The Laptop Sessions: “That Was Then, This Is Now” (Monkees Cover Song)

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome to your Saturday dose of The Laptop Sessions, brought to you by http://fusco-moore.com .

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 http://laptopsessions.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 our original music website at http://fusco-moore.com/music or http://moumusic.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!

Download a FREE mp3 of this song at the Fusco-Moore Store by
Clicking HERE! It’s on “The Laptop Sessions, Vol. 4″:



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This is one in a series of acoustic cover songs, original music, and free mp3 downloads here on the Fusco-Moore Productions Blog.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 14th, 2008 at 3:59 pm and is filed under Monkees Songs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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The Laptop Sessions is a video blog that showcases acoustic cover songs from the best rock bands of all time. Our cover songs are added constantly and we always put a unique spin on every song we play. Songwriters Jim Fusco, Chris Moore, and Jeff Copperthite all contribute to this music video series on a daily basis with the goal of putting an end to bad YouTube videos forever!

The blog has search capabilities, so you'll be able to find your favorite cover song instantly. Or, you can search by band by using our category pages and our sitemap. We're constantly adding new bands to the Laptop Sessions Music Video Series, and we're accepting requests all the time. The blog also features music articles about how to write a song, how to record a song, and product reviews. We also write great blog posts about our general lives and interesting commentaries about the music business in general.

The Fusco-Moore Productions Blog doesn't just feature cover songs: we also do original songs every week with our exclusive "Original Wednesday" video series. Here, you'll hear brand-new original songs by great songwriters. If you like the cover songs we're doing here on the blog, you'll LOVE the original tunes we play! These songs show you the multiple talents of everyone involved in the Laptop Sessions. You'll hear a great original song every single week- who knows, you may just end up finding a new favorite musician!

So, if you're looking for new music, original songs, classic tunes, cover songs, or any acoustic music, you've come to the right place. The Fusco-Moore Productions Blog is home to the world-famous Laptop Sessions music video series and pledges to bring you the best in rock music every single day. Remember to check back often, as new cover songs, original videos, and great music articles are being added constantly for your entertainment.