“Hang On To Yourself” by David Bowie – Chords, Tabs, and How to Play

“Hang On To Yourself”
(David Bowie)

F#m
Well, she’s a tongue twisting storm,
A
Come to the show tonight,
Bm
Praying to the light machine.

She wants my honey not my money;
She’s a funky thigh collector,
Laying on electric dreams.

CHORUS:
C                     D                        C                                  D
So, come on, come on… We’ve really got a good thing going.
C                                D                          C
Well, come on.  Well, come on — if you think we’re gonna make it,
A                                                D – C – D – C
You better hang on to yourself…

We can’t dance; we don’t talk much.  We just ball and play.
But then we move like tigers on Vaseline.

Well, the bitter comes out better on a stolen guitar.
You’re the blessed; we’re the spiders from Mars.

CHORUS

SOLO (over A – D – A – D)

CHORUS (repeat)

A                     D
Come on, come on…

** 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. **

“Must Be Santa” (Cover by Bob Dylan) – Chords, Tabs, & How to Play

To see how it’s played in a music video, CLICK HERE!

“Must Be Santa”
Hal Moore & Bill Fredericks – Covered by Bob Dylan

A
Who’s got a beard that’s long and white?
E
Santa’s got a beard that’s long and white.
A
Who comes around on a special night?
E
Santa comes around on a special night.
A
Special night, beard that’s white.
D           E
Must be Santa,
A            Bm
Must be Santa,
D           E                    A
Must be Santa, Santa Claus.

Who wears boots and a suit of red?
Santa wears boots and a suit of red.
Who wears a long cap on his head?
Santa wears a long cap on his head.
Cap on head, suit that’s red.
Special night, beard that’s white.
Must be Santa,
Must be Santa,
Must be Santa, Santa Claus.

Who’s got a big, red cherry nose?
Santa’s got a big, red cherry nose.
Who laughs this way: “Ho, ho, ho”?
Santa laughs this way: “Ho, ho ho.”
Ho, ho ho; cherry nose.
Cap on head, suit that’s red.
Special night, beard that’s white.
Must be Santa,
Must be Santa,
Must be Santa, Santa Claus.

Bb
Who very soon will come our way?
F
Santa very soon will come our way.
Bb
Eight little reindeer pull his sleigh;
F
Santa’s little reindeer pull his sleigh.
Bb
Reindeer sleigh, come our way.
Ho, ho, ho; cherry nose.
Cap on head, suit that’s red.
Special night, beard that’s white.
Eb         F
Must be Santa,
Bb         Cm
Must be Santa,
Eb          F                   Bb
Must be Santa, Santa Claus.

B
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen —
F#
Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon.
B
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen —
F#
Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton.
B
Reindeer sleigh, come our way.
Ho, ho, ho; cherry nose.
Cap on head, suit that’s red.
Special night, beard that’s white.
E           F#
Must be Santa,
B           C#m
Must be Santa,
E           F#                  B
Must be Santa, Santa Claus.

Must be Santa,
Must be Santa,
Must be Santa, Santa Claus.

** 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. **

“Run Rudolph Run” (Chuck Berry Christmas Song Cover)

Welcome to your Thumpin Thursday©™ edition of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!

Tonight, Chris and I bring you another acoustic-electric tune in Chuck Berry’s classic Christmas hit, “Run Rudolph Run”.  And NO, that’s not “Run Run Rudolph” as many people (including me up to a couple years ago) think.  I’m not sure why Berry titled it the way he did, but if that’s the way it is, you know the Laptop Sessions will stay true to the original.

I like this performance a lot because it gave me a chance to do a guitar solo, which I rarely get to do on these music videos.  And this is a pretty rockin’ solo, too.  It’s always so much fun to play it.  But, to be honest, I’m actually not that huge of a fan of Chuck Berry’s version.  I mean, I love the song, but his version is just so subdued.  It sounds like a song that he just farted out in like two takes, then said, “It’s good.  It’s like playing rock’n’roll into my eighties good,” and then left the studio.

I love his guitar playing style, though.  It always sounds so effortless.  I even have a Chuck Berry influenced guitar, but a string was broken and I was too lazy to play it.  You can search for Masters of the Universe’s live version of this song to see me playing my Chuck Berry guitar!

Actually, I kind of have this “thing” against Chuck Berry for no good reason.  One time, a long time ago, my mother went to Chuck Berry concert.  They waited for HOURS for him to arrive, as he was late for one reason or another.  Well, he came out, played like two songs, and left.  She never forgave him.

I can’t believe it’s another Original Wednesday week for me starting on Sunday, which is when you’ll see me next.  After I’m done with some other freelance work I’ve been doing, I’ll be able to devote a bit more time to promoting the Laptop Sessions and our new site, Cover-Songs.com, in hopes of increasing our site views by 50% by February.  You know what would help the most?  WORD OF MOUTH!  So, tell your friends, blog about us, put a link on MySpace- DO ANYTHING and help us get the word out!  The more excited we are, the more we’ll do for the site.  And the more views we get, the more excited we are.  So, I hope everyone will chip in and tell a friend about the Laptop Sessions.

Have a great night and we’ll all be looking forward to the weekend…not to mention great videos from Chris and Jeff.  It’ll be “like having two weekend nights off before your next cover song music video” good!

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

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!