Tag Archives: John Lennon Songs

“Eight Days A Week” (Beatles Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, everyone, to another Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video!  The plan is to hold another recording session with my fellow “Traveling Acai Berries” later this week, but for now, I bring you the second video from our last session two weeks ago.  Unfortunately, I still can’t bring myself to drop the $60 to get the Beatles Rock Band yet (that new mortgage looms large in the foreground) and the same goes for the remastered box set, which I’m just dying to hear.

Tonight, our video is “Eight Days A Week”, another addition to our collection of Beatles cover songs.  It’s funny how this one became a video- Steve (whose shoulder is shown in this video) said, “Hey Jim- play a whole bunch of D notes on your guitar rapidly and let me try something.”  Sure enough, within a few seconds, we started the song.  Fast-forward a couple minutes (and a little discussion on harmony parts) and you had our fellow band member Chris C. sight-reading sheet music and playing the melody on his mandolin.  That’s him there in the center of the video, transposing notes on the fly.

I love the way the song songs with the two guitars and the mandolin.  You can really hear the mandolin part in the second half of this cover video and it adds such a cool dynamic.  We’ve got some great videos planned that will feature the mandolin, which I’m pretty excited about.  I will forever be a chord player (and improv. soloist) on the mandolin, so it’s cool to play with someone that can translate sheet music into a mandolin part.

Steve and I combined for some great singing in this video, if I do say so myself.  For some reason, I’m singing this with so much confidence and we had some nice parts together, especially on the “Eight days a week, I lo-uh-uh-uh-ove you” part.  And, I feel so much more easy-going when Steve’s playing guitar with me because I don’t have that feeling that I have to be the entire band.  I can strum, learn some licks, etc.  Very exciting stuff!

On a personal note, things are going well, but I don’t know how- we’re tearing the condo up, getting ready to sell things for some extra pre-house cash and working on getting the condo “rental-ready”.  That’s in addition to working and doing extra night and weekend work to ensure we’re okay financially when we move into our new place about a month and a half from now.  Thankfully, Becky is always one to look on the bright side with a sense of knowing- I’m not a fan of those who just see the rosy side of things for the sake of seeing it that way…

Anyway, I kind of wish I had eight days in a week so I could get all this stuff done.  Thankfully, some aspects of life (job, marriage, family) are stable now, so it makes dealing with the unstable things in life (like living your life by the whim of a mortgage company that doesn’t answer the phone) that much more bearable.

I’ll look forward to our next recording session on Friday and hopefully we’ll be back with new videos next Tuesday night.  Hey, maybe this time we can finally introduce the fourth Acai Berry…but we’ll all have to wait and see.  Until then, have a great week!

“Woman” (John Lennon Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Let’s have a little contest here- go ahead and find me a better solo acoustic performance of this song.  I’ll wait…

…

I didn’t think so! 🙂  Tonight, I bring you one of my personal favorite performances.  I’ve been practicing this song for many months now.  I wanted to get it right.  To me, John Lennon’s “Woman” is an example of a perfect song.  Yes, it’s about Yoko Ono, but if you look past that, you get a truly amazing song.  If you haven’t heard it before, get ready to have a new favorite song.  It’s probably my favorite love song of all time.  The songwriting, the words, the tune, and even the production of the original version is simply unsurpassed in my mind.  This came on the radio this morning- what a way to wake up.  And I knew it was a sign that it was high time I did this song on the place for great acoustic cover song music videos: The Laptop Sessions blog!

“Woman” appears on “Double Fantasy”, which is an album that should’ve been titled, “Half Good”.  John wrote half the songs and Yoko…wailed her way through the other half.  But, this was John’s comeback album- he hadn’t done one in years before Double Fantasy came out.  Of course, it turned out to be his last- it was released only weeks before he died.  That makes songs like “Beautiful Boy” all the more poignant.  That song is amazing, too- listening to Double Fantasy proves that John Lennon is one of the absolute best songwriters of all time.  He had the perfect mix of genius and wacky, out-there “artist” to him.  Songs like “Watching the Wheels” and the number one hit “(Just Like) Starting Over” (which I also covered- search for it in the John Lennon category) round out some great hits for John from Double Fantasy.  He even had some other obscure, but equally great, songs on the album including “Cleanup Time” and “I’m Losing You”.

I tell you right now that this song will play at my wedding on July 25th.  I will ball my eyes out.  Something about the way he sings it and how he admits, “I’ve been a jerk in the past, but I am sooooo appreciative.”  In the end, it all adds up to, “I love you.”  Of course, if you know my tastes in music, you know that I love a good, “Yeah, yeah” or “Well, well” in a song.  And we all know that John Lennon is the originator and master of that (“She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah” = genius!).

I’m glad to bring this acoustic cover song music video tonight.  I am very hopeful that soon my YouTube video views will increase by leaps and bounds.  You know I’ll keep you updated!  Enjoy Jim Fusco Tuesday for this week and make sure you come back for Jeff’s Thumpin’ Thursday in only two days!

“(Just Like) Starting Over” by John Lennon – Chords, Tabs, & How To Play

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    A       Aaug        F#m        Aaug
Our life together is so precious together.
        A     E7        A   E7
We have grown,  we have grown
             A             Aaug   F#m
although our love is still special.
A7                           D
Let’s take a chance and fly away
    Dm      A
somewhere alone.
     A
It’s been too long since we took the time.
   Aaug                                 Bm      E
No-one’s to blame, I know time flies so quickly
Bm                 E
but when I see you darling
C#m          F#                  Bm
it’s like we both are falling in love again.
      E                     A    Aaug          A     Aaug
It’ll be just like starting over,     starting over.
Everyday we used to make it love.
Why can’t we be making love nice and easy?
It’s time to spread our wings and fly.
Don’t let another day go by my love,
it’ll be just like starting over, starting over.
G                      Am
Why don’t we take off alone,
D                     G
take a trip somewhere far, far away.
Em                       Am
We’ll be together on our own again
D                      G
like we used to in the early days,
E7
well, well darling.
It’s been too long since we took the time.
No-one’s to blame, I know time flies so quickly
But when I see you darling
It’s like we both are falling in love again.
It’ll be just like starting over,     starting over.
    A       Aaug        F#m        Aaug
Our life together is so precious together.
        A     E7        A   E7
We have grown,  we have grown
             A             Aaug   F#m
although our love is still special.
A7                           D
Let’s take a chance and fly away
    Dm
somewhere...
A    Aaug         A     Aaug
Starting over... (Repeat and fade)
Aaug
e -x-|---|---|---|---|
B ---|-x-|---|---|---|
G ---|-x-|---|---|---|
D ---|---|-x-|---|---|
A ---|---|---|---|---|
E ---|---|---|---|---|

“Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” (John Lennon cover)

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I’m sooooo tired.  No, I’m not quoting a classic Beatles tune- I’m really freakin’ exhausted!  Something about driving an hour to the Buckland Hills mall, shopping, eating a TON at Red Robin, and driving an hour back just makes me so tired.  Then, I realized it was my night for a cover song music video.  It always works that way.  My way of dealing with it?  Honk the horn while driving down I-84.

As we gear up for yet another winter storm here in CT, I find myself really ready for Christmas, and just in time.  Today, we dug ourselves out of the snow and I went to my parents’ house for a party with my father’s cousins- a yearly tradition.  It was so nice, especially because Mike was there.  Felt like old times.  Mike and I would attempt to fit in with the older crowd, but eventually would just run downstairs and play with our Hess trucks, which we would get each year.  Today, we got pizza from Fratelli’s in Wallingford.  My parents had never eaten there before, but I tried it at work and loved it.  So, I put my recommendation out there, and thankfully, everyone loved it.

I then went to do a video job (maybe THAT’S why I’m so tired) at the New Haven Lawn Club.  It was a nice Jewish wedding.  I only had to do the ceremony, but got paid for a whole job.  And a few days before Christmas, that’s always a welcome thing.  Chris, Dana, and I went on our trek (see above) after I got home, and that brings us to my cover song music video for tonight.

I’ve known “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” my whole life.  I always found it interesting that my father said this song wasn’t really a big Christmas “hit” until after John Lennon died.  Just like George Harrison’s music- the man’s albums went on being obscure and not available on CD until AFTER he died.  Hey, at least they’re out now.  Dennis Wilson is the perfect example of this phenomenon, except it took everyone about 25 years to re-release something after his death.  And he was the most talented of them all.

I dedicate this song to my boss, Steve Mirabella, who suggested I do this for the Laptop Sessions.  It’s so rewarding to find someone who cares about and loves music as much as I do and is actually interested in these cover songs music videos we do on a daily basis here.  And yes, Steve, I found a much less annoying way of handling the Yoko Ono parts, so the song sounds much less….well, you know…than the original.

I hope you all enjoy this great Christmas song and heed its words- Christmas is a time for EVERYONE and it will come no matter the wars, hardships, unreasonable hatred, etc.  It’s good to know that there’s an anchor in our lives like that.  It allows me to keep traditions going and that makes me incredibly happy.  I’ll see you back here again on Tuesday for another great Laptop Session!  Oh, and tonight is my 150th music video, and here’s to 150 more!