Tag Archives: unplugged

“Sitting, Waiting, Wishing” (Jack Johnson Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to another edition of the Laptop Sessions here on the Laptop Sessions Music Video Blog! Today, I bring you a great acoustic song from Jack Johnson that was a single, but never really made it anywhere on the charts. But, his album, “In Between Dreams”, did very well. I guess there’s a big divide: the people the like the music I love really buy albums and the people that like music I can’t stand just buy the singles. So, I’ll bring you this acoustic cover version of Jack Johnson’s “Sitting, Waiting, Wishing” and hopefully give it a little more recognition as a single.

This is my first Jack Johnson cover song, but Chris did a great acoustic cover of “Do You Remember” a few weeks ago, so it’s not a new artist to the Laptop Sessions music blog. I really got into this album and most of Johnson’s music after getting this album. His style is a bit of stretch for my normal musical tastes, but he’s got such catchy tunes and guitar parts (coupled with the great beats he sings with- those fast lyrics, a la Ed Robertson of Barenaked Ladies) I just couldn’t resist. For the most part, like in this song, I really love the lyrics, too. He has a way of cramming a lot of words in, but still says some things in such a unique way. “Lord knows that the world is cruel, but I ain’t the Lord, I’m just a fool, and loving somebody don’t make them love you.” Talk about a loaded sentence! The only times I’m not such a huge fan of his lyrics is when he’s kinda preachy, you know? Of course, I’m not a fan of any preachy lyrics (or people, for that matter- keep that in mind when you’re posting comments, lol), so Johnson gets another free pass there.

I hope you enjoy your Friday edition and I’m glad I don’t have to post tomorrow or Sunday because I’m looking to have a nice weekend away for the first time in over a year. So, Chris and Jeff will hold down the fort for a little while and I’ll be back on Monday for my regularly-scheduled acoustic cover music video.

“You Got It” (Roy Orbison Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Well, who doesn’t know this song? 🙂

This is one of my favorite songs, and has been since it came out when I was just a little boy- slowly becoming a very “long” time ago. Also, “You Got It” stands as one of the great “comeback” songs of all time. Roy Orbison’s career really was over for many, many years due to some sad circumstances, and this song (which, by the way, I’m happy to say he wrote- with Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne) brought him back into the limelight. Of course, he’s stay in that light with the success of the Traveling Wilburys right up until his unfortunate passing.

I wasn’t really planning on doing this song for one of my Laptop Sessions cover music videos, but I thought of it one night before a video recording session and decided to give it a whirl. My voice, for some reason, still hasn’t come back completely. I mean, it sounds exactly the same all the time, but at certain times when changing notes, I get a little Justin Hayward-esque “squeak”. I like it in Hayward’s voice, but I don’t like it in my voice, which I’ve always thought of as kinda pure and simple. So, it took a bit of adjusting to make sure my voice didn’t do that squeaky thing. It stinks because I don’t know why it started or how to make it go away. Any home remedies, anyone? I’d be glad to read them.

So, while you sit back and listen to this acoustic cover song from me, Jim Fusco, of this great late-eighties tune from Roy Orbison, I hope you’ll remember Roy’s legacy and that his voice never faltered, right up to the end.

I’ve been very excited about the Laptop Sessions as a whole these past couple of days and the cover video Session-a-day rolls on to the halfway-point in just a couple weeks!

“That Was Then, This Is Now” (Monkees Cover)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to your Saturday dose of The Laptop Sessions, brought to you by me, Jim Fusco!

Today, I’m doing a fairly-unknown song that’s technically only by Mickey Dolenz and Peter Tork, but billed as the Monkees. This song was on their first greatest hits CD in the late eighties and actually continues to make appearances on “Best Of” albums. I love this song and I’ve known it for many years now. Actually, the Monkees were my favorite band before I found out about the Beach Boys. I LOVED that Monkees Greatest Hits CD when I was like 4, and I find that I still love all the songs today.

They didn’t write this song, but in a few weeks, I’ll be putting another Monkees song that they did write (by Michael Nesmith) on https://guitarbucketlist.com .

We also did a radio show on our free internet radio station, WCJM Internet Radio at http://wcjm.com , called the “That Was Then, This Is Now” Show. This show not only featured this song, but also featured songs (and comedy skits) that give a look at bands both then and now.

I think this Session may fall under the same category that my most famous, “I’m So Lonely”, video falls under: the over-produced and way-too-eighties-sounding songs that I took and made into an acoustic song. These versions always tend to come out the best because you can just LISTEN to the real song and cut through the production.

That’s why I’m always a big fan of people that use production to make the song the best it can sound, but not just “make” the song. That’s why Brian Wilson is so great: he wrote (and writes) great songs, then uses the production to make them shine even better. But, they’d still be great songs without all the instrumentation, which is what I try to prove with these cover songs on the Laptop Sessions.

On a slightly different note, I think it’s obvious by now that we’re doing all of these cover songs because we’re songwriters and the only way we can think of people showing interest in our original music is to play other people’s songs right along with it. I figure, if you like the same songs I like and I write similar songs to the songs I like (in general, of course), you’ll like my music by the transitive property!

With that said, I hope you’re checking out our weekly “Original Wednesday” songs and going to my original music website at jimfusco.com. We have some pretty great stuff- we’re not looking to make a fortune, although we are looking for people to pay….attention!!

Thanks for watching today’s Laptop Session and stay tuned for Chris’ new song tomorrow!

“Worlds Apart” (Original Wednesday Song by Co-Songwriter Jim Fusco)

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By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to Original Wednesday here at the Laptop Sessions! It only comes but once every three weeks for me, so you know I’m going to make it a good one.

Tonight, I bring you an original song I wrote with the help of my fellow MoU (at http://jimfusco.com/albums.html ) bandmates for our latest album, “Homestead’s Revenge”. The album is GREAT, and you can listen to the whole thing for free on our website.

This song is track two off the album and follows a very interesting pattern. You might notice that the verse never comes back after the first round. It just has the chorus and middle instrumental parts play again and again. You almost don’t even notice it only has that one full verse until you stop and think about it.

I recorded this video last night. That is, I recorded this video BEFORE I made my huge discoveries pertaining to my original and cover songs videos.

First, I found a great program called iGlasses that allows me to manually control the iSight camera in my Macbook. It’s about time- I can’t stand when the camera just decides, “You know what, why don’t I just make it a lot darker for no reason?” Now, I’ll be able to control the exposure and brightness (plus white balance and color controls) BEFORE I record the video. This will save me time and, as we video professionals know, will make the end-result a lot nicer looking. It’s much more difficult to fix something in post-production than it is to do it right the first time around.

Second, I finally got my ZOOM H2 to record at the same time my iSight camera does!! You see, iMovie HD doesn’t give you the option to record using a different audio source. It just says “Record with iSight”.

Well, I went out to the main Apple preferences, switched the input in there, and presto- crystal clear sound without that incessantly loud fan noise that comes from the laptop.

But again, this was all learned AFTER I recorded the videos you’ll see from me for about the next month. BUT, at least we know great looking AND sounding video for me is on the horizon.

And the best part? I don’t have to do any extra work! 🙂

Thanks for watching and keep spreading the word about our great acoustic cover songs and original music!