A day early, I know… but how about some Pogues in celebration of St. Patrick’s day tomorrow!
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From BB’s 1967 variety special with Serge Gainsbourg:
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Isn’t on youtube and can’t embed from archive.org here apparently, so I’m making it hard for you but here’s my selection:
Casper Reardon and His Group - What Is This Thing Called Love? (Cole Porter)
I came across this one looking for public-domain music on archive.org to use in wedding videos so I could upload them to youtube without having to use stock music or the like (for the clients, I use music they played at the wedding, or that they specifically request, and those versions can’t go on youtube or facebook).
Turns out, as you may guess, there is barely anything that is truly public domain - this (and many other things) were previously marked as public domain on archive.org and are no longer described as such, because they aren’t. Amazingly, the video I uploaded including this song was flagged by youtube for the music - it has never been reissued, but iirc Columbia has the copyright and has it in some form in its digital archives in a way that can be recognized by youtube.
(Fortunately it also said something like the copyright holder isn’t enforcing their claim - if they do in the future, then there will be ads on my video and the revenue goes to them, which is a step below taking videos down and probably explains why so much music not uploaded by the copyright holders still exists on youtube - they’re still making money on it!)
In any case, I found the recording to be firstly very unique, but most importantly, utterly, utterly charming.
There are a couple of videos of Casper Reardon (Jazz Harpist!) on youtube that are worth checking out - he died young and there isn’t a ton of material, and this is by far my favorite song but it’s all good.
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Nina Paley, among others, has had struggles where they have used music which is most definitely public domain… but companies have claimed copyright anyhow. She fought back and won. Others may not find it worth it, of course.
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I think the issue in this case is that the recording and publication dates are unknown, so the person who recorded it and uploaded it to archive.org may have just hoped for the best and/or feigned ignorance when they marked it as public domain. Basically I think they considered it abandonware, which of course is not an actual legal status. When I chose to use the song in my video it was because I loved the song, so I just didn’t think about it too much and figured I could get away with it.
I suspect it’s also quite complicated in a case like this anyway because you have to consider Cole Porter’s copyright for the base song, Casper Reardon’s copyright for the arrangement, and the copyright of the performance/recording all separately. (I could easily be wrong about how it works, honestly I don’t know). The Cole Porter song itself is not public domain and a little bit of sleuthing reveals that the recording must be from between 1933 and 1941, so that isn’t either even though Reardon died in 1941 and isn’t around to collect royalties (nor is the record label).
Of course, it’s patently obvious that everything about this should already be in the public domain!
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This jazz waltz was written by Duke Ellington for “Anatomy of a Murder.”
Words were added later by the talented Miss Peggy.
Here she is singing them…
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Apparently there is a non-black and white and rotoscoped video for this song:
I’m going out on a limb and guess this version was made first, before he broke into the US market. It’s interesting to compare the two.
Is it still possible to climb on the lions in Trafalgar Square?
Respighi night…
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I’ve found myself in need of calm recently and this does it for me… good old Renaissance polyphony.
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Where were you in '72?
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If it was February of '72, I was in the hospital, when my mom gave birth to me… 
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15 years from the start of the life queue.
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I wanted to say watching Zappa at the Agrodome in Vancouver, but that was July of '71; I wanted to say watching Mahavishnu Orchestra at Place des Arts in Montreal, but that was January of '73. Sly and the Family Stone, and a bill of Mahogany Rush and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, both at the Montreal Forum, does sound about right…
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Spent the majority of the year in utero, myself.
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Warning: flashing lights
SUPERFRUIT’s fantastic song from their album, Future Friends.
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Gosh… What must Anton LaVey have thought?
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