By Jeff:
Welcome to your Thumpin’ Thursday edition of The Laptop Sessions – not pre-empted by power failure!

I’ve got a great song tonight that is an album cut from The Goo Goo Dolls.  They are another band I pretty much grew up with, and among the few that I have seen in concert more than once.

Tonight’s song is called “Burnin’ Up” and it’s the 2nd track.  Robby Takac, their bassist, sings lead on this song.  It’s funny that most of the songs that become singles for radio play are sung by their guitarist Johnny Rzeznik.  They have even acknowledged that the songs he sings tend to have more commercial appeal.  Takac was actually the original lead singer and sang most of the songs all the way through their first 3 albums.

One of the songs I have lined up for the future is actually a song from an even earlier album and it’s a humorous song as well.  If you know their catalog, you will get the song right away (and it’d be appropriate for an acoustic cover – i.e. there is no mention of a baseball bat).

I got to go out golfing for the first time this year today, and shot a miserable +15 on a par 3 course.  I did par one hole and get a couple of bogeys, but for the most part I played above par golf.  I hope I don’t play this bad tomorrow when I play 9 holes at a regular course.  I also have to do training for the next two weeks, so I may be uploading some videos early, and writing posts ahead of time.  If you enjoy some early previews, be sure to check my youtube channel.

Well that’s it for this week.  Seeya next week!

Introduction:  G-Em7-CaddD-G

Verse: G – Em – C – G

Chorus: C – D – G – Em

“Burnin’ Up Inside…” – F-Em-D

Bridge: Em (x3) Bm (end on C)

Verse 1:

Said you’re burnin’ up inside

No one seems to tell

You’re living from a personalized

Manual from hell

Chorus:

Life seems pretty easy when it’s from my easy chair

And you’re burnin’ up inside and no one cares

Verse 2:

Said you’d have enough this time

This town don’t treat you well

You always find coincidence

Well I do parallel

Chorus 2:

Life seems pretty easy when it’s from my easy chair

And you’re burnin’ up inside (x3)

And you hurt me..

Bridge/Guitar Solo

Verse 3:

Come and take my hand tonight

I’ll show you where to start

’cause every word that left your lips

Like a needle through my heart

Chorus 2

Outro

(’cause you’re burnin’ up inside) Hurt my eyes (x4)

End on G

By Jim Fusco:

Welcome, welcome to another edition of The Laptop Sessions with me, Jim Fusco!

I have a big announcement that will come very shortly after this post, so I hope you’ll stay tuned and check it out.  It’s quite a milestone!

First, let me say that I had a GREAT weekend.  We had my best college friends over for the first time on Saturday night and ate, talked, played a Family Guy DVD trivia game, and watched “The Hangover”, which I loved even more the second time around.

Then on Sunday, I went to my favorite little Mexican restaurant in Wallingford with my father, then we both hiked up to Danbury for the TNA Wrestling show at WCSU.  IT WAS AWESOME!!  They had great matches, there were a ton of stars there, and I got to meet many of the wrestlers.  Turns out that Velvet Sky and Madison Rayne are two of the nicest ones–and they play the meanest ones on TV!  I also got to meet Jeff Jarrett and got my photo taken with The Phenomenal AJ Styles.  I even got to hold the Championship belt!!

It was quite a weekend, so I knew it would be a tough week to make up for it.  Things are very busy at work and I’ve been keeping a steady pace on my nighttime work, as well.  It’s a new strategy I’m trying that’s working well so far.  Thankfully I recorded this video last week- my mood would’ve been much different if not.

Which finally brings me to tonight’s video:

“Iris” is one of those songs that I kind of knew, but never knew who did it.  I was surprised to find out what a big hit it was.  In fact, it holds the record for consecutive weeks as the Number One played song on the radio (13) according to Billboard.  It made it to the Top 10 on the charts and stands as Goo Goo Dolls’ biggest hit.

After Laptop Sessions alumnus Jeff Copperthite introduced me to this band on WCJM Free Internet Radio shows many years ago, it took me about ten years to actually break down and buy an album.  I purchased “Dizzy Up the Girl”, which was their biggest album (probably because it had “Iris” on it).  Actually, I didn’t realize this song was on it- not exactly the best name for a song when it doesn’t even mention that word in the lyrics.  I bet it would’ve gotten to #1 if people knew the stinkin’ title!

Actually, Jeff played many tracks (especially on our personal BSYNHO shows for our wives) from the Goo Goo Dolls that were album cuts and lesser hits.  So, I knew a few others, including a couple Jeff’s already posted here on the music blog.  I really, really enjoyed “Dizzy Up the Girl”, so I went out and bought two more of their albums (for like four bucks apiece, too): “A Boy Named Goo” and “Superstar Car Wash”.  But, I haven’t listened to them yet because I’m currently in a phase from another band we haven’t covered yet on the blog.  Let’s just say I’m “dying” to record a video from them!  You’ll find out soon.

Anyway, like I said, “Iris” isn’t my favorite tune from Goo Goo Dolls so far, but I couldn’t believe Jeff hadn’t done their biggest hit (I’m assuming it’s because of the high range in the chorus), so I wanted to snatch it up.  It’s always great to claim a video you know will be popular.

Well, I’m running lean on time tonight, but am really enjoying the amount of sleep I’ve been getting.  I mean, I worked today, cooked dinner, worked again tonight, and posted a Laptop Session.  Now, I’m off to watch some more “Arrested Development” with my wife and brother, then it’s off to bed for 8 hours of sleep.  Now THAT’S some Operations Planning if I do say so myself!   Anyone from work would be cracking-up at that one…

Until next week!

By Jeff Copperthite:

This is the second time thsi year that i’ve been unable to post because of health reasons.  Earlier in the year (near the start of this project) I had food poisoning that put me out of my scheduled day, and last week I felt a cold coming on.  I got around that by posting an instrumental (that a lot of people liked, which was good), but on Thursday, I could barely talk.  How I taught this past week is beyond me.  Even today my voice is not 100%.

But the posts must go on.  And therefore, i’m making up for lost time by posting 4/7 of the days of this week!

And yes, I used a fraction.

Today I’ve got an obscure album cut from The Goo Goo Dolls’ album “Dizzy Up The Girl”, which is called “Extra Pale”.  One thing i’ve always been amazed by is that every single this band has released has had their guitarist Johnny Rzeznik singing the song.  The people who do not own any GGD albums will think Johnny is lead singer/guitarist.  However, the bassist Robby also sings on many of the tracks and writes or co-writes as well.  This is one of those songs.  Robby’s songs are also shorter than most of the other songs.  This may be the shortest video i’ve ever done!

I tried my best to sing this song, but as you will hear my voice is not 100%.  I decided to throw in that caution in the beginning because I would worry people think I sound like that all the time!  It works for this song because it’s a naturally lower register.

Enjoy this tune, and thank you for coming out consistently to check out every video every day!

Tomorrow I’ll be back with another new band!