Tag Archives: Original Songs

“Overwhelming Question” (Chris Moore original; Lyrics adapted from T.S. Eliot) – Original Wednesday

Posted on by
Reply

By Chris Moore:

It may have only been two days since I posted my last session, but it’s been far too long since I’ve recorded a video for Original Wednesday!

I’m here to break that streak!

This is a song I began writing a long time ago to play with a couple colleagues from work.  I was inspired by my friend Larry’s “My Mistress’ Eyes,” a bluesy take on the Shakespearean sonnet.  My friend Dan had shared an excellent acoustic number of his own, an original called “Wasting Time.”  Thus, I set to work on translating T.S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” one of my favorite poems, to music.

The result is “Overwhelming Question.”

Of course, in what has become typical fashion for me, I wrote the first two verses, the chorus, and the middle, stopping short of finishing off the song with a third verse.  Then, I left the song stranded until I began playing regularly again.  This weekend, we pulled out all three of these songs and tried to scrape the rust off our performances.  It was a lot of fun, but I was a bit embarrassed that I had never just finished this one off.  So, Sunday morning I finally wrote the verse, effectively completing “Overwhelming Question.”

I clearly remember recording my first demo of this song with the birds chirping behind me for all three minutes of my video.  However, I don’t remember exactly when I wrote it.  I went back and watched the demo, but the date information is missing.

Wow!  I just remembered to check my Word file with the lyrics and chords, and the “Created” date is listed as July 25, 2008.  It’s quickly approaching two years old!  While I’m surprised that it’s that old, the date does make a lot of sense.  The last time I played regularly with these friends was the summer of 2008.

So, with that, I leave you to this week’s Original Wednesday music video.  I hope to post many more this summer as I work on some new music, and perhaps Mike will share some new material as well as he records his first long play album this summer!  (Don’t forget to check out his all new iPhone-ready site at MikeFusco.com.)

See you next session!

“Moment” by Chris Moore – Chords, Tabs, & How to Play

Posted on by
Reply

“Moment”
Chris Moore

F
They say you’re coming around to this cold New England town.
Well, that don’t mean much to them, but that sure means a lot to me.
G
You’ve seen many parts of the world, reporting on the Vietnamese.
All I want to see today is you in your red and green Christmas fleece.

G
Strange things have happened to me on these snowy Christmas eves…

They say you’re coming around, but they don’t say anything else.
Don’t leave me here in the dark; please lead me out in the cold.
Let me know that you’re coming for sure. (I’d wait forever for her.)
By now, you know that you’re the type of a girl who rocks the world
of a guy in a rural town.

Strange things are happening to me on this snowy Christmas eve…

E                                       D
You don’t need a blanket, and you don’t need a bed.
E                                                                     G
If all you’ve got’s my shoulder, baby, you can rest your head.

G                                        C
Remember last Christmas, building the tree,
G                                       C7
Lying under the branches, just you and me?
We were talking about Jesus, defining the Holy Ghost,
Wondering where our senses of humor went when we needed them most.

You don’t need a blanket, and you don’t need a bed.
If all you’ve got’s my shoulder, baby, you can rest your head.

I attended a Thursday mass in the center of town.
Looking out for your big, bright cathedral eyes.
I was always the one who tries, and you were the one.
And I in my sport coat, and you in your dress — we knew it was best…

INSTRUMENTAL (over G – C – G – C7)

G
Hay was all they had in the manger,

E
Hay was all that Mary had.
But that didn’t matter none to Mary ’cause

C
Mary had Joseph to share each and every

Cmin
Moment…

“Everything That’s True” (Original song by Jim Fusco)

Posted on by
Reply

By Jim Fusco:

Hello all, and welcome to my first installment of Original Wednesday this year!

Today, I reveal the second song from my upcoming album, “The Easy Ways”, due out on September 20th, 2014.  “Everything That’s True” is the song that kicks off part two of the album (there’s a short interlude song called “Looking For An Angel” that plays before it, but this is the first full song on the second half of the album).

“Everything That’s True” is a classic Jim Fusco love song.  It reminds me of the kind of tune I used to write years ago.  That was back when I was in high school and was the hopeless romantic type.  Oh, who am I kidding- I’m exactly the same now!  It’s interesting to me that it took about ten years for me to write another song like this.  I guess I was feeling sentimental that day.

There are a couple of lines I’m proud of in this song, one being, “The weight I give to things I can’t control is still above the morals I uphold.  But when you’re here it doesn’t take that toll.”  What did I mean by that?  (That question is an inside joke for my dad- Ron Darling/Bob Ojeda-esque?)  Well, I meant that I give way too much value to things that are out of my control.  Or, at least I think I do.  You know the old prayer about giving the strength to accept the things I cannot change?  Yeah, I guess I never got that memo…

Here’s another line I’m proud of: “The strength you hold was never as profound as when you weren’t near me.”  I’m saying that I never realized the power that my wife has over me (figuratively speaking, of course) until she went away on a vacation with her friends one time.  When she’s here, I guess I take her companionship for granted.  And when she was away from me those few days, I realized how much I really do “need” her around.  Funny how it takes someone not being there to make you realize that.

So, I hope you’ll apply these sentiments to some of the people you care about in your life.  I also hope that you’ll head on over to http://jimfusco.com and buy my album when it comes out on September 20th and hear the full version of this song.  It has some awesome harmonies on the chorus that probably features one of my lowest-pitch vocals ever.  It’s not to be missed!

I’ll be back next week with another cover song.  And a week after that, I’ll be back again with another original song!  Starting to see the pattern?  It’ll go that way until “The Easy Ways” is finally released!  See you then.

“Feel For Love” (An Acoustic Rock Song by Indie Music Songwriter Chris Moore)

Posted on by
Reply

By Chris Moore:

Hello and welcome to yet another all-new installment of the Laptop Sessions! Being that it’s Hump Day, I’m excited — for those of you who may be new to the blog, I’m excited because every Wednesday here is “Original Wednesday.” For just a moment, we songwriters who contribute to this acoustic rock cover song music blog just take a moment to put aside the covers and record a song that we have written. It comes but once every three weeks for us…

Tonight, I’ve recorded “Feel For Love,” a song from my most recent solo release, the EP entitled Love Out of Fashion. To be honest, I’ll never know why I didn’t just finish recording one more song during the recording sessions (and I actually did have one demo with basic tracks that never made the final cut).  If I had, then I would have accumulated nine songs and I could have called the EP a full album.  But, I guess nine is kind of a cop out after most of my earlier solo albums have an average of 12 songs or so.  Either way, I was satisfied that an 8-song EP was not a cop out, so…

I don’t know that I’ve ever told anyone, but “Feel For Love” was the first song recorded for the project.  I actually began recording with the idea of making a set of demos to present to Jim Fusco in order to convince him to produce an album for me the following summer.  Once I got into the process, I just devoted too much time and energy to let the songs sit as demos — I would lay down one acoustic, then add electric to give it the right sound.  After all, I wanted the songs to be presentable to him.  Then I would add background vocals.  And then some more background vocals.  I practiced again and again and again to perfect the solos I wanted for the songs, both harmonica and electric / acoustic guitar.

By the time I had finished eight songs, it was clear that I couldn’t simply burn the songs onto a blank disc for Jim to listen to; I had an EP on my hands.

To this day, I still haven’t recorded an album with Jim as producer, but to be honest, I probably won’t record another project until I’ve fully polished a set of songs and convinced him to let me hire him or at least bribe him with fast food and TNA cards to produce the next Chris Moore solo album.  The simple fact is — especially after hearing the new Masters of the Universe album — I can’t go back to self-producing without drums and without mastering.  Instead, I’m starting to save my pennies and save my dimes…

As a final note, the tracks for Love Out of Fashion became an obsession for me.  I listened to those songs in every way possible — on the computer speakers, on different pairs of headphones, on my stereo, and I even burned multiple copies at different phases to listen to in the car.  One early morning around one a.m. or so, I pulled over in the shopping plaza near my house to be able to listen to the tracks clearly and loudly.  I leaned over the console of my car to get myself as close to the middle as possible, closing my eyes and listening to every nuance of the mix to decide what needed to change and what aspects were finished.  Someone actually pulled into the lot next to me to ask if I was okay and was my car working?  I, of course, said I was fine.  What I should have said was that I was, for the first time, really becoming a confident producer of my own music.

Of course, the conspicuous absence of time-keeping drums will forever label Love Out of Fashion a second-class album, which I suppose I’ve come to terms with.  But I’m still proud of it!

Okay, that’s more than enough from me.  I hope you enjoy this and will take the time to comment on it here.  Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow for an all-new track from our very own Jeff Copperthite…

See you next session!