Welcome to your Friday edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!
Tonight, I bring you a cool tune from Paul McCartney, “My Brave Face”. I always knew of this song, hearing it on the radio and such, but for some reason, I fell in love with it a couple years ago. I guess I never really knew it was Paul.
It’s a TOUGH song to sing and I just can’t seem to shake this cold lately, but I prepped myself by eating and drinking a lot before I did the take. It always makes me feel better.
There’s also some really tough lines to sing, as they have this odd syncopation to them. The line, “Ever since you left I have been trying to compose a ‘baby will you please come home’ note meant for you”. Are you kidding me? It took a while to get that one down.
But, I really like the way the whole video came out and I think you’ll agree it’s one of my more passionate ones.
Enjoy tonight’s video and make sure to get yourself back to https://www.guitarbucketlist.com tomorrow for another new video from the one and only Chris Moore!
Welcome to the Laptop Sessions for Tuesday! Today, I bring you yet another new band to the Sessions. Well, it’s not a “new” band by any means, but we’ve haven’t done them before: The Temptations!
This song is also in contention for the longest song title award. I’ve always liked this song, but for some reason it moved its way quickly up my list when I thought of it one night and learned how to play it.
Temptations songs are a bit harder to do, like the Beach Boys, because of their usual harmonies, but it’s fun to take a song that has so much more production and make it into a solo performance. That, in my opinion, is what makes the Laptop Sessions so unique.
Over the next few weeks, it’s going to be my focus to do as many new bands as possible. I still have a couple of songs in the reserves to get to first, but look for a wide array of new artists to come!
Today, “#1 Week” ends with a great tune from John Lennon’s last album, “Double Fantasy”. I was surprised that this song reached Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 instead of “Woman”, which made it to #2.
I’m typing this description while listening to these two fartheads talk. I’m talking about Chris and Jeff, who just bet me to type that, so there you go, guys.
Anyway, I really love this song, too, and it came out great on my nylon string guitar. I had to record this one on my digital camera, as my laptop has been making a lot of fan noise lately. Also, we were preparing the basement studio to record “Jamnation 1”, so I couldn’t record my cover song music video where I usually do. I must apologize for the background here- would’ve it have killed me to clean up the blanket on the bed? But, I guess that’s part of what makes the Laptop Sessions fun for me. I can set up a camera and play a reimagined acoustic version of a great song like “(Just Like) Starting Over” any time (and anywhere) I want!
You know, it’s funny that the John Lennon album I took “(Just Like) Starting Over” from is called “Double Fantasy”, because only half of the album is listenable. The version I have on my iTunes is great- I weeded out all of the Yoko Ono songs (which are simply unlistenable) and I’m left with a great album by John Lennon. He had taken a long hiatus from the music business to focus on his personal life and finally came back with some of his best-ever songs. “Beautiful Boy” is one of the saddest songs ever, but it’s truly an amazing work of art. It pains me to think of the music John Lennon would’ve made had he lived longer. The style he had on “Double Fantasy” was perfect for the time- is has a bit of that late-70s sound to it, but it sounds updated and modern. This album definitely wears better than many others from the same time period. I know John Lennon would’ve kept the music that I love on the charts longer and it’s a shame he never got that chance.
I heard recently that John was having some trouble singing the original songs he wrote for Double Fantasy. I guess, over the years, his voice started deteriorating. So, he had to double-track every lead vocal part on “Double Fantasy”. I really had no idea about this- his vocals seem pretty strong. But, when you listen to the demos he was recording around this time (many of them are out there on boxed sets), you hear a much weaker voice than he had years earlier as a member of the Beatles. But, John Lennon was a performer at heart and he knew how to make his songs sound the best they could. So, he double-tracked everything and we got some great original songs out of it!
I will be doing more John Lennon songs from this album in the future, but I hope you’ve all enjoyed “#1 Week” here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!
Welcome to the start of “#1 Week”, where Chris Moore, Jeff Copperthite, and I are playing only songs that topped the Billboard Hot 100 charts, except for Original Wednesday, of course. But, I hope that the song I play on Original Wednesday will be a contender for a #1 week in the future! 🙂
Tonight, I bring you a song that I just can’t get enough of. It’s Chicago’s first #1 hit and was written by the great Peter Cetera.
It’s a slow song, but has a great tune and some great chords. The only problem with the song is that it marked the beginning of Chicago’s “power ballad” phase. It was fruitful for them, yes, but it was also the end of their highly creative rock-n-roll style.
This is one of my favorite performances and I hope it ends up being even more popular than my first Chicago video, “Wishing You Were Here” ( Wishing You Were Here cover ).
NOTE: In 2020, I remastered the original video (which was very dark- almost couldn’t see anything at all!) and re-uploaded it to YouTube, as you’ll see below. I hope it breathes new life into the video!
