The Laptop Sessions Cover Songs & Original Music Video Blog » Byrds Songs

“I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” (A Byrds Acoustic Rock Cover Song) – The Laptop Sessions

Jim Fusco — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:16:33 +0000

Originally posted 2008-01-06 22:48:00.

By Jim Fusco:

Here on the Laptop Sessions, I give you my favorite song of all time: “I’ll Feel A Whole Lot Better” by the Byrds. Gene Clark, the writer of this song, wrote MANY great songs over his career, and you’ll be hearing a lot of them on the Laptop Sessions in the months to come. But, this song is just PERFECT to me, and here’s why:

It’s got everything I love in a song. It’s got a great guitar sound (courtesy of Roger (Jim) McGuinn), a cool riff, great words, chorus harmonies, and a killer jangly guitar solo. I love everything about this tune and hopefully I’ve done this song justice.

Of course, in order for me to give the song the respect it deserves, I recruited Chris Moore (http://youtube.com/chrismooremusic) to help me with harmonies and rhythm guitar.

So, I hope everyone enjoys this version. I’ll be playing one of my other favorite songs in the next couple weeks, so stay tuned!

Download a FREE mp3 of this song at the Fusco-Moore Store by
Clicking HERE! It’s on “The Laptop Sessions, Vol. 2″:

“Cowgirl in the Sand” (Neil Young & the Byrds Acoustic Rock Cover Song) – The Laptop Sessions

Jim Fusco — Sun, 22 May 2011 12:34:44 +0000

Originally posted 2008-04-15 14:26:57.

By Jim Fusco:

Thanks for stopping by for your Tuesday edition of the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!

Today, I bring you a song written by Neil Young, “Cowgirl in the Sand”. Not only is this song one of his most famous, but it’s also generally well-known among country-rock music fans.

The version I’m doing is derivative of the version the Byrds did on their reunion album from 1975. That album isn’t wonderful by any means, but Gene Clark’s contributions are, of course, superb. He sings a great lead on this song, too. Gene Clark just had a great timbre to his voice. He could sing rock’n'roll music and country/western music with the best of them. Of course, Gene Clark was a great songwriter, too, both with the Byrds and on his own solo recordings. While searching around here on the music blog, be sure to click on Gene Clark’s category to see the other cover songs I’ve done written by him. If you’re not a fan now (or haven’t heard of him), I guarantee his original songs will get your attention.

This is one song that I never planned on doing, but came into my head one night, so I just sat down and did it! I think some people were a bit surprised that I busted this one out at our first live show as a trio the other day. My favorite aspect of the Byrds’ version of “Cowgirl In The Sand” is the harmonies on the chorus. I really hope that we can get those harmonies right in future performances, as I think that’s the flare the Byrds added to make the version their own.

Considering how the Byrds first started, it’s a bit surprising that they gravitated over to country rock like they did. They were initially marketed as a folk group, electrifying Bob Dylan songs like “Chimes of Freedom” and “Mr. Tambourine Man”. But, the band members of the Byrds, especially Chris Hillman, started out loving folk music in a different way- the classic, down-home country style. Chris Hillman is actually an accomplished mandolin player, and there is no better country guitarist than Roger McGuinn. Basically, they just threw an electric bass in Hillman’s hands and a 12-string electric Rickenbacker guitar in McGuinn’s hands, and they had a big hit band. In later albums, the band members of the Byrds would write original songs that had a country flare to them, including Chris Hillman’s “The Girl With No Name”, which I’ve also done a cover song music video of here on the music blog.

You may also notice the “incredible fluctuating hairdo” of myself- I recorded this song before getting a haircut, as you saw in the “Aware” cover video (of an original song) from last week.

I hope to do more Neil Young songs in the future and I hope this cover song video attracts some new viewers and music lovers to the Laptop Sessions live acoustic music video series!

“All The Things” (Byrds Acoustic Rock Cover Song) – The Laptop Sessions

Jeff Copperthite — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 14:00:59 +0000

Originally posted 2008-07-04 12:51:56.

By Jeff Copperthite:

Happy Friday and happy 4th to everyone! I hope today finds you ready to celebrate and watch some fireworks, eat some hamburgers and hot dogs, and just relax and enjoy the long weekend. I’m happy to see that you have selected laptopsessions.com as a place to visit today, and we thank you for that.

And no, I don’t have a cheesy patriotic song to bring you today, but I do have a cool cover song video to show you today. For the second time, I am covering a song by The Byrds called “All The Things” from their untitled album. I kid you not, that’s the name that is known by – (Untitled). It is a collection of live and studio tracks, and this is one of the studio tracks.

I first heard this song on a WCJM radio show called “Song for the New Millenium” which was a countdown style show that this song won. It really is a good tune and I think it has a good message for the holiday today.

Again, enjoy your holiday and come back tomorrow for another session by Jim Fusco. By the way, if you haven’t watched his original song from Wednesday, do so. It really is something else!

“The Girl With No Name” (Byrds Acoustic Rock Cover Song) – The Laptop Sessions

Jim Fusco — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:57:43 +0000

Originally posted 2008-04-24 13:42:11.

By Jim Fusco:

Okay, really obscure territory here on the music blog.

When my family was getting into the music of the Byrds back in 2000, we really went head-first and listened to every album they made throughout the 60s. Some were better than others because you could tell they were doing a lot of growing up, musically. Plus, many of their later-60s songs were very drug-tinged.

After Gene Clark left the band in late ’65 or early ’66, the band came out with one of their worst efforts, “5D”. I still liked most of the songs, but the playing was sloppy and they were high as a kite.

When we got to the superb “Younger Than Yesterday” LP (on Jim Fusco’s list of “Albums You Should Listen To”), I instantly gravitated to the songs of young Chris Hillman, bassist for the band. He is an amazing bass player, mostly because he was an accomplished mandolin and guitar player, so he took his soloing skills over to the bass for the Byrds.

I love his voice- it’s just so natural. There’s no weird accent. He doesn’t say the words in an odd way. He just sounds good, you know? His voice is nice and clear and I was happy that he was getting a chance to write more music for the Byrds. And, like in most bands, the songwriter usually sings his own original songs, so I was happier the more we listened to Byrds songs.

He wrote some of my absolute favorites: “Thoughts and Words”, “Have You Seen Her Face”, and “Time Between”, just to name a few. I plan on doing all of them in the future.

But for now, I give you this song off of “Younger Than Yesterday”, “The Girl With No Name”. It was a lot of fun to play and is a very short song. It’s funny that such a sweet sounding song was probably still influenced by drugs. I’m just guessing here, but “The girl who had no name” could mean a couple things: For starters, maybe this lady lived on one of those hippie communes where they said, “Hey man, why do I need to be labeled with a name? Can’t I just BE?” That’s a possibility. The other possibility, to me, could be that Hillman just didn’t bother asking for a name. Whether he was under the influence of something that impaired his judgement at the time is something only he can attest to.

I think the Byrds are a great band to do acoustic cover song versions of. Their songs had an interesting style. You could almost tell that they wrote their original songs on acoustic guitar and then found a way to translate them into the psychedelic sound of the time. “The Girl With No Name” is pretty straight-forward, so my acoustic version here for the music blog stays true to the original. That’s another reason why I love doing the Laptop Sessions video blog. In addition to reimagining popular songs acoustically, I like taking obscure songs and playing them for the world. They’re great songs and they deserve some fresh attention.

I’m gearing up for next week’s big “#1 Week”, in which (other than Original Wednesday) we’ll be playing only cover songs that hit Number One on the Billboard charts. Stay tuned for other great specialty weeks of cover song music videos coming soon, too!

“Here Without You” (The Byrds acoustic and 12-string electric cover song) – The Laptop Sessions

Jim Fusco — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:54:03 +0000

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to yet another Jim Fusco Tuesday here on the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog. Actually, tonight, you get two for the price of one: I have Chris Moore with me to record this session! And boy, did it come out great. If your connection can handle it, click the “HQ” button and listen to the better audio feed of this one. It’s in full stereo (I LOVE my microphone) and the levels are perfect!

And tonight debuts my brand new 12-string electric guitar! And what a way to bring it in. I knew I had to do a Byrds song. No, it’s not a Rickenbacher. Who can justify spending literally 8 times more for the same essential thing. My version is from Dean and I love it. It looks great and plays even better. The sound is there, too- just like all my favorite 12-string songs. Look for more in the future. I can’t wait to bust out my new lap steel guitar, as well. In a couple weeks, I’ll be getting an HD cam, so all my Laptop Sessions will be in high definition. How cool is that? At that point, I’ll be able to start my new mini-series entitled “Jim’s Guitars”- stay tuned.

Gene Clark wrote tonight’s song and it was off of the Byrds first album, “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Now, this isn’t the greatest album, but it really could have been. That is, if half the album weren’t Bob Dylan covers and other cover songs. Not to knock cover songs, but the songwriting of Gene Clark (and in the future, the rest of the band) was so far ahead of its time and his songs are simply timeless. This song takes me back to when I was at Wesleyan for 5 weeks in the summer of 2000. I was at a program called “CCY”, the Center for Creative Youth. Good fit, eh?

Anyway, those five weeks seemed like a whole lifetime at the time- everything that happened in one day seemed like a year. So, even not seeing someone for two days made it seem like you were living “here without you”. Needless to say, this song was all I listened to when I got back that summer.

I have to keep tonight’s post short because of my marathon video editing job last night. I need to catch up and this is my only opportunity. So, without further ado, I hope you enjoy the great effort put out by Chris and myself tonight on the Byrds’ classic song, “Here Without You”. You won’t be here without us for too long, as Jeff will be back on Thursday for another great cover song music video. Until next week!!

“This Wheel’s on Fire” (Bob Dylan/Byrds Acoustic Rock Cover Song) – The Laptop Sessions

Chris Moore — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:28:14 +0000

By Chris Moore:

I’ve been so excited recently to see what new bands Jim is going to introduce to the blog — I mean, you really have no idea from one day to the next which band he’ll tap in to. At this point, he’s done so many different bands that it would actually be just as much a surprise to see him break out a classic standby, such as the Beach Boys. And, to prove how excited I am about these new bands…

…I’m going to contribute a Bob Dylan song!

Big surprise, I realize. (For those of you who don’t watch regularly, I’m a big Dylan fan and have recorded more Dylan covers than any other band!) But I have my reasons, I promise. First and foremost, today is the official release date of The Bootleg Series, Vol. 8: Rare and Unreleased: 1989-2006. I’ve only had time to listen to the first two thirds of the first disc, but already I’m really enjoying it. I’ve been concentrating so much on the new Ben Folds album, Way to Normal, that I was loath to take it out of my CD player. But I’ve already fallen in love with Dylan’s work, even after hearing the first four tracks. The version of “Mississippi,” one of my favorite songs of all time, is entirely different. Then, the version of “Most of the Time” sounds less like the 1989 track I know and love and more like a track out of 1963; it’s entirely different, and yet in typical Dylan fashion, it’s entirely amazing. Following an interesting little piano demo of “Dignity,” Dylan’s first take of “Born in Time” is — as the liner notes suggest — really the definitive version.

To be honest, I think the set might be worth the purchase if only for the “Born in Time” take and the new single “Dreamin’ of You,” an unreleased song from the Time Out of Mind sessions. When I got home from a meeting late tonight, my first inclination was to record a song that was (a) comfortable for me to play, so I could get to bed on time, and (b) a Dylan song.

This fits both criteria!

That’s all for me for now, but you can fill your Laptop Sessions cavity with Jeff Copperthite’s offering tomorrow, Jim Fusco’s video on Thursday, and then I’ll be back.

See you next session!