Tag Archives: lyrics

“Younger Generation” by the Lovin’ Spoonful – Chords, Tabs, & How to Play

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

“Younger Generation”
The Lovin’ Spoonful

Cmaj7                                                   Dm7
Why must every generation think their folks are square?
Dm7     G7                                                            Cmaj7
And no matter where their heads are, they know Mom’s ain’t there…
‘Cause I swore when I was small that I’d remember when
I knew what’s wrong with them that I was smaller then.

Cmaj7                                          Dm7
Determined to remember all the cardinal rules,
Dm7  G7                                                 Cmaj7
Like sun showers are legal grounds for cutting school.
Cmaj7                                       Dm7
I know I have forgotten maybe one or two,
Dm7                       G7                Cmaj7
And I hope that I recall them all before the baby’s due
Dm7                              G7              Cmaj7
And I know he’ll have a question or two.

Cmaj7   F      G            C                 Am
Like,    “Hey, Pop, can I go ride my zoom?
Am      F                   G7                     C                     Am
It goes two hundred miles an hour suspended on balloons.
Am   F               G                    C                       Am
And can I put a droplet of this new stuff on my tongue,
Am    Dm                                                 D7
And imagine frothing dragons while you sit and wreck your lungs?”
C                                            Am                                                G
And I must be permissive, understanding of the younger generation

Cmaj7                                                 Dm7
Then I’ll know that all I’ve learned my kid assumes,
Dm7  G7                                             Cmaj7
And   all my deepest worries must be his cartoons.
Cmaj7                                       Dm7
And still I’ll try to tell him all the things I’ve done
Dm7                   G7                     Cmaj7
Related to what he can do when he becomes a man,
Dm7                           G7                Cmaj7
And still he’ll stick his fingers in the fan.

And, “Hey, Pop, my girlfriend’s only three.
She’s got her own videophone and she’s taking L.S.D.,
And now that we’re best friends she wants to give a bit to me.
But what’s the matter, Daddy?  How come you’re turning green?
F                                                           G
Can it be that you can’t live up to your dreams?

** 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. **

“Good Times” (Marcy Playground Cover)

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For Marcy Playground chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to the second installment of a double header here at the Laptop Sessions, two sessions in honor of Marcy Playground singles, both past and present. Tonight I’m standing in for Jim, who’s away for one more week on his honeymoon. I can only imagine what kinds of photos and songs he’ll bring back with him from his exotic — yet domestic — locale for next week’s Jim Fusco Tuesday.  Don’t miss it!

My cover song music video tonight is from Marcy Playground’s latest album, Leaving Wonderland… in a fit of rage, just released last month. “Good Times” is a song about accepting whatever difficulty or hardship you may face and moving on from there.  He invokes the classic phrases, “It’s all right” and “This too shall pass,” and although the lyrics are extremely simple, “Good Times” has a Jack Johnson-esque feel-good vibe to it and I enjoyed playing it.

My one hesitation in endorsing this as a great track is that lead singer John Wozniak refers to himself twice in the song.  (I tried inserting my name into my version, but it just didn’t feel right…)  In the first bridge, he refers to himself both as “Woz” and “John.”  Initially, this was distracting for me.  Then I realized, after playing it over and over again before recording my session today, that his personal reference works in the context of the song as a whole.  In the first half of the song, he’s essentially singing a song about and for himself.  By the end of the song, however, he refers much more generally and universally, inviting all people to join him in appreciating the “good times” and dealing positively with the bad.

Right about now, I think all three core members of the Laptop Sessions are enjoying the good times.  After all, Jim is on his honeymoon and Jeff and I are on summer break from school.  Sure, life is always going to be busy for guys like ourselves who are constantly working and writing and playing, but that only makes our leisure time all the more enjoyable and relaxing.

Speaking of free time, I’m off to do laundry and vacuum!

Seriously, though, I hope you’ll come back soon for all-new sessions, starting with Jeff’s “Thumpin’ Thursday.”  As for me, I’m picking up some real creative steam now that the moving process is complete and the summer is in full swing.  I’m working on finishing my third poetry book (FINALLY!), a couple novels (which translates to a lot of writing, jumping back and forth, and thus a very slow process), and songwriting for my next album (I’ve written eight songs in the past three weeks that I’m very proud of — I think some of these are the best songs I’ve ever written, and I’m anxious to find a way to translate them to tape or, in this day and age, to computer).

This all adds up to some great new updates by the fall and some new Original Wednesdays for me in the near future.  For now, though, if you’re interested in hearing what my new material sounds like, you can check out a file that I “tweeted” a few weeks ago: CLICK HERE.  The song is called “Work Time, Get In Line,” and it’s a taste of what it sounds like when I tinker around with GarageBand, my MacBook’s built-in mic, and my Fender acoustic guitar.

See you next session!

“Cornerstone” (Arctic Monkeys Cover)

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For Arctic Monkeys chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

It is my pleasure to welcome you once again to a brand-new week of all-new acoustic cover song music videos here at the Laptop Sessions.  Following up my version of “Just Breathe” from Pearl Jam’s new 2009 album, I’m happy to present to you a new band to the blog and a new 2009 single.

If you’ve visited our site before, then you know that “New Music” is my niche here at the blog.  I get a great deal of direction in terms of what to learn, record, or write about from the new music that I’m listening to, week by week.  Up until last week, it had been a while since I delved into the new release racks for a session, so I’m attempting to make up for that tonight and later this week.

My video tonight is the mid-album cut “Cornerstone” from the Arctic Monkeys’ 2009 release Humbug.  Previous to hearing this record, I didn’t know all that much about the Monkeys, and frankly, there wasn’t much that I found appealing.  Since their rise to fame via the Internet in 2006, their work has been praised by some — Rolling Stone, for one — as outstanding, and it has also been disparaged as overrated.  In addition, they received a backlash of criticism upon releasing their Who the Fuck are Arctic Monkeys EP merely three months after their debut album.  Some called it a greedy move, while the band maintained that they wanted to release new material that they would be adding to their live shows.  Now, I’ve certainly never been one to defend EP’s (Ben Folds and the Supersunnyspeedgraphic nonsense, anyone?), and I don’t plan to start here.  Still, one should keep in mind that an album is typically recorded a significant time before its actual release — in this case, the EP was released seven months after the band finished recording their debut album.

Anyway, this album was recommended to me by a former student and friend who has tuned me in to some great material from Beck, Cold War Kids, and Harvey Danger — in other words, bands that I wouldn’t have listened to on my own.  He described it as being more “slow and contemplative instead of just in your face punk music” which, for anyone who knows me, immediately got my attention!

While I rated this album as a “Maybe So,” it really is one of my favorites this year.  It’s the type of album you can listen to again and again without it getting old.  I love their style here: the songs are unique, and yet reminiscent of some of the greatest rock of the sixties, and their lyrics really make the music stand out to me.

Which brings me to “Cornerstone.”

I will never forget driving to school, listening to this song for the first time.  I had been enjoying the album, but this song really made me stop and take notice.  There is this devious tone in Alex Turner’s voice as he sings the story of a man searching for a girl who has left him.  Did she break up with him?  Has she died?  Regardless, he is prowling the dirtiest-sounding dives, flirting and engaging with women of whom he soon makes an odd request.

He asks if it would be acceptable for him to refer to them by the name of his ex-lover.

No big deal.  It doesn’t hurt to ask, right?  Well, that’s not the case for most of the song.  But you’ll have to listen until the end to find out how he fares.

In other new music news, I’m excited about picking up Bob Dylan’s first ever Christmas album, Christmas in the Heart.  Of course, this is a mixed bag.  After all, contrary to the fact that several holiday albums are coming out tomorrow, I think that it’s far too soon to start listening to Christmas music.  I’ll probably end up listening to it once before I tuck it away for the day after Thanksgiving…  The other question in my mind is whether or not the deluxe edition is worth the extra money.  From what I can tell from the limited descriptions I’ve been able to find online, there are some greeting cards attached in the special edition.  Well, how many?  Do you save them or do you send them?  How many people would truly appreciate a Bob Dylan Christmas card?  Is his face on the cards?  Could be scary to small children or residents of small New Jersey towns…

Well, that’s enough for tonight.  I hope you enjoy my video.  If you like it, you should mark your calendars for October 15th when the official music video for “Cornerstone” is set to be released.  It has also been scheduled to be released as the second single from Humbug about a month after that.

See you next session!

“R U Ready?” by Ringo Starr

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For Ringo Starr chords & lyrics, CLICK HERE!

By Chris Moore:

Okay, okay, so I know what you’re thinking: how could I have screwed the lyrics up so badly at the end of the song.  You see, when I say, “That’s the real thing, ain’t it?” it should actually be “That’s the real thing, i’n’t it.”

Hopefully you can see past my error…

Seriously though, I welcome you to the Monday night Laptop Session.  This is my first song choice in anticipation of a new music release this year — in this case, tomorrow’s release of Ringo Starr’s Y Not.  Based on the quality of Ringo’s past several albums, I can only imagine that this oddly titled release will be excellent.  There appear to be some promising collaborations with such artists as Van Dyke Parks, Ben Harper, Joss Stone, Richard Marx, and — most exciting — Paul McCartney.

I’ll be honest — the title does throw me off a bit.  After all, can there ever be a good justification for a man of Ringo Starr’s age and stature to use Instant Messenger shorthand in his album or song titles?  I certainly can’t think of one.  And this isn’t the first time that Ringo has utilized such abbreviations.  As you can tell, my song choice tonight was based on the fact that “R U Ready?” — from 2008’s Liverpool 8 — uses IM shorthand for “Are You.”  I can’t tell you why Ringo made this decision when writing the song, but I can tell you that it is indeed a great song.  It was fun and easy to play, and I got to break in my “D” harmonica.  Ever since I started exploring the different keys in my array of harps, I’ve been having more fun than ever breaking them out and playing them.

I’ll have to think of another harmonica-ready song for next week…

But, for now, I hope you’ll enjoy my cover version of “R U Ready?”  Then, consider taking a listen to the new Ringo Starr album Y Not, to be released tomorrow, Tuesday, January 12th, 2010.  He has truly been on a roll these past several years, releasing outstanding records in 2003, 2005, 2008, and now a mere two years later in 2010.  I know where I’ll be heading after school tomorrow — to my local Newbury Comics store for a copy of Y Not.

With Ringo’s recent track record, I ask you: y not?