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“Great Day” (Paul McCartney Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

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!

“Garden Party” (Rick Nelson Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome everyone to another edition of the Laptop Sessions! Glad to be here today, as I’m happy to present a great song from Rick Nelson, “Garden Party”.

I’ve been a fan of this song for a long time and I love the beat it has. It was a lot of fun to play on acoustic and it just has that “down-home” type of feel to it.

I’ll be going back to Rick’s more classic numbers in the future, but this song really makes me want to learn more about his work as a country-rock songwriter in the mid-70s.

I hope you enjoy today’s Session and make sure to come back tomorrow for another Session by Chris!

“Dark of My Moon” (Gene Clark Cover)

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Welcome to your Super Bowl Sunday edition of The Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog! As a quick note on the Super Bowl, I’m a Jets “fan”, so even though this concerns two northeast teams, I really don’t care who wins. On top of that, I’m a baseball fan, so hearing that the Mets signed Johan Santana, it already feels like a win.

On to today’s acoustic cover song:

I’ve said it before, but Gene Clark is in the running for best songwriter of all time. Those know know Gene’s music share my admiration of it, and even though finding someone who’s even HEARD of him is few and far between, I know this acoustic cover version of “Dark of My Moon” will make a lot of fans very happy.

“Dark of My Moon” and is an “unreleased” song that was formally released only as an acoustic demo a few years ago (long after Gene passed away). This has been a favorite of everyone in my family since we first heard it and I’m proud to bring it to the Laptop Sessions music blog.

This literally took me 30 takes to do. This is a very powerful song and I needed to do it right. I found that the more I played it, the harder it became to sing. But, after plenty of loud obscenities, I finally got the perfect take, which I present to you today.

Listen to the words of this song and listen to how the music rises and falls with the emotions. Not all of Gene Clark’s songs were this slow and sad-sounding, but most of them had this hint of melancholy to them.  Even in a fast-paced song like “Feel A Whole Lot Better”, Gene would put this sad tinge on the lyrics.  But, what’s interesting about “Feel A Whole Lot Better” is how he says, “I’ll probably feel a whole lot better when you’re gone.”  He doesn’t even know for sure!  I think that extra dimension to Gene Clark’s lyrics is what made him so great.  He had a way with words and you could tell he looked up to guys like Bob Dylan.  For “Dark of My Moon”, you can tell it’s a very personal song.  Lines like, “That’s the tenth time that you went and then came back,” make the listener realize that he’s talking about something (and someone) very specific.  On songs like that, I usually choose not to do a cover version.  But, “Dark of My Moon” is such a great song, I just couldn’t help it.  The way Gene Clark sings in the rough demo version is just perfectly suited to the content of the song.  This is only the first of many solo Gene Clark cover songs to come here on the video blog (not to mention those he did with the Byrds), so I hope everyone enjoys it!

Stay tuned as the Laptop Session a day in 2008 “keeps burnin'”! (to quote another great Gene Clark song)

“Young Boy” (Paul McCartney Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Hello everyone and welcome to your Thursday fix of the Laptop Sessions music blog!

I’ve been sick with a cold these past couple of days- good thing I had a couple of cover song videos in reserve! I should be back to my healthy self again over the weekend, and I have a list of literally 40 different songs to record cover song music videos for the Sessions…hopefully not all in one day…

This tune is a great one from Paul McCartney’s late 90’s album, “Flaming Pie”. That album stands as one of my all-time favorites because it came out right when I was really getting into music seriously. My family listened to it constantly. I plan on doing most of the songs off this album eventually because of it.  “Flaming Pie”, for me, will always be the “vacation” album.  I remember the summer that this album came out.  My family went on vacation- a road trip to one of the New England states.  We listened to this album constantly while on the trip.  It was so exciting to go into a music store and see this album being promoted.  I remember listening to the album on headphones in one of these stores (remember those kiosks?).  But the weird thing was- we were listening to it in the car!  I guess I was just excited to see an album I liked getting some popularity for once.

Paul McCartney’s songs, dare I say, are much better when he’s in a bad mood.  Unfortunately, his wife was suffering from cancer at the time he wrote and recorded “Flaming Pie”.  The emotions Paul put into this album range from sweet (“Little Willow”) to edgy (“Really Love You”).  I think “Flaming Pie” features some of the best songs he’s ever written.  “Heaven On A Sunday” is one of my absolute favorites- it’s just got that perfect peaceful sound.  And “The World Tonight” is just a great rock’n’roll song- the perfect single.  Paul even makes mention of his old friend John Lennon.  You remember John’s story of how the Beatles got their name, right?  “A man on a flaming pie came down and told me to spell “Beetles” with an “a”.”  Yeah, right.  Anyway, it made for a great song (and album) many, many years later.

This tune is a great one on acoustic guitar and was one of the first songs I leaned to play on guitar. It’s fun to sing and has a great melody, but most of all, I love the message in the song. “He’s gotta do it for himself.” How many times have I tried to steer someone in the “right” direction, only to learn that the person needed to learn on his own. I love when people learn from others’ mistakes, but I also accept the fact that it doesn’t happen that often.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s Paul McCartney cover song.  “Young Boy” is a great one for you to learn, too.  Just start with C – Am – Em – F – G.  There- you’ve got the verse and you’ve mastered five different chords!  Stay tuned for many more Paul McCartney songs here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!