A great man named Michael F. Becher on Brian Wilson’s message board started a project where he’s ranking every single Beach Boys album and song on a scale from 1-10. I love the idea and am participating in the project. But, I thought I would extend it to this forum with my picks posted here! So, without further ado, I give you the Beach Boys’ first album: Surfin’ Safari.
ALBUM – SURFIN’ SAFARI
Little Miss America – 4 (they sound lackluster, but Dennis singing brings it up a bit) Surfin’ Safari – 6 409 – 3 The Shift – 3 (waaaaay before my time!) *Land Ahoy – 5 (enjoyable) *Lavender – 4 Chug-A-Lug – 4 Heads You Win – Tails I Lose – 4 Surfin’ – 4 Summertime Blues – 2 (not a huge fan of the covers- funny, ’cause that’s what I do!) Moon Dawg – 4 (Not a big fan of the instrumentals- kinda boring, especially because they’re really known for vocals. This one isn’t bad because of the harmonies and the cool guitar playing.) Cuckoo Clock – 4 (I like Brian’s cute high voice) Ten Little Indians – 3 *Luau – 3 *Karate – 2 County Fair – 5 (funny and catchy) *Judy – 3 *Barbie – 5 (a rare early gem) *What is a Young Girl Made Of – 3 (yuck- foreign background singers!) *Cindy, Oh Cindy – 4 (good vocal)
** It’s funny, I like this album much more than the ratings give it credit for. The songs on their own are too weak to stand up to the other BB classics, but I think the album is so enjoyable and I love hearing the boys when they’re so young and, quite frankly, full of life. **
To see how it’s played in the cover song music video, CLICK HERE!
“World Gone Wrong”
Traditional
D
Strange things have happened, like never before;
My baby told me I would have to go.
D G
I can’t be good no more, once like I did before.
G A7
I can’t be good, baby,
Dmaj7 A7 D
Honey because the world’s gone wrong.
Feel bad this morning, ain’t got no home.
No use in worrying, ’cause the world’s gone wrong.
I can’t be good no more, once like I did before.
I can’t be good, baby,
Honey because the world’s gone wrong.
I told you, baby, right to your head,
If I didn’t leave you I would have to kill you dead.
I can’t be good no more, once like I did before.
I can’t be good, baby,
Honey because the world’s gone wrong.
I tried to be loving and treat you kind,
But it seems like you never right; you got no loyal mind.
I can’t be good no more, once like I did before.
I can’t be good, baby,
Honey because the world’s gone wrong.
If you have a woman and she don’t treat you kind,
Praise the Good Lord to get her out of your mind.
I can’t be good no more, once like I did before.
I can’t be good, baby,
Honey because the world’s gone wrong.
Said, when you been good now, can’t do no more,
Just tell her kindly, “There is the front door.”
I can’t be good no more, once like I did before.
I can’t be good, baby,
Honey because the world’s gone wrong.
Pack up my suitcase, give me my hat,
No use to ask me, baby, ’cause I’ll never be back.
I can’t be good no more, once like I did before.
I can’t be good, baby,
Honey because the world’s gone wrong.
Originally done in four parts, this remastered video (originally recorded in 2007 and remastered in 2020) is about the triumphs and pitfalls of recording a song in my home studio. You’ll see techniques, advice, and most of all, a bunch of bad luck. The song I’m recording is called “Go Back To Him,” written by Jim Fusco and Alberto Distefano. The song was featured on my album “Halfway There”, available at http://jimfusco.com and on iTunes! Make sure to stick around for the end of the video and check out the music video for “Go Back To Him”, complete with remastered stereo audio for the first time! For those who saw the original video, you’ll recall how dark the video looked, as the overhead lighting in my home studio at the time was not conducive to great video quality. Thankfully, through the magic of Final Cut Pro X, I’m able to breathe new life into this documentary, which captures what it was like to record a song at 4am (which was easily done at 23 years of age…).
Well, it’s been a while since I posted a music video, so I figured I’d better make certain my YouTube account was still functional…
This week, instead of recording a cover song, I felt that it was time to kick off The 2010 Project music video series I’ve been planning for a while. You may be wondering, what exactly is The 2010 Project? It is the working title — and, based on a recent conversation, very possibly the official title — of my forthcoming album.
Thus far, as of April break, I’ve chosen the thirteen songs that I plan to record and completed the writing of both music and lyrics. Since then, I’ve recorded acoustic demos of each song and begun listening them in order to help me think of and decide on arrangements and various aspects of how I’d like the final products to sound. I’ve been experimenting with GarageBand drum loops, and I’ve been practicing the songs quite a bit since April. Every weekend since then, I’ve taken an hour to sit down and play through the album in order.
As with any big project like recording an album’s worth of material, anything’s liable to change by the time the final product is ready to be heard. That being said, I plan to string together thirteen installments in this music video series, each featuring one of the aforementioned songs. And, understanding that anything can change, I’ll be releasing them here on the blog in the order I plan to sequence them on the album.
The first song up is “No Lights, No Sound.” Laptop Sessions regulars may recognize this as a video I’ve already recorded and posted over a year ago. However, this is the finalized version, with some slight lyric changes and additional verses. This song is a rare case of old lyrics re-emerging on a new song. The story here is that, a few months ago, I came across the lyrics for an old song that I never really committed to, but had always liked a few lines from. I thought they might fit nicely into this song, and with a few alterations, I think they do.
In a lot of ways, this is one of the simplest songs on the list, a tune that started as I walked around my room in the dark almost two years ago. I was home alone, my capo on the second fret from having played another song (which I’ve since forgotten), and the first line sort of came to me: “The lights are off; there’s no one around…” I wrote this and the first chorus, but that was it for a while. It wasn’t until months later that I added the middle section and new verses. Then, this past April, I deleted a verse and added two more in.
“No Lights, No Sound” is a song that has weathered several phases in my recent life, a track that has been conceived, shaped, and reshaped by these phases and survives in its current form with a scheduled slot as the opening track of The 2010 Project.
I hope you like this one. For some reason, even though my allergies haven’t been hitting me as hard as they probably will soon, my voice wasn’t at its peak today. That being said, I feel that worked for this solo acoustic performance.
So, without further ado, here is the first installment in the series — hurry back every day this week and both days of the weekend for new posts!
