The Beatles I Feel Fine has been a staple for the band since before we were “the band,” dating back to our porch party days! Even back then we somehow started doing it as this reggae-bluegrass mashup!
Rich: “An original ZFB Halloween porch party stomper since the early oughts! We'd like to congratulate beer for its assistance as co-arranger of this tune. The reggae-hillbilly genre is gonna catch on with them there Tik-Tok-ers! Take it, mon!”
Pete: “Apologies to the Fab Bour for messing with this classic, but we've been dabbling with this one since we would jam on the porch in Wauchula, so it was inevitable for it to eventually be recorded. Alan Stegeman, our own Billy Preston, does some remarkable work on steel drums and trumpet, and Steve and Rich bring this odd cover from reggae to bluegrass in a seamless work of magic, highlighting our self-avowed title of ”masters of all genres." In the end, I think it feels fine."
Steve: “This is a song we've been doing since before we were Zen Fuse Box. I have great memories of performing this at Pete's Halloween Porch Parties, and I can't imagine how many beers we had before we decided that a great way to handle this Beatles tune was to make it a reggae, and then go into bluegrass. If there's another cover of this tune like ours, I'd love to hear it. On this one we used our guest instrumentalist, Alan Stegeman, to great effect on trumpet and EWI steel drums. I recall that Pete originally sang the lead vocal down an octave, but then decided after the first mix to redo the vocal up an octave and I'm glad he did! Another highlight for me is the intense 12-string strumming on the bluegrass section, and how that plays with my slide guitar fills. Some little ”Easter Eggs" to consider at the “Be right back, Bob” spoken line towards the beginning which came from a session where we were just quoting all the Blues Brothers dialogue we could recall. Also check out the nod to the Monkees “Last Train to Clarksville” at the end of the song.
Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/4Qg4IwUSBHJVJ1eKFhajHO?si=e8604892ba624430
Listen on YouTube Music: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=YXgAG_YSp-4&si=bZAG4dHXsTEFbcTx
Listen on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/song/i-feel-fine/1704038204