Tag Archives: jeff

“Good Thing” (Fine Young Cannibals Cover)

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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!

Random thoughts and asides

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By Jeff:

Welcome to your written version of Thumpin’ Thursday – the first in a long time.

I have been at the University of New Haven during this week, and am taking a course to teach the Saturday program I taught this past year (and will hopefully be teaching this year).  The training program has some obvious positives.  #1, I get fed breakfast and lunch (and if I stayed late enough, dinner).  #2, I get to work with some awesome people that I have worked with for the past year, including two teachers that also teach at my school.  #3, I get to learn something new, which I always enjoy.  And #4, the training staff treats us very well and goes out of their way to make sure  everyone is as happy as can be (There is a 5th perk, but you’ll have to ask me about that in person).

However, there are some drawbacks.  The first and most important is it takes a HUGE chunk out of the day, and consequently the week.  The training is 2 weeks long, five days a week from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.  It’s technically a bit longer than that since breakfast opens at 7:15 a.m.  It is in New Haven, which is about a 30 minute commute for me.  That means that if I want to eat a (actually great tasting) hot breakfast, I have to leave the house at 6:45-7 a.m…in the summer…where i’m supposed to be recharging after a tough school year.  Again, there’s another drawback but you’ll have to ask me about that in person.

Because of this, I failed at planning ahead far enough to select another line of songs to cover for the site, and therefore I do not have a new video to debut this evening.  I do plan on recording a few videos in advance on Sunday, since I will be elsewhere for most of Saturday.

So, to tide you over, I mind as well enlighten you on some recent things.

I finally finished off my George Carlin DVD collection.  I am the very happy owner of all his HBO specials after I ordered “Complaints & Grievances”, “Life is Worth Losing”, and “It’s Bad For Ya”.  This comedian is my favorite of all time.  Hands down, no contest.  He was funny when I hear or see his routines from the 60’s, and he was funny and enlightening in 2008 when he debuted what would be is final HBO special.  Ever since I got interested in his material, I always said to myself “I hope he comes out with some new stuff soon”.  And he did.  Books, CDs, and DVDs.  I myself was a sucker for the DVDs because seeing him perform is half the fun.  I was also fortunate enough to go see him in concert at Jorgensen at UConn when I was a student.  As usual, he was his old hilarious self, but I found it rude that the crowd wanted him to perform older routines instead.  George is well known for his critiques and observations of the English language, and I recall one thing I heard on my shuffled Ipod today “If you have 24 odds & ends on a table and 23 of ’em fall off, what do you got – an odd or an end?”.  He did lean more towards social issues, but continued his usual goofy antics all the way to his death.  I do miss the guy, but i’m glad that he has helped me laugh quite a bit for the past 15 or so years.

I still play Final Fantasy XI periodically (not much this week due to aforementioned training), and I recently applied to something called a HNM shell (High Notorious Monster).  The object of these groups is to seek out the biggest and baddest monsters in the entire game and take ’em down.  Most of the fights require 12-18 people, and they are pretty tough on their standards for acceptance.  My character has 3 leveled jobs, and they took a long time to gear to where they are now.  They still want me to get a few more pieces before I would be considered accepted.  I am going to hopefully get one of them tomorrow late at night (as a reward for getting through week #1 of training I guess).  The trouble is the rate it drops is about 30%, and we are fighting it up to 6 times.  My friend in game is also after this same item so we’re hoping our luck is good for the run.

I’m also resistant on getting a Twitter account.  Jim and Chris will have to convince me.  Until they do, I have to say no thanks.

I hope you enjoyed a little insight into my recent happenings, but again I promise I will have new videos to debut next week.  Until then…

“Burnin’ Up” (Goo Goo Dolls Cover)

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By Jeff:
Welcome to your Thumpin’ Thursday edition of The Laptop Sessions – not pre-empted by power failure!

I’ve got a great song tonight that is an album cut from The Goo Goo Dolls.  They are another band I pretty much grew up with, and among the few that I have seen in concert more than once.

Tonight’s song is called “Burnin’ Up” and it’s the 2nd track.  Robby Takac, their bassist, sings lead on this song.  It’s funny that most of the songs that become singles for radio play are sung by their guitarist Johnny Rzeznik.  They have even acknowledged that the songs he sings tend to have more commercial appeal.  Takac was actually the original lead singer and sang most of the songs all the way through their first 3 albums.

One of the songs I have lined up for the future is actually a song from an even earlier album and it’s a humorous song as well.  If you know their catalog, you will get the song right away (and it’d be appropriate for an acoustic cover – i.e. there is no mention of a baseball bat).

I got to go out golfing for the first time this year today, and shot a miserable +15 on a par 3 course.  I did par one hole and get a couple of bogeys, but for the most part I played above par golf.  I hope I don’t play this bad tomorrow when I play 9 holes at a regular course.  I also have to do training for the next two weeks, so I may be uploading some videos early, and writing posts ahead of time.  If you enjoy some early previews, be sure to check my youtube channel.

Well that’s it for this week.  Seeya next week!

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!

WCJM Free Internet Radio Station: “The Song for the New Millennium Show” – 2001

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By WCJM Free Internet Radio:

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!