To see how it’s played in the cover song music video, CLICK HERE!
“The Sound of Settling”
by Death Cab for Cutie
C#m B E F#m A C#m
I’ve got a hunger twisting my stomach into knots
C#m B E F#m A
that my tongue has tied off.
My brain’s repeating, “If you’ve got an impulse, LET IT OUT!”
But they never make it past my mouth…
E F#m B Asus2 E F#m B Asus2
Ba, ba… This is the sound of settling. Ba, ba. Ba, ba…
Ba, ba… This is the sound of settling. Ba, ba. Ba, ba…
Our youth is fleeting; old age is just around the bend,
and I can’t wait to go gray.
And I’ll sit and wonder of every love that could have been
If I’d only thought of something charming to say.
Ba, ba… This is the sound of settling. Ba, ba. Ba, ba…
Ba, ba… This is the sound of settling. Ba, ba. Ba, ba…
Ba, ba… This is the sound of settling. Ba, ba. Ba, ba…
Ba, ba… This is the sound of settling. Ba, ba. Ba, ba…
I’ve got a hunger twisting my stomach into knots.
** 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. **
Hello and welcome to yet another all-new cover of an all-new band to the blog! Straight from the treasure trove of genre-crossing singles and album tracks that is Dana Camp’s iTunes library, this is Buffalo Springfield’s early hit “For What It’s Worth.” This is one of those songs with a title that is not used at any point during the lyrics, so my initial response to the title was, “How does that one go?”
Of course, from the first strum of the first verse, I instantly recognized this hit sixties protest song.
I’ve always loved this song, and I loved it all the more this afternoon as I realized it was right in my vocal comfort zone! Still, as fun as it was to learn and play it, I do wish there had been some way to include that awesome reverberating lead guitar and solo. I guess you’ll just have to imagine it as you listen…
About a week ago in one of my posts, I started out by saying it would be a short one. Then, I proceeded to write one of my lengthier posts. This time, however, I’m going to cut my writing short, as I’m fading fast and need my sleep on this final night of the weekend. I spent the last forty-five minutes or so helping Jim with the new cover songs branch of the Laptop Sessions music blog series. He put me in charge of finding good photos for each band/songwriter to use for the new site. Probably the most fun so far has been searching for the best Britney Spears photo — and, yes, we DO have a Britney Spears category! Meanwhile, Jim was doing the hard work (i.e. making the site run, run properly, and look good while doing it!).
And, on a final note, this is my final in a series of political songs. I like these unnofficial themes I’ve been doing, first with three female lead songs in a row, now with three political songs in a row. I’d probably find another one to record, but my next session will land on a by-now-infamous Original Wednesday!
With that, I’m closing my laptop and closing my eyes to the sounds of R.E.M. What better band to encourage a healthy sleep cycle?… Get it?… Okay, that was bad, and I apologize. At least you’ll be safe for at least a couple days, as I’d challenge Jeff and Jim to make a pun worse than the aforementioned REM cycle one…
Hello and welcome to yet another all-new acoustic rock cover song from the best cover music video blog on the Internet! Although last week was fun for me — I played covers from the Counting Crows and Jimi Hendrix, which were both a lot of fun to learn and play — but this week promises to be even better. Not only is it my turn for an Original Wednesday (when we songwriters here at the music blog break out one of our original songs), but I’m starting out the week with a song from one of my all-time favorite bands, the Wallflowers.
Which brings me to today’s video. This is “Letters From the Wasteland” from the Wallflowers’ Breach album, which was released in 2000. I was actually listening to my iPod on random earlier today when this song came up. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t already done a session of it, and I figured that Jeff might take it if I didn’t jump on it soon. In fact, Jeff is another reason I chose to record the song. He just recently recorded “Some Flowers Bloom Dead,” another great song from Breach. I love that song, too, but I’ve always been taken by “Letters.” There’s something really dark and powerful about it, and I absolutely love the drum beat and the guitar sounds.
Interestingly enough, at least for an English teacher like myself, is that the title of this song is reminiscent of T.S. Eliot’s famous poem, “The Waste Land.” I always wondered if Jakob Dylan intended any sort of reference, but there is a key clue that makes me believe he didn’t. Namely, the Eliot poem spells it as two words — Waste Land — whereas the Wallflowers song spells it as one — Wasteland. This may seem like a minor detail, but you’d think that Dylan, being as careful about his wording and his songwriting as he says he is, would have picked up on such a detail. It would honestly be one of the questions I would ask him if I ever met him…
That being said about the background information regarding the actual song, I have to say a bit about my night surrounding this music video. What a night! First, I’ve been hit with allergies pretty bad the past couple days, and even though I started taking allergy medication again, it hasn’t quite kicked in. Thus, my voice wasn’t exactly angelic to begin with tonight. Then, I kept recording takes of the song that I wasn’t really thrilled with, so by my tenth take or so (including brief false starts) I was dragging. My throat was pretty sore. After taking a break to watch the Mets a bit, I went back downstairs and ten or so minutes later, I had a take that I was pretty happy with. So, I went upstairs from the studio to render my video and post it…
…only to find that the last ten seconds of the recording were all audio static!!
This was devastating to me at the time and some words and phrases slipped out that I shouldn’t repeat on a family-friendly blog. (Well, as a quick tangent, a family friendly blog directory actually removed us from their listing a few months ago, so maybe we’ve crossed the line already…) But, anyway, Jim swooped in and, being the computer deity that he is, spliced and salvaged my take by using footage from previous takes. Amazing. Even though I now owe him lunch or dinner or a drink or really any sort of food/beverage outing that he chooses, it was well worth it! I didn’t mentally or physically have it in me to either record yet another take or to settle for a previous one.
And this brings us to the actual video. I hope you enjoy “Letters From the Wasteland” and I hope you hurry back tomorrow for a new acoustic rock cover from our resident Wallflowers expert, Jeff Copperthite. You’ll never know what song is up his sleeve unless you check back tomorrow…
Trivia: Yes, the title is actually “High Water (For Charley Patton)” — but, that’s just too long for YouTube’s liking. Isn’t that just like Bob Dylan? Always breaking the rules…
Hello and welcome to Monday’s installment of the Laptop Sessions! Today, I bring you a song off of Dylan’s 2001 Love and Theft album. At first, it was one of my least favorite on the album, but the more I listened to it, the more I really got into its dark sound and interesting lyrics. I actually decided to record this one today because my voice is almost entirely shot (and I figured, hey, what better time to play a contemporary Dylan tune?). I recorded about five takes of this song, and four of the outtakes were due to coughing. Because I couldn’t really sing all that loud, I dropped the pick and moved closer to the microphone — I’m glad I did, since it seems to work for this song.
I’d like to say again how much fun it was to play some of MoU’s new songs live at the SCSU Talent Show at the Lyman Center last Wednesday. I really encourage you to do one of the following:
1 ) Watch the live videos on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/jimfusco.com/albums.html ,
2) Hear the recorded versions in full off the brand-new Homestead’s Revenge album at http://jimfusco.com/albums.html ,
or, if you like the songs,
3) Buy the album!
Okay, that’s enough shameless plugging for today… 🙂 Thanks again to all who have been watching my videos — it’s really exciting to keep seeing my total view count rising. It makes this project all the more fun!
