Tag Archives: laptop sessions

“Holiday” (Bee Gees Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to the first-ever Laptop Sessions acoustic cover song music video in high definition, which I’ve dubbed, “LSHD”.  I’m so excited to be on the cutting-edge of technology and hope that more YouTube viewers will see my cover song music videos because of the enhanced new look.

But, what a project doing this for the first time…  Even on my fast Mac Pro, it still took almost an hour just to render this video, and then the audio and video sync kept going off.  So, it was a project that took WAY more time than anticipated.  I think I have a pretty good system going now, so I hope the future music videos will be a bit easier to produce.

Tonight, I enlisted the help of  my colleague Noreen’s 1967 Gibson 12-string acoustic guitar.  It’s pretty sweet, as you see in the video, but also sounds pretty great, as well.  It’s really easy to play and has a very powerful sound.  As soon as I picked it up a couple weeks ago, “Holiday” from the Bee Gees just popped into my head.  Something about that 12-string sound that just reminded me of this song.  So, I knew I had to have it for this video, and I knew I wanted something special for my first one in HD.

Actually, this is also my first music video from my new house, which I share with my new wife.  Yes, the awesome studio is long gone now, but I’ve got a pretty good setup here in one of our spare bedrooms.  Someday I’ll rebuild the studio, but I don’t think it’ll be in the house.  We’ll see.

“Holiday” is one of those songs I’ve known for all my 25 years.  My father put it on his famous Christmas compilation cassette tape set and we heard it every year.  It took me quite a long time to realize that this wasn’t necessarily a Christmas song, though I do hear it on the oldies stations during this time of year.  I thought it would be a nice way to usher in the “season”.  Actually, there are a lot of songs that aren’t really Christmas songs, but I’ll always consider them to be: “Another Morning” from the Moody Blues (off of Days of Future Passed, which is about “a child’s world”, which my father thought reminded him of Christmas), “Eyes of a Child” by the Moody Blues (off of To Our Children’s Children’s Children, which my father took to mean like the birth of a child, like Jesus), “Christmas” by the Who (which is only loosely based on the holiday of Christmas), and “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison (which is a song praising God, but says nothing about the holiday).  Again, they’ll always be Christmas songs to me.

I’m glad I got to know this song- it’s a good tune.  The early Bee Gees were really good and I enjoy many of their early hits.  They’re a band that really re-invented themselves in the seventies.  It’s almost like two completely different bands.  Plus, you know I love a group of brothers that write their own songs and sing in harmony, so it’s a perfect fit!

I never really understood the words to this song, but now I know why- it’s because I still had the kid’s understanding of the lyrics that I thought I “learned” when I was little.  I mean, I learned the words maybe 20 years ago, but my vocabulary then was not what it is now.  So, the line, “put the soft pillow on my head” always came out as “but there’s something upon my head”.  No wonder it never made any sense to me.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy my first LSHD video and hope you’ll come back next week for another (and a REAL) Christmas classic!  Welcome to the new era of the Laptop Sessions.

Announcing a new Laptop Sessions weekly feature: “The Weekend Review”

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By Chris Moore:

Those of you who regularly check the Laptop Sessions homepage for fresh material may have noticed that I have been writing a music review once a week, posting it on either Saturday or Sunday.  Since we shifted away from the “session-a-day” format, these two days have generally been a dry spot for new material on the website.

And why shouldn’t there be something new to look forward to as you’re kicking back on the weekend and wishing you had something new to read or watch?

Starting now, the Laptop Sessions will be posting a music review once every week on either Saturday or Sunday.  This segment, titled “The Weekend Review,” will focus on new albums that have just been released, classic albums that transcend time, “deep racks reports” on albums that have been underrated and/or forgotten about, and live acoustic and rock music in the tri-state area.

If you or your band has released any music recently — albums, EP’s, singles, etc. — then submit your music HERE to be reviewed.

Get tuned in to the albums and songs worth writing about — don’t miss an edition of “The Weekend Review”!

“Stand By Me” (Ben E. King and/or John Lennon Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to another edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!  Tonight, I bring you the classic standard “Stand By Me”, made famous by Ben E. King and then covered by John Lennon years later.  And, no, I did not base my pick tonight on the cheesy movie we watched while growing up…

Tonight, as it has been in the past with a couple other songs, the version of “Stand By Me” that plays in my head is a combination of the John Lennon version and the Ben E. King version.  I hear the music to the Ben E. King version but John Lennon’s voice.  It’s probably because Lennon did such a spot-on cover.  Man, watching this video of John performing “Stand By Me” just makes me wish he were still alive to make music today.  I know he would’ve still been great today and that he would be coming out with the kind of music that Paul and Ringo are coming out with now (not to mention the great stuff George did before he passed-away).

Anyway, I’ve known this song for as long as I can remember- just listening to the radio growing up.  Then, while jamming with the Acai Berries a few weeks ago, we happened upon this tune and were going to do a cover video ourselves.  But, I figured I could just do it on my own because it doesn’t require another singer or really any other instrumentation (unless you want to be a purist and have someone play the riff constantly in the background).

As much as I don’t like the fact that my studio is gone, I’m really happy with the acoustics I’ve been getting!  You know, it’s terrible to have so much echo and reverb when recording a multi-track song, but it’s the greatest thing ever when recording a solo acoustic video like this.  On another note, I’m trying to justify purchasing an HDV video camera for two reasons: to play the high definition video tapes of our wedding into the computer for editing, and the prospect of having the Laptop Sessions in high definition!  How cool would that be?  We’re getting faster internet next week, too, so my uploads wouldn’t be too painful.  I’m watching an auction on eBay- let’s see what the Mrs. has to say…

We just found out this evening that we are CLEAR TO CLOSE on the house this Friday- right on schedule!  It was a rough ride getting to this point, but everything is finally ni place and we’re hoping that we’re all moved in and set up by end-of-day Saturday.  We bought all new furniture, hired movers, boxed everything up, got the condo rented- what a project.  The best part is that we’re doing it all at once and (hopefully) that’ll mean it will be DONE all at once, you know?  I hate stringing things out.  So, this weekend will be very busy.  But, hopefully things will be stable enough that I’ll be back with a fresh new video next Tuesday!  Then, the Acai Berries are getting back together to record some more tracks- we’ve got a TON of songs in mind, but we’re ready to do about four of them, so stay-tuned.

Have a great week (make sure to stop back on Thursday for Jeff’s post!) and please, please, please wish us luck with our crazy weekend ahead.  It promises to be one of the most important weekends of our lives!  Until Tuesday…

“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!