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“Soulful Old Man Sunshine” by the Beach Boys – Chords & Lyrics : Ask the Musician

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By Jim Fusco:

I received an email today from Mike H., who just watched my cover song music video of the Beach Boys’ semi-unreleased song, “Soulful Old Man Sunshine”.  What a great song it is- it’s hard to believe they put so much effort into a song and then canned it for years.  Anyway, Mike was wondering what the chords to the song were.  So, I decided to post them here on the music blog for all to see!  Also make sure to check out my cover song video of “Soulful Old Man Sunshine” below the chords and lyrics.  Thanks for writing, Mike, and I hope this helps!

..........Am7..Gm7......F
In that soulful ol’ man sunshine


F................Bb6................F...............Bb6


She looks so fresh and sweet, keeps herself soft and tender


Am7.............Dm7...........Gm7............Gm7/C..C7


No wonder that I can sing a song about my baby


F................Bb6.....F..........Bb6


She looks so healthy, I feel so doggone wealthy


Am7.............Dm7...........Gm7............Gm7/C..C7


No wonder that I can sing a song about my baby




Dm.........G7........Bb......Bb/C..........Am7..Gm7......F


So happy, together love is better in that soulful ol’ man sunshine


F..Cm7..Bb..F


Do-do-do




F.................Bb6.............F..........Bb6


She wakes up singing songs, of happy everafters


Am7..............Dm7.................Gm7........Gm7/C..C7


Well let me just tell you ‘bout my ever-lovin’ lady


F.................Bb6.....F..........Bb6


One bright September, I can remember


Am7................Dm7..............Gm7.............Gm7/C..C7


The morning we walked together laughin’ in the sunshine




F.............................Cm7


Hey old man shine your love on me


F.............................Cm7


Hey old man shine your love on me


F............................................Cm7


Soulful old man sunshine shine your light divine on me


F.............................Cm7


Hey ol’ man shine your love on me


........Gm7..........Am7...........................Bb6................C6


Then suddenly the light shines through and I see you there standing before me


Gm7........Am7.............Bb6...................Gm7/C........C7..C/D


Today the world is new I feel so high and so far within you, yeah




G................C6........G.............C6


Morning and evening, my love is weaving


Bm7.............Em7...........Am7............Am7/D..D7


A magical thread of joy that joins our hearts together


Em.........A7........C.......C/D...........Bm7..Am7......G


So happy, together love is better in that soulful old man sunshine


 









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“Lady (Fallin’ In Love)” (The Beach Boys Cover)

			
						

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By Jim Fusco


Welcome to another edition of the Laptop Sessions with Jim Fusco!  It’s been a long time since my last video blog post.  Before my new season of cover song videos begins, I decided to post a few leftover cover songs that I recorded a few months ago.  I guess I never got around to posting them!  Life can get busy…


Now that school is starting up again (my wife is a teacher, so she’s really busy 10 months out of the year)I should have a bit more time to focus on my musical endeavors.  I’m excited to bring The Laptop Sessions Acoustic Cover Songs Music Video Blog to new heights this year!  I just signed an agreement to promote my existing cover songs and I hope that these efforts will allow me to expand the website even further.


Tonight, I bring you an obscure song from The Beach Boys.  Well, it’s not really The Beach Boys- this is a Dennis Wilson solo project put under the Beach Boys’ name.  In the early 70s, Dennis Wilson was creating music at a very fast pace.  “Sunflower”, one of the Beach Boys’ best albums, shows a large contribution from Dennis.  In my opinion, his songwriting was second to only Brian Wilson in the band and after Brian slipped away from participating in the band, Dennis filled the void the best.  I think there was a time when the band decided to push Dennis as the front man of the band.  But, Dennis’ songs didn’t catch on commercially and eventually, they went back to the Brian Wilson formula once again (before he was ready, but that’s a whole different story).  Honestly, I’m not sure if the move away from Dennis as the face of the Beach Boys was due to his songs not receiving critical acclaim, or because of Dennis’ lifestyle.  Like Brian, it’s been said that Dennis had a hard time seeing projects through to the end.  Even though he was prolific during this period, I have a feeling he would get bored with projects very quickly and either not finish them or simply get them done and move on.


“Lady (Fallin’ In Love)” is an interesting song.  Dennis had a great way of taking a simple sounding song and making it lush and beautiful.  “Lady” isn’t the hardest song to play or sing, but the string orchestration (most likely done by Daryl Dragon of Captain & Tennille fame) is breathtaking.  That’s one of the reasons, though, that I wanted to do a solo acoustic cover version of “Lady”.  I wanted to show people what the song would sound like in it’s bare-bones form.  I think it’s still a really moving song.


Dennis’ voice on the original recording is so nice- it’s such a shame that he let it deteriorate so much.  I can only imagine the songs he could’ve come out with if he didn’t allow his personal demons to overtake him.


“Lady (Fallin’ In Love)” was actually the flip side of a solo Dennis Wilson single, which is fascinating to me.  “The Sound of Free” was the A-side.  Of course, the single didn’t go anywhere, but up to that point, only Brian had released a solo single in “Caroline, No” four years earlier.  I’m glad the Beach Boys and Capitol Records finally got it together to release “Lady” on their Summer Love Songs compilation.  This song deserved a new audience.


Enjoy tonight’s Dennis Wilson/Beach Boys cover song music video here on the Laptop Sessions video blog!











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Ranking every Beach Boys album and song: “Surfin’ Safari” LP (by Songwriter Jim Fusco)

			
						

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By Jim Fusco:


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. **  


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“The Trader” (Beach Boys Cover)

			
						

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Welcome to another week of the Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!  Tonight, I bring you the week’s first video in the Beach Boys’ classic song, “The Trader”.


First, let me say that tonight’s video is potentially the last that I’ll record here in the condo.  You’ll notice that this is the first video I’ve done since the studio was painted back to white- it’s sad, but I hope to rebuild bigger and better (and smarter) someday!


Onto tonight’s video: Carl Wilson wrote, in my opinion, one of the greatest songs of all time in “The Trader” for the Beach Boys’ 1973 album, Holland.  I love the album, too- they were just so cool in 1973.  Dennis’ contributions to the album were great and Mike Love gave his best song of all time in “Big Sur”.


But, Carl really stole the show with “The Trader”, a two-part masterpiece about an explorer finding a new land and claiming it for “velvet robes” (royalty).  In the process, he kicks-out the natives from the land and builds shops, roads, etc. through their beautiful countryside.  So many times things like this have happened through history, just because (as the song says) someone comes in, sees someone else already there, and is threatened because they say, “They’re not like me.”


The second part of the song, in my opinion, is supposed to be from the point of view of the natives.  How they see the world is so much different from the imperialistic visions of the “Trader” and, honestly, I always lose myself in the second part of this song.  The imagery that Carl and co-writer Jack Rieley put into their lyrics make me feel so bad for these people that were driven out of their homes and native land.  It’s such an odd idea that the evening breeze, the merging streams, etc. can all be valid “reasons to live” as we all (myself included) rely on such materialistic things.


Obviously, Carl lends an amazing vocal to this track, as he pretty much always did with his songs and others.  I tried to replicate it best I could here and believe I got the vocals down pretty good!  The second part of the song is sung much softer than I had anticipated, but I decided to keep it because it allowed me to sing a bit “sweeter” without having to project my voice.  Believe it or not, after just two false-starts, I was able to record this take.  I guess it helps when you’ve heard a song about 200 times over a span of fifteen years.


I’m currently racking my brain for some ideas on how to increase traffic to the site.  Our numbers are still up over last year’s numbers, but I fear for next year’s numbers.  It’s going to be tough to get back up there again without my ability to bug the other guys to step-it-up (which, in turn, makes me step-it-up).  So much has changed since I started this blog.  It’s hard to believe what’s gone on in the past two years.  Looking through our Original Wednesday posts, it was so interesting to get a once-a-week view of the three of our lives.  One minute, you’re best friends with someone, the next you barely know them.  And one week someone is missing someone, and a few weeks later, they’re not anymore.  So, if you’ve been visiting the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog recently, maybe you should take a look back through the archives and see where we were all at during the past couple of years.  You’ll learn a lot about us and learn how much things can change in such a short period of time.











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