By Jim Fusco:
Hello everyone! Continuing with our last couple days of Christmas, we give you “Elf’s Lament”, a great song by Barenaked Ladies. We’ve always been happy with the way our live version came out, so I got the guys together to do a special acoustic version for the Laptop Sessions! This song was perfect for the band to do because it features vocal parts for three members of the band. Well, in this version, Mike isn’t sitting behind a large (and loud) drum set, so he got to sing the lead parts with the other three of us. I’ve always been a fan of songs where two or three members of the band get a chance to sing. Songs like “Two of Us” by the Beatles and “Walking On Air” by the Moody Blues (off of their amazing 1999 album, Strange Times) are great examples where you can hear all of the band members. And, my favorite bands are ones where each member gets a chance to shine.
Which brings me to the band that we covered tonight: Barenaked Ladies. Their Christmas album, “Barenaked for the Holidays’ is awesome. Four of the five (at the time) members wrote and sang lead vocals on songs throughout the album. That, to me, is the mark of a truly great band. You get so much variety in an album and that’s probably why I’m such a big fan of the Moody Blues, the Byrds, the Beatles, and the Beach Boys (after 1967). “Barenaked for the Holidays” features such classic songs as “Green Christmas” and Steven Page’s “Hanukkah Blessings”.
“Elf’s Lament” was originally done by Ed Robertson, Steven Page, and Michael Bublé. I’m not a huge fan of Bublé’s voice in this song- it just has an odd sound to it. And, saying his voice sounds odd next to Steven Page’s voice is really saying something. 🙂 So, we stuck Cliff with that part to sing. I got the Steven Page part. This song was so much fun to sing. It was a big hit on our Christmas concert CD and DVD set. For that show, we performed in front of over 60 people, including the mayor of our hometown of Wallingford, CT. It was one of the highlights of my musical career. We just had so much fun playing this song- I wish there were more songs like this that give everyone a chance to shine. I think everyone else in the band would’ve stayed more interested. Knowing you have a starring role makes you pay more attention for sure!
To learn more about our music, please visit http://jimfusco.com/albums.html. You can purchase our Christmas concert on either CD or DVD there. It’s jam-packed with 30 (yes, 30!) original and cover songs. I personally think it’s the best Christmas album you can buy for the money. I hope you enjoy tonight’s Barenaked Ladies cover song and hope you’ll come back for more great Christmas songs from the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog!