To see how the song is played in the cover song music video, CLICK HERE!
“Good Times”
Marcy Playground
Intro: D Bm F# G Bb – A – D (sing: “Do-do-do…”)
VERSE:
D
When life has got you down
Bm F# G Bb – A – D
And everything about it makes you blue:
Pick up, keep moving on,
‘Cause that’s the very best thing you can do.
BRIDGE:
D A G F#
Say, hey, Woz, whatever this is, it’s all right.
D A G F# Bm
Hey, John, this too shall pass; it’s a season in your life.
F# G
Yeah, yeah, well, I’m…
CHORUS:
D A Bm G – F#
Kickin’ down the back streets; people wanna break my stride.
D A Bm G – F#
Everyone has a time when they lose their pride, but…
Bm F# G D
When I’m old and in my chair,
A Bm F# G
Thinking back, looking back,
A D
What will I remember?
D Bm F# G Bb – A – D
All the good times — they were all right…
(Intro)
VERSE:
When every morning brings
A struggle just to get up from the bed…
BRIDGE:
Say, hey man, whatever this is, it’s all right.
Hey man, this too shall pass; it’s a lesson in your life.
Yeah, yeah, well…
CHORUS (once)
(different chords for last line, as below:)
D Bm F# G A(hold) D
All the good times — they were all right… Do-do-do, do-do.
** These chords and lyrics are interpretations and transcriptions, respectively, and are the sole property of the copyright holder(s). They are posted on this website free of charge for no profit for the purpose of study and commentary, as allowed for under the “fair use” provision of U.S. copyright law, and should only be used for such personal and/or academic work. **
By Jeff:
Welcome to Thumpin’ Thursday – another busy day in the life of Jeff.
But thankfully that busy-ness includes the posting of another video.
Today’s song is by the obscure band “Dishwalla”, and I shall be throwing my two cents into the ring from some obscure songs that I have lined up.
They’re only known by true fans as well, and this one fits that description.
The song is called “Bridge Song” and it’s from their album “And you think you know what life’s about”. This album is not as well known, and did not sell nearly the same amount of copies as “Pet Your Friends” did.
This cover has more of a personal touch to it because I did not stick to the same structure that exists in the recording. Again, you’d have to know the song to know what I did differently.
I’m also experimenting with slightly different camera angles. This is because I continue to receive comments about my voice being “boomy” in the condenser microphone in the camera. So i’m trying to sing off to the side to see if that helps things. Tonight I did have graduation so I was a bit tired. I wouldn’t say this is my best performance by any means.
But still, please enjoy the song.
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!
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!
Welcome, welcome to yet another Jim Fusco Tuesday here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog. Actually, tonight, you get two for the price of one: I have Chris Moore with me to record this session! And boy, did it come out great. If your connection can handle it, click the “HQ” button and listen to the better audio feed of this one. It’s in full stereo (I LOVE my microphone) and the levels are perfect!
And tonight debuts my brand new 12-string electric guitar! And what a way to bring it in. I knew I had to do a Byrds song. No, it’s not a Rickenbacher. Who can justify spending literally 8 times more for the same essential thing. My version is from Dean and I love it. It looks great and plays even better. The sound is there, too- just like all my favorite 12-string songs. Look for more in the future. I can’t wait to bust out my new lap steel guitar, as well.
Gene Clark wrote tonight’s song and it was off of the Byrds first album, “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Now, this isn’t the greatest album, but it really could have been. That is, if half the album weren’t Bob Dylan covers and other cover songs. Not to knock cover songs, but the songwriting of Gene Clark (and in the future, the rest of the band) was so far ahead of its time and his songs are simply timeless. This song takes me back to when I was at Wesleyan for 5 weeks in the summer of 2000. I was at a program called “CCY”, the Center for Creative Youth. Good fit, eh? 🙂
Anyway, those five weeks seemed like a whole lifetime at the time- everything that happened in one day seemed like a year. So, even not seeing someone for two days made it seem like you were living “here without you”. Needless to say, this song was all I listened to when I got back that summer.
I have to keep tonight’s post short because of my marathon video editing job last night. I need to catch up and this is my only opportunity. So, without further ado, I hope you enjoy the great effort put out by Chris and myself tonight on the Byrds’ classic song, “Here Without You”.
Hello and welcome to another week and another all-new Monday edition of the Laptop Sessions. It’s been quite a weekend, and it’s going to be quite a week!
On Friday night, I stayed late at school for as long as I could, but I just couldn’t resist going to see the newly released Star Trek movie. For once, a movie lived up to the hype! I picked up Nicole for the trip to the theater, and although we’ve seen a lot of good movies together (not to mention a decent number of flops), this has to top them all. Although I’m more of a Trek geek than she is, I think it’s fair to say we were equally excited during and after the movie. If you love the classic series and films, then you’ll appreciate the respect paid to these characters. If you know nothing about the franchise, then this is the perfect film to watch first. I can’t wait to find an excuse to watch it again very soon…
Saturday was a crazy day for me, as my sister Jaime graduated from Nyack college at 2 pm in New York. I got up early (for a Saturday, at least!) and drove to New York for my least favorite of all activities: ceremonies like a graduation. That being said, it was worth it to see my sister graduate. We met as a family later on for dinner and that was great, too. It was great to have Nicole join us, too, and she made what could have been a long, boring drive with lots of downtime an enjoyable little day trip. Sunday was more of the same, as it was Mother’s Day, and my sister is only home for a week before returning to New York to work. We got to hang out, talk music, and watch an episode of The Twilight Zone that gave her nightmares as a young child. We didn’t get to play The Office board game, but there will always be time for another round in the future. (And I’ll be ready this time! 😉 )
Tonight finds me watching the Mets. After a seven game winning streak, it appears that they’re going to lose one. I’m loving this iPhone “MLB.com – At Bat 2009” application. It makes listening to games and staying in touch with the stats and standings soooo easy. It’s been a great week for watching Mets baseball, and I don’t want to complain. But I don’t quite get why they seem unable to score runs when Johan Santana is pitching. Maybe they get subconsciously complacent, since he’s such a great pitcher. Even tonight, although he got into a couple sticky situations, he worked his way out of each one — until they pulled him out 1/3 into the seventh inning. What truly amazes me is his ERA; as of tonight, it is .78! Games with Santana on the mound would have to get busted open wider than Abyss during a Pay-Per-View for weeks straight for him to reach the ERA’s of the other Mets starters…
But, enough of blogging for blogging’s sake — I should probably introduce the song I’ve recorded for tonight’s acoustic cover song music video. “Off He Goes” is a track from Pearl Jam’s 1996 album No Code. This album was the first to break from their previous sound a bit and some fans disapproved. I’ll admit that it’s not my favorite album in the Pearl Jam catalog by any stretch, but there are some great tracks on it. “Hail, Hail” is one of the most rocking and catchy songs in their catalog. “Present Tense” is one of my favorite Pearl Jam tracks, if only for the combination of lyrics and gradual instrumental buildup. “I’m Open” is a cool spoken-word track — yes, those do exist!
This track, “Off He Goes,” is perfect material for an acoustic cover song. Initially, after having this song come up on my iPod this weekend, I thought it would be an easy song to record. Ironically, I almost decided not to learn it and record it for fear of being criticized for recording too many simple songs.
Well, that’s simply not the case…
As Jim can attest to, I spent over an hour and fifteen minutes and about 40-50 takes of this song to get it anywhere near where I wanted it to be. There are still a couple of discrepancies I hit while singing the tune, but I also nailed a few of my favorite subtleties in the song. What recording this song taught me was how truly difficult it is to make a slow, deceptively simple song like this really translate into a great performance. I have even more respect for Eddie Vedder than I did before, especially for the fact that he plays guitar and sings in concert on this one. The chords are so easy — really, just F, C, and Am — but the strumming pattern was difficult to hit in a few places. (**The best part about recording these sessions, undoubtedly, is spending all that time, posting on YouTube, and waking up to find that two people have viewed it, one of whom has one-starred it and left no comment. Thanks for that.**)
That’s enough for one Monday. I hope you enjoy the session (more than my first YouTube viewer did)
