition of the Beach Boys’ “Getcha Back” from their 1985 self-titled release.
This is probably their last great record, as such. After this, Dennis’ absence is all the more profound and the overall quality of involvement and projects seems to decline. But this album should not be ignored, even taking into account how much it sounds like “eighties music.”
“Getcha Back” is the first track and sets the tone for the album as a whole. I used to turn this on, set it to repeat, turn off the lights in my room, and lay on the floor listening to it again and again. There’s so much running through Mike Love’s vocal and the instrumental accompaniment is both rocking and sad. It made me want to write and record a song that could be that simple, and yet that good!
Years later, I still love the track, and I feel privileged that Jim would relinquish his claim on a Beach Boys cover — one of my favorites — so that I could record it for the acoustic cover songs music blog. Not only did he let me record it, but he joined in to make it probably one of my favorite Laptop Sessions thus far. I hope you enjoy it too!
Don’t forget to hurry back tomorrow for a new acoustic rock cover by Jeff…
Welcome to your Monday, Monday edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!
If you take a look at the last few posts, you’ll notice all the work I’ve been doing over the past 24 hours. I’ve managed to mix, master, and put online three concerts worth of material. The last one has 35 songs! Then, I finally posted my photos from our TNA Wrestling show back in May. Finally, I went through and backed-up literally 100 gb of data that was clogging up my laptop’s harddrive. I put all of it on DVDs, which meant that I needed to complete everything before I backed it up and deleted it from my hard drive.
This is the first time in about nine months that the coffee table is clear of five spindles of DVDs.
Today, I bring you a song that Chris, Becky, and I have been playing since the beginning. Back in late high school, I fell in love with the music of Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, and Chris Hillman. I mean, I was already a fan of the Byrds, but we had recentely gotten this album called “McGuinn, Clark, and Hillman”. It was recorded in the mid-seventies, long after the original Byrds broke up and reformed.
A few tracks on this album, including the first track (which Jeff did as a Laptop Session- Click HERE to view it!) meant a lot to me at the time. I was with my first girlfriend (and so proud that I had a CD player in the car- my 1990 Camaro) and the way we got together was a little weird. We kinda had a thing going a year or so earlier, but then something happened to make us not talk for a long time. I’m being vague not because I want to be, but because I honestly don’t remember. That’s why I wrote in a journal every single day, I guess. I’ll have to go back and read up on it. Anyway, when we finally made it happen, I just thought the song “Long Long Time” was perfect for it. I hope you’ll listen closely to the words in Jeff’s version and you’ll see what I mean.
“Surrender To Me” is a great song for a couple of reasons- mostly because of McGuinn’s incredible guitar work. I actually based our live version half on the album version and half on the acoustic demo with Hillman and McGuinn. Having Chris there to play the rhythm guitar (back when we first started playing live, he had a ton of trouble doing harmony parts while playing), Becky singing with me, and me playing a guitar solo I could actually handle, this was a prime choice. I just wish more people had heard of it. But, that’s okay- most people probably think it’s an original, which is major points for me!
Actually, this song is a cover itself. Neither McGuinn, Clark, or Hillman wrote this tune. But I still think it’s a great one and a standout track on the album. Coming up on my next Session starts my suite of videos recorded in the great outdoors. These videos are part of what the Laptop Sessions is all about, coupled with those Jeff did while on vacation- they’re LAPTOP Sessions! We can record them anywhere and bring them to you from whereever you may be. Enjoy today’s Session and make sure to come back tomorrow for Chris’ video, Wednesday for Jeff’s Original Wednesday (which I hope he comes through and plays us his new song), and to download all the new concerts!
As a special treat for all you Fusco-Moore music blog faithfuls, this post is in honor of Laptop Sessions founder Jim Fusco’s wedding to Becky Daly over the weekend. That’s right; as of July 25th, 2009, Jim is no longer a single man.
Sorry, ladies…
As part of my wedding gift to them, I sifted through the 10,000 plus songs on my iTunes and created a playlist to commemorate their marriage. As you skim through the bands and titles below, you’ll find that the theme is pretty obvious — two people getting together in a relationship (1, 2), getting married (5, 7, 11), and the new life that follows (8, 10, 12, 14). Of course, there’s some mention of Saturday night (4) and the bonus tracks are all about the honeymoon — can you guess where that’s going to be taking place?
I hope you enjoy the playlist rundown, and I encourage you to leave comments for the newlyweds here on this post!
TRACK LISTING:
1 ) “Got to Get You Into My Life” – The Beatles
2 ) “Better Together” – Jack Johnson
3 ) “Hope You Love Me Like You Say You Do” – Huey Lewis & The News
4 ) “Almost Saturday Night” – Gene Clark & Carla Olson
5 ) “Chapel of Love” – The Beach Boys
6 ) “I’ll Always Love You (Day After Day)” – Dean Martin
7 ) “Wear My Ring Around Your Neck” – Elvis Presley
8 ) “What Love Has Joined Together” – The Temptations
9 ) “Really Love You” – Paul McCartney
10) “Ideal Woman” – William Shatner
11) “Wedding Song” – Bob Dylan
12) “A New Life For Us” – The Now People
13) “Satisfied” – Ringo Starr
14) “Believe In Life” – Eric Clapton
15) “This is Love” – George Harrison
16) “One True Vine” – Wilco
BONUS TRACKS:
17) “The Honeymoon Song” – The Beatles
18) “The Hula Hula Boys” – Warren Zevon
19) “Rocking Chair in Hawaii” – George Harrison
20) “Rock-A-Hula Baby” – Elvis Presley
21) “Hawaii” – The Beach Boys
And, welcome back! Today is Wednesday, and here on the best acoustic music blog ever conceived, that means it’s time for an original song! Today, I bring you a cut off of my new album, “Halfway There”, available now at http://jimfusco.com.
This song is the most personal one on the album and is really the most blunt song I’ve written in a long time. It’s not meant to be angry or anything- it’s meant to ask questions of both myself and someone else.
Basically, I’m saying: “Hey, I’ve been trustworthy for over six years and still I feel that I’m not being fully trusted.” The song pretty much speaks for itself after that.
This was the last song I wrote for the album, save for the bonus track. To me, I can definitely tell that this was written after the bulk of the other songs. Songs for an album always have a “feel” to them and it took me quite a while to record this track and make it “fit”. But, I love the tune and the chord progression. Fans of Stone Temple Pilots will hear the similarity between the riff of this song and the one in “Plush”, which I was listening to a lot at the time. I didn’t realize it until afterward. But, the similarity is just like an, “Oh, yeah, I see what you mean,” more than anything.
So, I hope you enjoy this original song. It’s really one of my favorites off of the new album and the chord progression to the chorus is one of my favorites to play, too. I’ll be back next Tuesday with yet another acoustic cover song on my normal day for posting music videos. Have a great day!
