Tag Archives: Jim Fusco Songs

“Forgetful Heart” (Bob Dylan Cover)

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You know, usually, I just throw in that “rock” word in my post titles because it’s a good keyword for search engines.  But, tonight, I’m proud to say that it rings true.  And, on a new Bob Dylan song no-less!

Tonight, I bring you a cool tune from Bob Dylan’s new album, “Together Through Life”.  Tonight’s post will be partially about this song and partially my review of the album.

“Forgetful Heart” is the first real “rock” song I’ve heard Dylan do for a long, long time.  Not since “Love and Theft” have we heard Dylan rock out.  Yes, he’s had some “rompin’ type” of tunes, but most of them are blues and are very, very long.  This song is on the shorter side and doesn’t really have that “old standard” sound that we’re so used to hearing from Dylan lately.  This is a pure rock song and for this tune at least, his gritty voice serves us well.  The electric guitar, although subdued, is a great addition.  I hope we get to hear a live version of this song someday with a little more kick and a lot more speed.  I play my version about double the speed of Dylan’s original.

Of course, my bad luck continues tonight.  You can see the microphone very clearly in the shot.  I even recorded an original song for tomorrow.  I made sure to get the microphone even closer to my mouth so I could sing these lower-register songs over the acoustic guitar.  Turns out, I forgot to select the external microphone input and it recorded off of the built-in mic.  Ugh.

Now, onto the album.  Let me start off by saying that I’ve heard the album about 20 times so far.  I’m really enjoying it.  But, it certainly isn’t as good as “Modern Times”.   That album is simply great.  And, I’ve discovered the reasons why “Together Through Life” doesn’t match up.

The first time I heard “Together Through Life”, I felt like I knew the words and could even sorta sing along to the tunes.  The tunes are very predictable and always follow the patterns you think they’re going to follow- especially Dylan’s middle-eights.  But, then again, this ablum does have things like choruses (except for a couple songs) and middle-eights, which are pretty much non-existant on “Modern Times”.  In fact, the song structure on “Together…” is very similar to “Nashville Skyline” in that the songs sound, well, normal.

But, that’s one of the problems!  On “Modern Times”, I still can’t remember all the words and I must’ve heard it forty times.  Chris knows I’m a whiz when it comes to lyrics.  Dylan has such a way with words- in fact, it really is very poetic.  But, you just can’t predict what he’s going to say next.  He always switches it up and comes up with great ways of expressing simple sentiments, “When you’re near, I’m a thousand times happier than I could ever say.”  What a great way to say, “I love you.”

But, on this album, and it may be because of his writing partner for the project, the lyrics are much simpler and there are only a few hints of Dylan word-greatness.

Dylan’s voice on the album has continued to deteriorate from previous efforts.  Honestly- he almost sounds GOOD on “Modern Times”!  But, I figured this one out, too- check the songs he sings softly.  Those, he sounds fine.  It’s the songs he sings louder (even if just in volume and not angrier or screaming) in that he sounds terrible.   I don’t care if a gruff voice would contribute to some angry songs.  That’s the argument I always hear.  You want that?  Get frickin’ John Stamos.  There comes a point when it’s too much.  “This Dream of You” is a classic song.  It can become a standard of American songwriting.  But, this song is just ruined by his faling voice.  Listen to the way his voice just dies on the word “moment” and you’ll hear what I hear.  That song would sound amazing coming from a 30 year old Dylan.

Anyway, again, I really like the album, but I did find myself going back and listening to great tracks on “Modern Times” like “Spirit on the Water”, “Workingman’s Blues”, and “Someday Baby”.

I can still do without all those blues songs, though.  Talk about a cop-out!

Hopefully, someday, we’ll hear a real rock album from Bob Dylan again.  But, until then, I’ll hold onto “Forgetful Heart” and dream of days past.

“Bye Bye Love” (The Everly Brothers) Cover Music Video

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By Jim Fusco:

Hey hey- it’s another Jim Fusco Tuesday here on the music video blog.  Hopefully over the next few weeks, we’ll be putting some more time into the site and getting our views back and rockin’ once more.  Tonight, I’m a little depressed because I have this great new HD video camera and can’t even use it for the Laptop Sessions yet.  Why?  Because I can’t get my microphone to work with it and it doesn’t work as a webcam.  So, I’m really stuck.  Turns out that the unit has a stereo microphone built-in, but the microphone input is only in mono.  What’s the deal with that?

The video quality is very nice, however.  It’s such a shame- I thought I had it all figured out.  So, it’s back to the drawing board for me.

Moving on to tonight’s video:

Chris and I performed “Bye Bye Love”, the classic song sung by the Everly Brothers- yet ANOTHER band we haven’t done yet here on the best music video blog ever!  Man, this is a good tune.  We kind of look the Everly’s, too, don’t we?  I’ve wanted to do this one for a LONG time now, but Chris and I operate on two different schedules and I never got the chance to grab him for the session.  Things have calmed down a bit on his end, so we’ve gotten to do a couple of duets.  This was a fun one, but I wasn’t in the greatest of moods after the whole camera thing.

It was going to be very poetic, as well, as this is one of the older songs I’ve done and we would’ve been in crystal-clear, state of the art, 1080p digital video.  So much for that!

This song has an interesting structure.  It’s not unlike other songs of the time- a very familiar tune to the chorus.  But, the verses have this very interesting twist.  They go to an E chord towards the end of each verse and it makes the song sound very unique when you compare it to other songs of the period.  What a cool twist!

Make sure to check out the video I did with Chris, as well, (see below) as for the first time, I’m playing my brand-new lap steel guitar!  The video came out great and I actually sound like I know what I’m doing on that thing!  What a great sound- I’ve been looking for that sound for a long time and can’t wait to incorporate both that and my new 12-string electric into some original tunes.

Finally, to echo Chris’ sentiment, a friend and fellow musician, Tony Persia, died yesterday.  He was one of the original members of Danny and the Juniors and played that great piano on ‘At the Hop”- one of rock music’s all-time classic songs.  He was a good guy and always enjoyed talking to us.  We even got to sing with him!  I loved hearing his stories and he will be missed by many of us that loved to see him and hear him play year after year.  I know he’s rockin’ somewhere with Elvis and John Lennon.

Have a great night, everyone, and I’ll catch you very soon for another Laptop Session.  Will it be a duet?  Will it finally be in HD?  You’ll just have to wait and see- talk to you then!!

“Here Without You” (The Byrds acoustic and 12-string electric cover song)

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By Jim Fusco:

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.  In a couple weeks, I’ll be getting an HD cam, so all my Laptop Sessions will be in high definition.  How cool is that?  At that point, I’ll be able to start my new mini-series entitled “Jim’s Guitars”- stay tuned.

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”.  You won’t be here without us for too long, as Jeff will be back on Thursday for another great cover song music video.  Until next week!!

“Are You Lonesome Tonight?” (Elvis Presley Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Well, are you? 😉

I hope not, but if you are, I hope this video brings you some comfort and company on this Spring evening.  Tonight, I bring to you one of my favorite Elvis Presley songs in “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”.  This tune is a slow one, but has so much feeling in both the lyrics and the way Elvis sings it.  I love the major D chord to the minor D chord progression and the way the song builds up at times.  This song is truly a sad one- it says everything that needs to be said and is so simple that you know Elvis was the first to bring this style of music to rock’n’roll.

I’ve been working on this one for many, many months now.  I just had to learn that poem in the middle.  You never would realize how difficult it is to play the guitar, keep in time, keep your place in the song, and say the correct lines at the correct times.  So, seeing how difficult this would be, I pushed it aside for so many other songs over the past few months.

I’ve since run low on my “need to do NOW” list, so this one came back up.  I decided tonight was the right time.  Actually, I’ll be broadening my horizons with many exciting new songs in the near future, as tomorrow night, I’ll be getting my brand new car!!  Well, it’s not exactly “new”, but it’s new to me.  I’m inheriting my mother’s Chrysler Concorde and I’m so excited about it.  I’ve always loved this car and even though it’s nine years old, you’d never know it.  It was always kept in the garage and only has about 60k miles on it.  The best part is that my brother Mike got me a brand-new stereo installed for my birthday!  So now, I can hook up my iPod and listen whereever I go.  Plus, since it’s a digital hookup, everything will finally sound right coming out of the speakers- everything always sounded so tinny in my last system.

It’s been a long couple of nights with working both night and day.  All in the name of progress, I suppose.  I’m looking forward to getting my newest baby- my Dean Boca 12-string electric guitar!!!  I got an incredible deal on Musicians Friend and saved 20% off the price.  I’ll finally get that 12-string electric sound I’ve loved for so many years.  Look for some Byrds songs in the near future!  I’ll post photos of me with my new guitar after I get it this Friday.

Okay, back to work for me, but at least I have two big things to look forward to this week!  It’s going to be non-stop for the next, oh I’d say two-plus months, but you know I’ll be keeping up with the Laptop Sessions through it all.  It’s the greatest way I can chronicle my life and keep the music dream alive.  Until next Tuesday!