Tag Archives: mou

“The Man With All the Toys” (Beach Boys Christmas cover song)

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By MoU:

Back again for another edition of the Laptop Sessions, this time a first: with a band! Here with me are Chris Moore, Mike Fusco, and Cliff Huizenga- all members of the band Masters of the Universe (or MoU, as we call it). You can check out all of our original music on our website at http://jimfusco.com/albums.html!  There, you’ll find everything we’ve ever recorded.  And, it’s all free to listen to online before you buy.  I can personally guarantee that the original songs you hear on MoU’s website are top-notch.  There’s just something magical that happens when five creative people get together and make music.  It’s like when the Traveling Wilburys were formed.  They just all wanted to make music together and had a good time doing it.

Speaking of “good times”, you can clearly tell we’re having a ball singing “The Man With All The Toys”, originally played by the Beach Boys.  MoU did a great live version in concert last year, so we wanted to reprise that with this live acoustic version in my basement studio.  Cliff normally plays bass, but decided to provide only vocals for these sessions. But, you’ll hear his great bass playing abilities (plus Mike’s full drum set and guitar work) on MoU’s normal studio and live efforts.  One interesting thing is that the live version MoU did of “The Man with All the Toys” for our Christmas album was actually in the wrong key!  I didn’t realize it at the time, but we were actually singing the song a half-step higher than the Beach Boys did in 1964.  We rectified that problem for this music video.

I’ve said it a million times before, but the Beach Boys Christmas Album is one of my favorite albums (Christmas or otherwise) of all time.  It’s got such a great style and charm to it.  The members of the Beach Boys sound so young and happy- it’s just a great album if you want to put a smile on your face.  And, for the first side of the album, the Beach Boys themselves play all the instruments.  So, you get a really special sound.  The original songs, with the likes of “The Little Saint Nick” and “Santa’s Beard” have become hits, and “The Man With All The Toys” is no exception.  It’s such a short song- it wasn’t until about 40 years later when Brian Wilson re-recorded this song (I guess a self-cover song of sorts) for his solo Christmas album, “What I Really Want for Christmas”, that he extended the tune by adding a rocking instrumental break.  But, I’m happy with the sub-two minute original version, as well.  It’s a little slice of musical heaven.  Their voices were perfect on the vocal breaks and it’s really just a great holiday song.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s Beach Boys cover song and over the years, we’ll be bringing you many more Christmas songs here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!

“Same Old Lang Syne” (Dan Fogelberg cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello everyone. A somber Laptop Session today, as I pay tribute to Dan Fogelberg, who wrote one of the best songs of all time in “Same Old Lang Syne”. No matter what generation you’re from, I’m sure you can relate to this song. Meeting up with someone from your past that evokes such strong memories is one of those experiences that just seems like part of life.  I can’t explain how much I enjoy “Same Old Lang Syne”.  The song is really the anti-Christmas song because of how somber the tone/mood is.  Honestly, it isn’t really even a Christmas song.  It’s just a song about Mr. Fogelberg was out one Christmas Eve and how he ran into an old girlfriend.  The reminisced about the old times they had together and even though they had a good time, they both knew that they’d moved on in life.

When the woman leaves, Dan’s left with “that old familiar pain” that he felt back when he had relationships in his school years.  I remember that pain.  It’s a pain I never want to feel again.  Though, as I said in my song, “The Game” from Masters of the Universe’s “Homestead’s Revenge” album, “Don’t you tell me you don’t miss the game.”  You should really listen to that album- click here!  There’s a certain thrill about the “game” of it all- it’s exciting, but most times it leaves you heartbroken.  Of course, Dan Fogelberg talked about that sentiment perfectly in “Same Old Lang Syne” when he said, “The snow turned into rain.”

This song always made my brother and I think of Christmas being over.  And I guess that’s the realization Dan Fogelberg came to when he wrote this song, too.  He realized that his old flame had died.  Of course, growing up, our take on the song was this: all the presents have been opened and now we have to clean up!  Doesn’t exactly have the same sentiment, right? 🙂

Of course, Dan wrote many other great songs, but his passing makes the song even more poignant now.

The one funny thing is that I was planning on doing this music video the day BEFORE he died anyway because it’s always been one of my favorite Christmas-time songs. Instead, I make this acoustic cover song music video a tribute.

To all Dan Fogelberg fans- I’m sorry for your loss and I hope, as I do with all the Laptop Sessions cover song videos, that I’ve done the song justice here.

~Jim

Fusco-Moore Video Blog: Christmas Decorating 2007

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Hello Laptop Session lovers! Today, in addition to a regular Laptop Session, I give you a video montage of what we’ve been doing lately!

As I mentioned previously, Christmastime is my favorite time of the year. Having a condo for the first year (first Christmas, as we moved in last February), I’ve been very excited and ambitious when it comes to making the place look nice.

So, we put a ton of lights on the outside and plenty of decorations inside. Some of it was a pain (Like these sticky squares that are supposed to keep the lights on the wall. The lights fall off, but the squares take the paint off the walls!), but most of it was fun.

I hope you enjoy this little trip into our lives as we celebrate the Holiday Season!

The song in the background is “Run Rudolph Run” by my band “Masters of the Universe” at http://jimfusco.com/albums.html. You can purchase the Christmas Concert 2006 CD or DVD (which contains that song and 29 others!) on our online store at http://jimfusco.com/mou-xmas-concert.html. Check it out- it’s a really cool store with a TON of stuff, including some free music downloads and wallpapers!

Okay, I’ve ranted enough, but the last thing I’ll say is that I’d love to see other people’s decorations! We only have a condo, but I’m sure someone with a house could put on a GREAT show, as I hope to do someday (like my parents do).

Merry Christmas, everyone,

~Jim



“The Lonely Sea” (Beach Boys Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Well, I’m finally back up and (sorta) running again after almost a week without my laptop! The hard drive just crashed out of nowhere with no chance to recover my files. So, I got a new (bigger) hard drive and I hope everything will run smoothly from now on.  I tell you, though- I bought Apple products for their reliability, but the hardware hasn’t always been kind to me.  I just thought that quality hardware was the reason for the high prices.  I guess you don’t always get what you pay for.  In my opinion, it’s still better than Windows because a Windows machine will still die on you, but it’ll be even more difficult to work with when it’s still alive.

This song goes out as a request. “The Lonely Sea” by the Beach Boys is a great early tune that doesn’t get much credit because it wasn’t a single. But, Beach Boys fans know (and love) this song. I think it’s a good one to do solo because even though the Boys had background “oohs”, this was a Brian Wilson song through and through. A great chord progression goes along with this song- simple, but powerful.  As I mentioned in a previous post, Brian Wilson always had a knack at coming up with a great chord progression.  This song is surprisingly dark sounding for a song written by a guy in his early twenties.

Of course, “The Lonely Sea” is one of those songs that really sounds like a period piece.  What I mean by that is, you can tell this song was done before the Beatles became popular in America.  Songs from the early 60s and late 50s had breaks in the middle where the lead singer would just speak a few lines.  Most notably, you can hear that in the Elvis Presley song “Are You Lonesome Tonight?”.  It’s a great song, but you can tell the era in which it was recorded/popular.  “The Lonely Sea” probably wouldn’t have sounded the same even two years later, once the Beatles changed the sound of popular music forever.  The Beatles had a way of setting trends.  I will always admit to that.  Brian Wilson, though, had a way of pushing the envelope, musically.  He didn’t necessarily change his style all the time, but he was working on perfecting his songwriting style the whole time.  He would add different instruments and experiment with different chord progressions and harmony parts.  It was happening from the start- songs like “The Lonely Sea” can be written off as a teenage love-sick song, but it’s got a sound that you just didn’t hear on the rest of the “teenage” music in the early 60s.  And, you especially didn’t hear it from surf music groups, like the Beach Boys music was labeled.

I hope everyone’s been enjoying the Laptop Sessions and will continue to tune in every day for more acoustic cover songs here on the best music blog on the Internet!  There will be plenty more Beach Boys cover songs to come.