Welcome to my last contribution to “Title Track Week” here at The Laptop Sessions on https://guitarbucketlist.com !
Tonight, I bring you a CLASSIC Beatles cover song tune that everyone should be played as they’re coming out of the womb! 🙂 “A Hard Day’s Night” was reportedly a phrase coined by Ringo Starr. He kinda has that Yogi Berra thing going on where he says some great unique phrases and doesn’t even realize it.
This was a great Session for me because, again, I did it in one take. Actually, I recorded NINE videos last night, so I can finally focus on all the promotion we’ve been doing.
If you’re in the CT area, check out the Record-Journal newspaper on Sunday, June 1st for a feature article on The Laptop Sessions! It’s been rumored that we might even have a prestigious spot in the Sunday paper, but time will tell, I guess.
Come on back tomorrow for Chris’ final entry into “Title Track Week” and, as always, come to https://guitarbucketlist.com every single day in 2008 for a new video!
Welcome to your Friday edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!
Tonight, I bring you a cool tune from Paul McCartney, “My Brave Face”. I always knew of this song, hearing it on the radio and such, but for some reason, I fell in love with it a couple years ago. I guess I never really knew it was Paul.
It’s a TOUGH song to sing and I just can’t seem to shake this cold lately, but I prepped myself by eating and drinking a lot before I did the take. It always makes me feel better.
There’s also some really tough lines to sing, as they have this odd syncopation to them. The line, “Ever since you left I have been trying to compose a ‘baby will you please come home’ note meant for you”. Are you kidding me? It took a while to get that one down.
But, I really like the way the whole video came out and I think you’ll agree it’s one of my more passionate ones.
Enjoy tonight’s video and make sure to get yourself back to https://www.guitarbucketlist.com tomorrow for another new video from the one and only Chris Moore!
Welcome to your Thursday edition of The Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog with me, Jim Fusco! I just reached 100 subscribers and I know it’ll only grow faster from here! I hope you’ll tell your friends about the music blog, too.
Anyway, now to today’s cover song video. Today, I give you another in our series of Beatles cover songs that I’ve loved for a long time, “Things We Said Today”.
Paul McCartney said that this song was about a girlfriend of his he met while in another country. They had such a great time together and made all those crazy young promises of “always waiting for you”, etc. So, he’s singing about remembering the things they said to each other while feeling alone and far away. What a great, heartfelt idea for a song!
One of the things I’ve always liked about “Things We Said Today” is the cool strumming pattern of the A-minor chord that starts the song. For a song about such a melancholy feeling, the opening chords are so harsh. Of course, that harsh feeling comes up again in the bridge of the song, where Paul gets a bit rougher with his singing style. I think the middle-8 is one of the best that Paul McCartney ever wrote. He flawlessly transitions his voice from sweet and mellow to biting. It’s very impressive.
I guess the duality in “Things We Said Today” between the verses and middle sections is reflected in the lyrics of the song. On the surface, you’ll notice that Paul is first saying how they’ve promised to “be the only one” for each other. But, if you read into it a little bit, you’ll hear what he really means. He knew, because of the distance between him and the girl he’s talking about, that the promises of “being the only one” were empty and could never be true. He knew it was only a passing fling. In the middle section, he says, “And though we may be blind, love is here to stay.” He’s saying that in a new relationship like that, people tend to overlook obvious challenges like, you know, living thousands of miles away from each other. And, in the minds of these naive folks that are newly in love, it’ll stay great forever! Those of us who have been through that situation know the real eventual outcome.
On a funnier note, I had to relocate to my room for this song (good thing I have a Laptop!) because my parakeets would not stop chattering downstairs! But, I’m glad they’re getting along, even if it is to the detriment of my acoustic cover song videos.
I hope you enjoy today’s Beatles acoustic video- I’ll catch you on Sunday with an all-new Beach Boys song!
We have a NEW album out called Homestead’s Revenge (by Masters of the Universe- the band I’m in). You can buy the high quality mp3s or the CD version. Here’s the web address: http://jimfusco.com/albums.html. PLEASE check it out and let me know what you think! I hope you all enjoy today’s Session, and REALLY enjoy the new album- it’s two years in the making!
Welcome to your Sunday edition of the Laptop Sessions!
Today, I bring you a tune that I covered on my album “That’s All Folks” called “Great Day” by Paul McCartney. It closes out his 1997 album “Flaming Pie”, one of my all-time favorites. That album, “That’s All Folks”, came about because I had purchased my first good acoustic guitar. That guitar meant everything to me- it sounded great, played great, and made me feel like a real musician. I didn’t even really know how to play too well when I bought it. So, I learned how to play a bunch of songs I was listening to at the time. That taught me more chords, which turned me into a better player. And, at the time, I was going through a HUGE Paul McCartney phase. They had just released “Wingspan” with all of Wings’ greatest hits. I know those songs probably grate on people after all this time, but they were all new to me- and I fell for it pretty hard. We were also listening, as a family, to Paul’s albums from the 90s quite a bit. The first real song I learned how to play (and played it for my parents) was, of all things, “Hope of Deliverance” by Paul McCartney off of the “Off the Ground” album from the early 90s. I guess you could say that Paul McCartney’s songs really taught me how to play. And when it comes to rock musicians, you can’t get a much better tutor than him.
This is the perfect acoustic song and gives quite a vocal workout, which you wouldn’t expect in such a simple song. I decided to do this acoustic cover song on my nylon-string classical acoustic guitar, as it gave me the opportunity to be more expressive in my performance. This song is very soulful, which you wouldn’t really expect from the lyrics. I kind of dumbed-down the guitar picking riff throughout because that’s not really my thing. I’m a strummer and a soloist, but can’t do the flat-picking thing too well. Paul McCartney, the phenom that he is, is proficient at almost anything, musically. The man is one of the best bass players of all time, he can play the drums, sing (obviously), write songs, and play any guitar part you throw in front of him. Oh, and he’s written some of the most famous rock songs of all time on the piano, as well. That’s a pretty impressive life, for sure!
I hope you all enjoy today’s Session, as I’ll be back on Wednesday with a “political” original song- don’t miss it!
