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“Maybe Katie” (Barenaked Ladies Cover)

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Welcome to your Terrific Tuesday edition of the Laptop Sessions!  Tonight, I’m the first person to post using our brand new WordPress 2.6.1 version of the blog.  Of course, on your end, you shouldn’t see any difference, but on our end, the difference is vast…and great.  For one thing, our visual editor won’t mess with our code anymore, so we’ll be able to post chords to our cover songs more often than before.

Okay, on to tonight’s video.  Tonight is a classic one in terms of my live performances.  The “band” of Chris, Jim, and Becky (see Chris’ post a few days ago) was formed in 2004 and we loved to sing this Barenaked Ladies song, “Maybe Katie” in concert.  Then, we didn’t realize we were singing it in the wrong key- a half step below the original key.  Rest assured that for this video, we fixed the error, as all the Laptop Sessions songs are always in the original key- the ONLY way it should be!  Listen up, cover song musicians on YouTube and elsewhere: YOU REALLY STINK IF YOU DO IT IN THE WRONG KEY!!!  There’s no exception to this- if it’s out of your range and you change the key, then you don’t deserve to do the song.  I sang “Baby Please Come Home” by Darlene Love at our Christmas party in the original key and that song is ridiculously high.  You didn’t see me take the easy way out.  And this is why our motto is “Putting an end to bad YouTube covers FOREVER!”  Wow, the tangents tonight…

Moving on, this song is off of one of my favorite albums, “Everything To Everyone”.  I do believe that it’s probably their fourth best album behind “Gordon”, “Barenaked Ladies Are Men” (the almost 30-track version), and “Maroon”.  This album has some input from the other band members, which if you’ve read some of my past rants, means a lot to me in a band.

We do “Maybe Katie” a bit differently than the album’s version in the sense that the BNL version has some heavy electric guitars on the chorus and middle sections.  Our version is completely acoustic and has more of a “folk” feel to it.  That’s what happens when you don’t have a drummer handy…that isn’t already reserved to play the solo like I am.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s Laptop Session.  Thanks again and see you tomorrow!

“These Apples” (Barenaked Ladies Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to another edition of The Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!

Of course, The Laptop Sessions started partially because I loved Ed Robertson’s “Bathroom Sessions” so much. He’s so great on the guitar, it makes me feel very inferior.

But, I still love his music and I love to play it! This song, “These Apples”, is infectious and I was so happy I finally got a chance to play it.

Next week, we’ll be doing “Title Track Week”, but this week is anything-goes! Make sure to come back tomorrow for another great Session from Chris and check out the Blog at https://guitarbucketlist.com for Jeff’s most recent video, as well!

“Brian Wilson” (Barenaked Ladies cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to your Friday edition of The Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog! After two strong Sessions from Chris and Jeff, I’m glad I can follow up with a song that I’ve been playing for a long time now, Barenaked Ladies’ “Brian Wilson”.

This song is very important to me, as it was the song that initially got me into BNL because a friend played it for me thinking I would like the Brian Wilson references. Of course, I did. But, I loved the song, too.

I now own all of BNL’s albums, have met them and got them to sign their latest (and greatest) album, and they are now my second favorite band of all time behind the Beach Boys at a permanent #1 spot.

I love the way Masters of the Universe did this song- I had the privilege of singing lead on their version. We did five part harmonies on the chorus. There’s a live version of it here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0rBfLk70vU

So, you have a song by my second favorite band ABOUT my favorite ever songwriter! Doesn’t get much better than that.

So, here’s my solo acoustic version- I could play this one with my eyes closed, so the performance is very smooth and comfortable, if I do say so myself! 😉

Let me tell you why I love Barenaked Ladies (the band, of course), the Beach Boys, the Moody Blues, the Byrds, and bands like that so much more than I like the Wallflowers, Ben Folds, and Dylan. I love all of their music, but I gravitate towards the first set of bands. You see, I love bands where every band member gets a chance to contribute.  Many bands only have one front man and the rest are just background guys.  Take “Matchbox Twenty” for example.  Rob Thomas is the lead.  Now, someone name another band member.  That’s right- Thomas IS the band!  Sure, there are other guys that play his music, but he’s the guy who writes the songs and sings them, too.  If you take a band like the Beach Boys, you might think the same thing: “Oh yeah, it’s just Brian Wilson and a bunch of other guys.”  Sure, that was kind of true before 1967.  But after that, Brian faded into the background and the other band members (his brothers, his cousin, and a friend) had to take over.  They all began writing songs.  The best example was the album “Sunflower”.  Every member had a hand in writing and singing on that album- it’s one of my favorites as a result.  That way, you get such a great variety.

Enjoy “Brian Wilson” by Barenaked Ladies.  It’s such a great song.  And even though I couldn’t get the Jim Creegan bass solo in there, I still think this live acoustic version does the song justice.  Stay tuned for more great acoustic cover songs from the Laptop Sessions music blog!

“Too Little Too Late” (Barenaked Ladies Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

We finally come to one of my absolute favorite bands of all time: Barenaked Ladies. I originally got into the band after hearing their song “Brian Wilson”.

I have every album from BNL, know every word to every song–a real fanatic. I think Steven Page is the best song writer of my generation, even though he is about 15 years older than me.

This song starts off their album “Maroon”, one of my favorites from them that I played about 100 times in a row. This song is much more “electric” on the album, but I think it stands up well as an acoustic because of the lyrical content.

There will be PLENTY more videos from BNL to come, so if you love any of their songs, don’t hesitate to make a request!!

NOTE: This video was remastered in 2020 for enhanced video and sound.