“Good Thing” (Fine Young Cannibals Cover)

By Jeff:

Historian Note (originally posted August 6, 2009) This cover song has been re-uploaded to my new Youtube account. It got stuck in my head earlier today after hearing it again, and I figured it should be the next update to my expanding video history!

Welcome to Thumpin’ Thursday!  And tonight, I’ve got a song that will have you tapping your feet and thumping along!

It occured to me today that, wow there’ s a lot of music that I know and have heard, but never knew either the band or the name of the song (or both).  This song falls into both of these never knew categories.  I have heard this song in the past and liked it.  I never bothered to figure out who it was by or what the name of it was (although I had a hunch it was “Good Thing”).  So when I learned who performed the song, I immediately looked it up and learned it.

As you can see in this video, playing this song and singing it is quite a challenge.  The strumming pattern is unique, and the lyrics are not easy to follow, or have a set rhythm (as in the other song that i’ve covered by this band “She Drives Me Crazy”).  Couple that with a rather rigid pattern and you have a song that’s trickier than it looks.

I could’ve also gone with open position chords, but I felt the song was easier to play in the barre position, and sounded better too.  It also complemented the strum style.

Just to let you know ahead of time, but I will be on vacation next week, and will have a scheduled post go up on Thursday @ 6 p.m.

Until then, enjoy this thumpin’ hit from FYC!

“She Drives Me Crazy” (Fine Young Cannibals Cover)

By Jeff:

It’s that time – Thumpin’ Thursday!  And it’s the 2nd to last Thursday that I have before the prom that I have been helping to plan.  Everything is starting to fall into place for it, and I will be the happiest person alive next Friday once I can wake up and say “well that was fun and worth it”.

Until then, I have a great song that is perfect for this week.  Obviously not in reference to anybody in particular, but just the fact it has the word “crazy” in it makes it appropriate.

The song this week is from a new band to the Sessions called “She Drives Me Crazy”.  I’m sure everyone will instantly recognize this tune.  It was a #1 hit (among another song off of the same album) in the 80’s, and the original version of this song has one of the coolest music videos i’ve ever seen.  The album by the way is called “The Raw & The Cooked”.

This song is an ok translation to acoustic guitar.  Part of the allure of the song is the percussion and “beat” that is provided throughout the song.  Don’t get me wrong – i’m glad that we can now say there is an acoustic cover of the song, but i’m not sure that the original version was meant for an acoustic guitar.

That being said, my Roland Gift impression is not that good :(.  I always said to myself he looks like someone I know, but I can’t place who it was or who I thought it was.

This song is also quite easy to play.  If you can play a D – G – Bm – A progression, and switch up the strum patterns for verse & chorus, then you can play this one.

Ok i’m going to head to bed so I can take care of some more prom planning, then I have a Dr.’s appt., then I get to umpire a Varsity game tomorrow that I got moved to today!  That’ll make 3 Varsity games this week.

I hope you enjoy your weekend, and make sure you keep returning to guitarbucketlist.com!

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 origianal 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!