The Laptop Sessions: “I Can’t Tell You Why” (The Eagles Acoustic Rock Cover Song)

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good afternoon to you! Thank you for checking out today’s Laptop Session. I really am looking forward to your watching this session, as it is my third Eagles acoustic cover video. Today I bring you the awesome ballad “I Can’t Tell You Why” from their album “The Long Run”.

This song is among the few that are sung by bassist Timothy Schmit. His voice is very sweet and appropriate for this song. I feel I did a great job emulating his singing style, and I hope you agree. The guitar part I play is an adaptation of the synthesizer that is constant in the song.

Also, if you are wondering why i’m dressed up, it is because I went to a wedding today (and am going to a reception in a little while). I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Lisa & Tom Kapitan on their wedding today.

Thank you again for checking out today’s session. Your weekend has just started, and I know you will come back tomorrow to see what Jim has in store for us all. Until then…

FMP Studios has its own domain name!

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

Just a quick announcement:

I finally pulled the trigger and purchased a new domain name for FMP Studios, the premier music, video, graphics, marketing, and photo restoration studio: FMP-Studios.com!

We’ll be updating links to this site soon and I hope you’ll check it out. We offer a ton of great services, all of which you can read about right here on the Fusco-Moore Productions cover songs music video blog by searching “FMP Studios” in the search box on the top of the page. You’ll be blown away by our unique combination of: fast turnaround times, professional custom results, and lowest prices anywhere!

Let me just say, as well, that running this website (and the other six we have) isn’t easy. Working full time, doing a video every three days, and planning a wedding all contribute to the difficulty.

But, over the past few days, Chris Moore has really stepped-up and has done some great things for the site. You see, my job here on the video blog is to come up with ideas for new features and more ways to get us noticed. And then, I have to figure out how to make those ideas come to life. We’ve seen many examples of this over the past two months or so. We now have a full sitemap, an incredibly extensive directory, links to every category, and so much more. Plus, we post at least once a day.

Chris isn’t a coding kinda guy like me. But, he really wanted to help. So, I gave him some large tasks to do. With some help from Jeff, Chris wrote literally 50 pages worth of unique and informative content to put on ALL of our category pages! It was an incredible amount of work and I want him to know that it was appreciated and will be very helpful to our cause very soon. He also made great descriptions for the site and is making great posts for WCJM Radio and FMP Studios. I’ve had so much of the burden taken off of me. I usually have to come up with the ideas, DO ALL THE WORK, and THEN implement it all.

With Chris’ help, I’ve been able to do so many more unique things to the site because I don’t have to spend my time actually making the content, like I’ve always had to do in the past. Now, I can focus on making the site work properly and getting these enhancements to really make the site better in the end.

I also appreciate Jeff’s consistency here- I never have to bug him to do his Session. I never have to tell him to do a better job. He just does it. And now, since Chris should probably get a break from some of this stuff, I might have to start bugging Jeff soon!

What a team…

CD Review: Brian Wilson’s “Gettin’ In Over My Head”

Saturday, June 28th, 2008

By Chris Moore:

Released on the eve of SMiLE, Gettin’ In Over My Head is a testament to Brian Wilson’s talent and motivation as a singer/songwriter. Entire books (see: Wouldn’t It Be Nice: Brian Wilson and the Making of the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds by Charles L. Granata) have been written about how Wilson changed the landscape of the singer/songwriter’s rock/pop album, both in how artists create and in how the audience listens. It is refreshing and inspiring to see that such an artist is not only reworking unfinished projects from the past, but also creating new music that stands independently from his past hits.

The first track, “How Could We Still Be Dancin’,” is a great start for this album. Brian Wilson may be an aged rock star whose prime was arguably in the mid-1960s, but his flair for an upbeat song—a song which one might dance to—is unsurpassed. He invites Elton John along for the ride, and delivers a great album starter. This is followed up by “Soul Searchin’,” a song that carries with it many implications. The lead is shared by Brian and his brother Carl, who passed away in 1998. Brian was able to take Carl’s original vocal—cut in the mid-90s for a possible Beach Boys project—and feature it on a new track cut by Brian and his band. For Beach Boys’ fans, this is a treat in and of itself. That it is an emotional song and perhaps one of the best on the album is a wonderful bonus. The third and fourth tracks are notable for their sound. The fourth (and title) track is especially notable, when considering the evolution of Brian Wilson’s sound. There are certainly intimations of Pet Sounds throughout the album, in the choice of instrumentation and the themes of love and, specifically, the overlap between new and old love.

This is not to say that Wilson is simply tapping into and mimicking a previously established sound, albeit his own. On the contrary, he delivers songs like “City Blues” (an upbeat track laced with a typically, and appropriately, bluesy electric solo by Eric Clapton) and “A Friend Like You” (an admittedly cheesy, yet sincere collaboration with Paul McCartney)—these are new songs. Still, Wilson good-naturedly returns to the music of his youth with “Desert Drive,” a song that could have stepped off of an album like Little Deuce Coupe. Wilson wrote three of the songs on the album by himself, of which “Don’t Let Her Know She’s An Angel” is probably the most brilliant. He sings, “I don’t know why she completes me…I’m not even sure what love means / Don’t let her know she’s an angel.” Even in his sixties, Wilson still remembers how it feels to be in love and yet not know how to define it, how to define it logically. It’s a beautiful little tune, complete with a well-orchestrated backing track and impeccable harmonies—Wilson’s trademarks.

What cannot be understated here is the fact that Wilson wrote or co-wrote each and every one of the thirteen songs on this album. He has earned the right to host guests like John, Clapton, and McCartney to a degree that an artist like Santana has not. Wilson cannot be accused of relying on the names of his co-stars. He has arranged an original album that stands on its own. It builds upon the surf music and Pet Sounds styles of his past without relying on them. He even closes the album with “The Waltz,” a song he co-wrote with Van Dyke Parks. A song of high school cotillions, angora sweaters, fandangos, Topanga, Tarzana, and a love that “can make this old world tremble,” this final collaboration is an apt nod to Wilson’s next release, the long-awaited SMiLE. This album stands on its own, a validation of Wilson’s continuing career as a singer/songwriter.

11/2005