Hello and welcome to another edition of the Laptop Sessions acoustic cover songs music video blog! We’re back again with a cover song video from the Traveling Wilburys- their most famous song, “Handle With Care”. When I was four years old, this song came out and it’s one of my first musical memories. Plus, it’s been one of my favorite songs for 20 years.
We’ve been playing this song live for years. It’s usually the full electric set, but we’ve done it live and acoustically here for the Laptop Sessions music blog. As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, the goal of the Laptop Sessions cover songs blog is twofold. First, we want to put an end to bad YouTube cover song videos forever. And second? We want to give a different take on our favorite songs. This track, though mostly acoustically based in the original recording, is still not the same without George Harrison’s amazing lead guitar part. But, we figured it would make the song sound different to only break out the acoustic guitars and the bongos for this cover song video.
One thing I love about this performance is the energy our band, Masters of the Universe (or MoU), puts into “Handle With Care”. From the video, you can tell that we’re all having a good time singing one of our favorite Traveling Wilburys songs. The harmonies, though not perfect (or complete, without band member Becky), are still pretty good. And sure, the bongos are a bit louder than we would’ve liked. But again, this was a fun acoustic live performance. I think that having more energy in a video recording is even better than getting it note-perfect. That’s one of the reasons why Masters of the Universe earned a nomination for Best Album of the Year by the New Haven Advocate in 2006. We made an album that consisted mostly of our live set of original songs. The songs sound great, but if we recorded everything separately, it probably would’ve come out much cleaner. But, the thing that made MoU’s album stand out from the rest was the energy we had. The songs would start out slowly and gradually get faster as it went on. You can tell that the band is having a good time when something like that happens. Plenty of people can play music in a technically correct manner. But, it’s something special when you’ve got a band firing on all cylinders, playing music together in a circle. You can really feel the energy in that album.
I know this has been requested before, so I hope you enjoy tonight’s Traveling Wilburys cover song! It’s my tribute to both George Harrison and Roy Orbison, and you know I’ll be doing more songs from George, Roy, and the Wilburys in the weeks to come!
To hear MoU’s original music, visit http://jimfusco.com/albums.html. To hear my original music, visit http://jimfusco.com.