Everyone wanted revenge. The Best Song EVER! Show left Chris without a top 5 pick, Dave becoming enraged about not getting to Number 1 with Eye of the Tiger, and Mike and Alberto being robbed with Chris’ lack of taste in music. Jim Fusco, on the other hand, was game for a rematch- and this time, the undisputed, real winner would come out on top.
The voting was done differently for this free Internet radio show. Each member, along with three other guests (including Stuffy D. Bear) ranked each song from 1-15, one being the best. Then, all the numbers for each song were averaged, giving it it’s final average. This made the voting and the results very fair.
There were two guests on the show. Matt Griffiths and Jeff Copperthite both made their second Moore Hits in the Morning appearances, adding very much to this show. But there were only six people present at this show. How could that be? There are five cast members and two guests. The answer was the Alberto was very sick that day, and couldn’t make the show. Yet, he was there in spirit and his songs were still given their much deserved respect.
This show is the “everything” radio show. The usual features: traffic, news, and weather; Stuffy D. Bear, who introduced his new friend, Palumbi (above); Dr. Keck; and Ronco were on the show, but two skits, political commentary with Matt, and Mickey Rooney’s Garden State Life promo gave the show a BIG comic boost. All these along with 15 great songs and two millennium style poems made this an all-around great show.
So sit back, relax, and listen to this great funny radio show. See if you can guess which song is Number 1!
I want to welcome you to the ultimate Thumpin’ Thursday edition – the Christmas edition!
Today I bring you an acoustic cover of Irving Berlin’s classic song “White Christmas”. It’s a song we all know and love. I won’t get mad if you sing along.
I had a great Christmas – I got to spend it with my family all day. We talked, ate, opened presents, gave each other presents, and had an overall wonderful time. Sherry & I then came home and exchanged the nights’ worth of Hanukkah gifts. She loves her new digital photo frame too!
Tomorrow Sherry & I are going on vacation to a resort in NY. We will be gone until Tuesday. Because of this, I will have a post “auto-publish” on Sunday. But if you just can’t wait, look me up on Youtube to see a preview of Sunday’s song.
I hope your Christmas was wonderful, and I hope you have nothing to bring back tomorrow. Come back tomorrow for Jim to enlighten us with another wonderful acoustic cover. See you then!
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!
Hello and welcome to an all-new acoustic cover song by an all-new artist to the Laptop Sessions music blog…
This is Bryan Adams’ “I Ain’t Losin’ the Fight” from his 2008 album 11. The story behind the title of this most recent album is that it is his eleventh studio album. Apparently, fans have started proposing other hidden meanings of the number 11 for this record, but he has been clear in interviews that he never intended any deeper meanings. I tend to believe him, as the album is as straightforward as can be. It is a predominantly white cover, the booklet illustrated with pictures of Adams against white backdrops. The eleven songs are a fairly straightforward set of new rock music tracks that you would expect from Adams. But this is not to say that it is simply a mediocre, plain album. I have really enjoyed listening to these songs and I certainly plan to record more acoustic cover songs based on his work this year. I’ve really fallen in love with tracks like “Oxygen” and “Mysterious Ways” in addition to this track I’ve recorded for tonight, “I Ain’t Losin’ the Fight” — they’re such simple songs lyrically, but they are catchy and I love the sound he gets out of the mix of the instruments.
I think it’s worth noting that Bryan Adams was included in a top ten list last week of artists who should stop recording new albums. To be honest, I tended to agree with the other artists who were listed, with the possible exception of the Who (Endless Wire — I mean the album and not the attached rock symphony opera whatever — really wasn’t as bad as some music reviews made it out to be; I thought it had some solid, enjoyable tracks).
The inclusion of Bryan Adams in this list is not so surprising, as he is an easy target for those who like to write about “important” songwriters and bands. He also gets looked down upon for being a Canadian rocker, I think, which is patently unfair. I’ve always wondered how you can dismiss a new music artist based on his country of origin — just look at how many incredible albums the Barenaked Ladies, also Canadian natives, have released. Regardless, I thought it was also unfair that this top ten list dismissed Adams’ previous hits — “Summer of ’69” and “(Everything I Do) I Do It For You” — wholesale. If you ask me, this was a chance for the writer of the top ten list to make a pun, writing that if Bryan Adams really did hold to his promise of “everything I do I do it for you,” then he would stop releasing records.
Ridiculous.
I can appreciate a good pun, but 11 is one of the most fun rock albums of the year. Groundbreaking? No. Predictable? Okay, I suppose. But it’s just a solid rock album and can’t we be happy with that?
And now, without further ado, I’ll come down off my soap box and give my musical nod to Bryan Adams’ latest work. I hope you enjoy it and maybe you’ll even want to hear the real studio version after watching my acoustic cover song music video. Don’t forget to come back tomorrow for an all-new session from Jeff…
For Wilco/Woody Guthrie chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!
By Chris Moore:
This is quite the story for a session. It seems that, in order to outdo my previous “new release” Laptop Sessions, I needed to call in some outside help…
In the form of one Jim Fusco on his brand-new metallic blue lap steel guitar!
Oh, and if you’re a Wilco fan, then I hope you can appreciate how exciting it was for me to host the first Lap-(steel)-top Session. Throughout their catalog, they have incorporated country tinges with instruments such as this. Most recently, even as they continue to play around with more experimental forms, Nels Cline plays beautifully on the lap steel in several of their concert set list mainstays, from the older deep track “It’s Just That Simple” to more recent material off of Sky Blue Sky, their 2007 album.
This track, “The Jolly Banker,” was written by Woody Guthrie and originally recorded on March 22, 1940 (as reported in the Library of Congress records for these sessions with folk music expert Alan Lomax). Nearly seventy years later, Wilco has recorded their own version of this song — which is eerily relevant as of its release on April 30th, 2009 — and released it as a free download online. Technically, they suggest/request that you donate at least $2 to the Woody Guthrie Foundation — this is quite funny, as one of the three options for downloading states “I am/was a banker/hedge fund manager/credit default swap trader. I know times are tough, but I’m just fine thank you. (Suggested minimum donation $100.00).”
Tonight, I jokingly challenged Jim to not only play this song as his debut performance on his new guitar, but to actually record a Laptop Session on the spot. He must have taken me seriously or at least had the urge to give the Rogue brand lap steel an official test run, because he didn’t skip a beat when we set up downstairs. As you’ll hear — and I hope you’ll agree — this is a great, loyal rendition of Wilco’s cover version, right down to the tapping opening count and the aforementioned lap steel. I was initially thinking that this would be just another session with me recording just another version of a simple song. Instead, I am proud to say that this is one of my favorite sessions I’ve recorded in a long time.
Unfortunately, although the actual playing of the song with Jim was very fun and relaxed, the events around the recording were frustrating. As I’m sure Jim will explain in “tomorrow’s” post (don’t forget that I forgot to remember to record on “Memorial” day… there’s some irony for you), he just got his new HD video camera in the mail. We tried to record the session with the camera — and the video quality was amazing — but the audio quality was terrible. Jim finally gave up for the night, but I’m sure he’ll come up with some plan to augment and/or jury rig the setup before next week’s Jim Fusco Tuesday.
Maybe then I’ll bug him to record a saxophone solo for a Bruce Springsteen cover… (Kidding!) 🙂
On a side note, today started off sadly, as I awoke to find the news of former Wilco multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett’s death on my iPhone AP News app. While I haven’t followed his work outside of Wilco, I was sad to hear this, especially as I read a quote from Bennett from a couple weeks ago about how excited he was for his new album and the future in general. It all came in a burst for me, as I also just learned yesterday of the lawsuit Bennett had filed against Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy calling for $50,001.00 in back royalties he felt he was owed, citing the YHF documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart as a film for which he did not sign a proper release form.
Some say Bennett was being unreasonable. Others say he was instrumental (no pun intended… okay, maybe a little) in Wilco’s mainstream breakthrough and that he deserved additional money. (Apparently he couldn’t even afford a hip replacement that he badly needed.)
Regardless of which side you take, the bottom line is that he has passed away, and at least for the moment, no one is exactly sure what happened.
I also learned today that our oldies/rock acquaintance, Tony Persia, also passed away recently. I was saddened to learn about this loss, as he has really set the tone at the annual Carbutti Christmas parties that both Jim and I attend. For those of you who aren’t familiar with him, he was probably best known as the piano player for the classic Danny & the Juniors single “At the Hop.” He was an incredibly kind, charming man who met many great music stars in his life and played lots and lots of music — I know I speak for Jim, Mike, and I when I say he will be sorely missed, particularly this December…
On a happy note, I just downloaded the Wilco iPhone app, and it’s great fun. You can access all the latest band news, photos, and listen in full(!) to every song from their official catalog, including both Mermaid Avenue releases and their live Kicking Television concert album. If only my other favorite bands would jump on the iPhone application train… (cough, nudge – “Dylan, Beach Boys, Barenaked Ladies, Moody Blues, Pearl Jam” – cough, nudge)
Without further ado, I will leave you to watch this collaborative session. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed recording it…
