Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

Baby Boomer Hits

When I have the worst sinus headache ever and can’t breathe through either nostril because of allergies, I’m reduced to using the e-mails from one of my sisters. But before that, one Sentential Link that struck me:

[Gram] Parsons is such a cutie in those old pics, that it almost makes you wonder what he’d look like had he lived. Would he have the rugged, survived-the-hard-life handsomeness of Kris Kristofferson?
Or the perennial hit-by-several-speeding-trains-simultaneously, lucky-to-be-alive-and-upright look of Keith Richards?

It was fun being a baby boomer . . . until now. Some of the artists of the
60’s are revising their hits with new lyrics to accommodate aging baby boomers:

They include:

Herman’s Hermits — Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Walker.

Ringo Starr — I Get By With a Little Help From Depends.

The Bee Gees — How Can You Mend a Broken Hip?

Bobby Darin — Splish, Splash, I Was Havin’ a Flash.

Roberta Flack — The First Time Ever I Forgot Your Face.

Johnny Nash — I Can’t See Clearly Now !

Paul Simon — Fifty Ways to Lose Your Liver

The Commodores — Once, Twice, Three Times to the Bathroom.

Marvin Gaye — Heard I need the Grape Nuts.

Procol Harem — A Whiter Shade of Hair!

Leo Sayer— You Make Me Feel Like Napping.

The Temptations — Papa’s Got a Kidney Stone.

Abba — Denture Queen !

Tony Orlando — Knock 3 Times On The Ceiling If You Hear Me Fall.

Helen Reddy — I Am Woman, Hear Me Snore !

Leslie Gore — It’s My Procedure, and I’ll Cry If I Want To!

And everyone’s favorite:

Willie Nelson — On the Commode Again
ROG

ROG

Mother’s Day

According to Peace X Peace:

Mothers Day is celebrated in many countries on various dates throughout the year. Still, North Americans are not alone in observing the second Sunday in May. We’re joined by Anguilla, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bonaire, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Grenada, Honduras, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Latvia, Malta, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe! So to mothers in these nations, to mothers everywhere else, and to everyone who ever had a mother, we send our love and greetings.

Love to my mom in North Carolina, who I’ve actually seen in the last six months.

Love to my mother-in-law, who actually mowed our lawn with ther power mower while I was away last week.

Love to Lydia’s mom, Carol. Funny thing, that phrase. Although lots of people refer to her as Lydia’s mom, she doesn’t like it it when I say it, maybe because it falsely implies that 1) Carol and I aren’t married (we are) and/or 2) Lydia isn’t my daughter (she is).

Hello to all you mothers, old and new; some have said these things never quite as efficiently.

Happy Mother’s Day.

ROG

ROG

Music covers QUESTION

There was a 90-minute discussion on the Coverville podcast, episode 450, about cover music. Brian, the host, posed several questions of the panel of fellow podcasters of cover music. I listened to it some weeks ago, so not all the particulars are fresh in my mind. Still, here are a couple questions inspired by that podcast.

1. What IS a cover version? For instance (and this was on the show), is Eric Clapton doing Layla considered a cover of the Derek and the Dominoes version? The panel thought not.

2. How about when a songwriter writes the song, gives it to another artist, THEN records it? I believe Gene Pitney’s Hello Mary Lou, recorded by Ricky Nelson before Pitney recorded it, would qualify. Which one is the cover? I don’t know.

3. Or what if Ronnie Spector took a Ronettes song such as Be My Baby and sang background vocals on a more contemporary artist? I think that WOULD be a cover?

4. What makes a good cover song? Sometimes, but not always, a different point of view – a female singing what had been a song previously performed by a male – will help. It cannot be a slavish imitation of the original; what’s the point? Often the remake features faster or slower tempos, unusual instrumentation or other qualities.

5. What is the first cover song that you really enjoyed that you recognized as a cover? Motown folks were always covering each other, but mine was We Can Work It Out, Stevie Wonder’s cover of the Beatles’ tune.
ROG

ROG

The Mail Failed

Damn! I just realized that Jenna Bush is getting married tomorrow AND SHE FORGOT TO SEND MY INVITATION! I hear that Crawford, Texas is very nice this time of year.

Or, more likely to the Post Office lost it. And they have the nerve to raise the postal rates starting Monday, May 12 to 42 cents for the first ounce, 17 cents each for the next few ounces, and 27 cents for a postcard. I use so few stamps any more that I still have 37-cent and 39-cent stamps, plus one of those First Class stamps, the denomination of which I have no idea. Speaking of no idea, lots of people I’ve talked to seem unaware of the rate change. I wonder if the Post Office still has those “forever” stamps?

Oh, and Laura’s been multitasking so well this week, playing mother of the bride and working on foreign policy. To be fair, Myanmar has been her issue for a while, and the devastation there is awful. But why does she insist on calling the country Burma?

ROG

ROG

Copyright Orphans

Paul Rapp “is an intellectual-property lawyer with offices in Albany and Housatonic, Mass. He teaches art-and-entertainment law at Albany Law School, and regularly appears as part of the Copyright Forum on WAMC’s Vox Pop.” He writes a regular column on intellectual property rights.

His most recent column addresses the “Orphan Works” copyright and potential legislation regarding it. What is an orphan work? Paul cites Meredith L. Patterson’s Radio Free Meredith where she uses this example about “your parent’s wedding pictures from 1955. You want to publish them? Guess what? The copyrights are probably owned by the photographer! Who was who? And is now where? You don’t know? Uh-oh.” The proposed bill, H.R.5889, the Orphan Works Act of 2008, seeks to provide “limitation[s] on remedies in cases involving orphan works.”

Rapp wrote just before the actual legislation was introduced, but still got it right. “The legislation will…seek to rectify the problem of lingering, abandoned copyrights, to loosen this stranglehold of ghosts on our culture, by allowing the reuse of pre-existing materials in situations where after a reasonably diligent effort, no copyright owner has been located. If, after the work is re-published, a copyright owner shows up and says ‘that’s mine’, the copyright owner will be entitled to a reasonable licensing fee for the use, but won’t be able to stop the use.”

If this legislation had been enacted, the case about the use of the street artist’s picture for their business that one of my library colleagues wrote about last month would almost certainly have applied.

Rapp, BTW, is a/k/a Lee Harvety Blotto, drummer for the legendary Albany band, Blotto.ROG

ROG
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