Tag Archives: johnathan

“Walter Johnson” (Jonathan Richman A Cappella Cover) – OPENING DAY DOUBLE HEADER 1 of 2

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For Jonathan Richman lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

Hey there, sports fans!  Welcome to yet another “Chris Moore Monday” here at the Laptop Sessions new music video blog.  Today, as you may already know, is the opening day for the 2009 season of the New York Mets.  Ah, America’s favorite pastime…

Baseball!

Because I couldn’t be home in time to watch the first Mets regular season game, I decided to celebrate by learning and recording not one but two cover songs tonight.  This is the first video, inspired by an encounter with one of my colleagues.  At the end of school on Friday, he stopped by my room and said simply, “Listen to Walter Johnson before opening day.”  All I could think to say was, “Is that a song or a person?”  Sure enough, it’s a song.  He smiled as he replied and repeated that I should listen to it before opening day.  So, as suggested, I looked it up on YouTube early this morning and found the Jonathan Richman song “Walter Johnson.”  It’s an a cappella performance from his 1995 album You Must Ask the Heart.

A search of Wikipedia produced a brief biography and a picture of Richman with a guitar and prominent eighties-era Tom Selleck chest hair.  I don’t know what I expected, but it was certainly interesting to put a face to the singer of this unique song.

Truth be told, I have no real idea what possessed me to record a version of “Walter Johnson.”  There’s something about recording your own version of a song that forces you to become intimate, if only temporarily, with a track.  In this case, I don’t have any plans to buy any Richman albums in the near future, so I figured it would be a long time before I heard “Walter Johnson” again.  Being that it was opening day, it only seemed appropriate that I would pay tribute to Walter Johnson by singing my own version of the song.

I hope you enjoy it.  Feel free, of course, to laugh as you wish.  The “bum ba bum ba bum” parts are pretty funny — at least, they were to me at first.   But, really, this is the perfect day to sing this song!

And this is only the first of two baseball-related tunes I’ve carved out for you today.  Tune into the next one, “Joe DiMaggio Done It Again,” coming very shortly (watch it!)…

“Jonathon Fisk” (Spoon Cover)

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For Spoon chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

Good evening, cover song music video fans.  I’m coming at you this Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with a selection from a band that will be releasing a brand new studio album tomorrow.  The band is Spoon, and the album coming out tomorrow is Transference.  I’ve only heard the single “Written in Reverse,” but that one song was enough to capture my interest.

And I couldn’t be happier, since there is little that makes me as excited as having a reason to go to the music store on a Tuesday afternoon/evening.

So, to help bide my time until tomorrow, I learned and practiced a different Spoon song this weekend and finally recorded it earlier today.  The song is “Jonathon Fisk” and it is from Spoon’s 2002 album Kill the Moonlight.  I had this album recommended to me by a friend just after New Year’s Day, in anticipation of their upcoming new release.  I listened to it a couple times, then put it aside.  Out of nowhere last week, I had the urge to hear it again, and now I can’t get enough of it.  Kill the Moonlight is quirky and upbeat and experimental — all the aspects of great alternative rock music that I love!

So, it is with great pleasure that I pass along “Jonathon Fisk” to you for your consideration.  Apparently, the song was written about a bully that songwriter Britt Daniel had experience with in school.  Later, according to Daniel, the real-life “Fisk” attended a significant number of the band’s shows.

Interesting how life turns out…

Speaking of the oddities of our modern lives, has anyone else seen Up in the Air?  It was every bit as good as I hoped it would be, but what a downer!  Let’s just say that one of the characters turns out to be a…  Well, a big fat doo-doo head, for lack of a better euphemism.  I literally sat through all of the credits just staring at the screen in disbelief.  Really though, without saying too much, I would highly recommend this one, if for no other reason than the fact that George Clooney is awesome.

Some say that we have the same chin, which I take as the highest form of compliment.  Go ahead, try not to stare dreamily at my chin while you’re watching my video tonight.

In unrelated news, I’m coming up on crunch time here, as the second marking period for my school ends tomorrow and midterms run until next Monday.  What does this mean for me?  Well, I have essentially a week to enter and finalize grades for all my classes.  I’m currently in the middle of the pile I wanted to finish by this evening, so I naturally decided that I had plenty of time to kick back and watch a couple hours of television.  Now that that’s over, it’s back to work for me.

Thankfully, I had this Laptop Session post to write, so I’ve been able to procrastinate just a little longer…

But, at long last, it’s back to gradin’ for me.  I hope you enjoy tonight’s video and that you’ll come back soon for another week’s worth of new material at the greatest cover song music video blog on the web today.

See you next session!

“Jonathon Fisk” by Spoon – Chords, Tabs, & How to Play

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To see how it’s played in the music video cover, CLICK HERE!

“Jonathon Fisk”
Spoon

Intro:   A    D

A
Maybe you remember, maybe you’re locked away.
A                                                                            D
Maybe we’ll meet again some better day, some better life.

A
Mmmm…  Jonathon Fisk speaks with his fists
A                                                              D
Can’t let me walk home on my own.
A
And just like a knife, down on my life,
A                                                  D
So many ways to set me right.

B                              A
It’s such a long way home.
It’s how the story goes.
A                 D
And it’s like atom bombs and blunt razors,
D
Atom bombs and blunt razors…

A
Jonathon then says it’s a sin,
But he don’t think twice ’cause to him
D
Religion don’t mean a thing —
It’s just another way to be right wing.
A
Just like a knife, down on my life,
So many ways to set it right.
D
That’s how it goes.
That’s how the story goes.

It’s such a long way home.
You’re too old to understand.
‘Cause I just want to get home now;
I just want to get home now.

Jonathon’s right, down on my life,
So many ways to set me right.
On the long walk home,
That’s how the story goes.
And Jonathon Fisk, always a risk,
Tells me he counts my teeth every night.
I want to get them all back now;
I want to get them all back.

E                    D          A
And I want to turn it around.
Ooo-oo…        Turn it around…
Ooo-oo, oo-oo… Turn it around…

** 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. **