Episode 2 Status
I'm now entering the home stretch of writing for the second episode, and hoping to have it online in early December. I'm also planning to launch a KickStarter campaign at the same time. Things will be probably be quiet from me up until then. To be notified when the next episode is up you can subscribe to this site's feed or follow me on Twitter. Here's a whole bunch of books I'm reading. These will influence parts three and four. Suggestions for further reading are welcome.
- Copyrights and Copywrongs, Siva Vaidhyanathan
- Common as Air, Lewis Hyde
- In Praise of Copying, Marcus Boon (also available as a free download)
- The Soul of Creativity, Roberta Kwall
- The Anxiety of Influence, Harold Bloom
- Pirate's Dilemma, Matt Mason
- The Master Switch, Tim Wu
Part 1 Corrections & Clarifications
If there's anything else you think should be included, please leave a comment. These corrections will be posted alongside the video and perhaps integrated into a v2 edit. Corrections
- The Sugarhill Gang samples the bass riff from Chic’s “Good Times” in the 1979 hit “Rapper’s Delight”. The Sugar Hill Gang reperformed the bassline from "Good Times," they didn't sample it.
- No evidence that Daft Punk sampled "Good Times."
- In Zeppelin's defense, they never sued anybody. Zeppelin sued Schooly D for sampling "Kashmir" in "Signifying Rapper." Zep also threatened to sue over Little Roger and the Goosebumps's novelty tune, "Gilligan's Island (Stairway)."
Clarifications
- The term remix originally applied to music. It rose to prominence late last century during the heyday of hip-hop... Several people have pointed out that remixing actually started in Jamaican dance hall music and was imported into New York dub and disco. This is true but I would argue that "it rose to prominence... during the heyday of hiphop" is still correct. The hiphop era is when musical cut-and-paste exploded – it was the major cultural event after which nothing would be the same.
- To explain, let’s start in England in 1968. Some argue that many examples predate 1968. I agree but what I was meaning to say was more like, "We could start this story at any point in history, but let's go with 1968." If I do another version of the video, I might rephrase this somehow.
Walking On Eggshells
The 24-minute documentary "Walking on Eggshells" by Jacob Albert, Ryan Beauchamp and Brendan Schlagel covers many of the same ideas I'm exploring.
Everything is a Remix Part 1 Transcript
This is a transcript of the video "Everything is a Remix" Part 1.
Remix. To combine or edit existing materials to produce something new
The term remix originally applied to music. It rose to prominence late last century during the heyday of hip-hop, the first musical form to incorporate sampling from existing recordings.
Early example: the Sugarhill Gang samples the bass riff from Chic’s “Good Times” in the 1979 hit “Rapper’s Delight”.
Rapper’s Delight, The Sugarhill Gang
Good Times, Chic
Since then that same bassline has been sampled dozens of times.
The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash Grandmaster Flash
Everything’s Gonna be Alright Father MC
It’s All Good Will Smith
2345Meia78 Gabriel O Pensador
Around the World Daft Punk
Skip ahead to the present and anybody can remix anything — music, video, photos, whatever — and distribute it globally pretty much instantly.
You don’t need expensive tools, you don’t need a distributor, you don’t even need skills. Remixing is a folk art — anybody can do it. Yet these techniques — collecting material, combining it, transforming it — are the same ones used at any level of creation. You could even say that everything is a remix.
To explain, let’s start in England in 1968.
Part One: The Song Remains the Same
Jimmy Page recruits John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, and John Bonham to form Zed Zeppelin. They play extremely loud blues music that soon will be known as—
Wait, let’s start in Paris in 1961.
William Burroughs coins the term “heavy metal” in the novel “The Soft Machine,” a book composed using the cut-up technique, taking existing writing and literally chopping it up and rearranging it. So in 1961 William Burroughs not only invents the term “heavy metal,” the brand of music Zeppelin and a few other groups would pioneer, he also produces an early remix.
Back to Zeppelin.
By the mid-1970s Led Zeppelin are the biggest touring rock band in America, yet many critics and peers label them as… rip-offs. The case goes like this.
The opening and closing sections of “Bring it on Home” are lifted from a tune by Willie Dixon entitled — not coincidentally — “Bring it on Home.”
Bring it on Home (Page, Plant)
Bring it on Home (Dixon) Performed by Sonny Boy Williamson
“The Lemon Song” lifts numerous lyrics from Howlin’ Wolf’s “Killing Floor.”
The Lemon Song (Page, Plant)
Killing Floor (Burnett)
“Black Mountain Side” lifts its melody from “Blackwaterside,” a traditional arranged by Bert Jansch.
Black Mountain Side (Page)
Blackwaterside (Traditional, Arranged Jansch)
“Dazed and Confused” features different lyrics but is clearly an uncredited cover of the same-titled song by Jake Holmes. Oddly enough, Holmes files suit over forty years later in 2010.
Dazed and Confused (Page)
Dazed and Confused (Holmes)
And the big one, “Stairway to Heaven” pulls its opening from Spirit’s “Taurus.” Zeppelin toured with Spirit in 1968, three years before “Stairway” was released.
Stairway to Heaven (Page, Plant)
Taurus (California)
Zeppelin clearly copied a lot of amount of other people’s material, but that alone, isn’t unusual. Only two things distinguished Zeppelin from their peers.
Firstly, when Zeppelin used someone else’s material, they didn’t attribute songwriting to the original artist. Most British blues groups were recording lots of covers, but unlike Zeppelin, they didn’t claim to have written them.
Secondly, Led Zeppelin didn’t modify their versions enough to claim they were original. Many bands knock-off acts that came before them, but they tend to emulate the general sound rather than specific lyrics or melodies. Zeppelin copied without making fundamental changes.
So, these two things
Covers: performances of other people’s material
And knock-offs: copies that stay within legal boundaries
These are long-standing examples of legal remixing. This stuff accounts for almost everything the entertainment industry produces, and that’s where we’re headedin part two.
Written and Mixed by Kirby Ferguson
Follow this project on Twitter Twitter.com/RemixEverything
Full sources, references, and purchase links at EverythingisaRemix.info
GoodieBag.tv
Wait, one last thing. In the wake of their enormous success, Led Zeppelin went from the copier to the copied. First in the 70s with groups like Aerosmith, Heart and Boston, then during the eighties heavy metal craze, and on into the era of sampling. Here’s the beats from “When the Levee Breaks” getting sampled and remixed.
When the Levee Breaks Led Zeppelin
Rhymin’ and Stealin’ Beastie Boys
Return to Innocence Enigma
Lyrical Gangbang Dr. Dre
Kim Emininem
In Zeppelin’s defense, they never sued anybody.
Hi, I’m Kirby, I made the video you just watched, Everything is a Remix. If you enjoyed the video please head over to EverythingisaRemix.info and donate some money. Anything you can muster would be greatly appreciated and will help me dedicate time to completing the remaining three episodes – it’s going to be a four part series. The site has plenty of complimentary information that I think you might find interesting as well. You can also find links to songs and videos and stuff from the video. If you happen to like them you can go there and purchase them. It’s also a good way to keep up with the latest with what’s going on with the series. I think that’s it. Okay, thank you for watching and I’ll see you next time.
Guest Post: John Woods
A guest post adapted from an email by songwriter John Woods of Shine: A Burlesque Musical and The Wet Spots. Noting Led Zeppelin as the first folks who essentially covered without attribution is an interesting distinction. In popular folk & blues music – going back centuries – 'remixing' has been going on in the form of putting new lyrics to familiar chords and melodies, lyrics that are often funny and more immediately relevant than the ones they're replacing. (In that sense, Weird Al is the most traditional songwriter of the late 20th century.) Inevitably, slight changes will occur to the melodies and the chords after years of lyrical mutations and the songs would change.
This starts to get complicated when we bring copyright and royalty into the picture. These laws were designed to work with a Tin Pan Alley professional songwriting culture that was producing neo-classical/jazz hybrid pieces for the hit parade and musical theater. While these folks might lift a piece of melody here and there, it was fairly easy to establish if a piece was overall harmonically and melodically original, and afford it legal copyright.
Rock music came out of folk and blues traditions that had been remixing for centuries. But there hadn't been any money involved in these traditions. Nor was there an idea of a professional class of performers in these genres until the advent of recording. Music was more of a social- rather than performance-based phenomenon. Everyone could sing along and every instrumentalist could take a verse. In such a culture, the idea of a song as a property is irrelevant. No-one invented it, no-one owned it, people could fuck with it, speed it up, put new words in, etc. We still have this phenom in popular jokes that make the rounds (who owns "knock knock, who's there?" or urban myths?).
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Everything is a Remix, Part 1
If you enjoy this video and would like to support the series, please take a moment to donate.
A list of errors in this episode can be found here. These corrections might be incorporated into a second (and final) cut.
You can also view this video on Vimeo or as an Ogg Theora download.
Songs Used in Everything is a Remix Part 1
0:04 Star Wars Theme, John Williams 0:11 Hey Ladies, Beastie Boys (the version used in the video is an official remix that no longer seems to be commercially available)
0:32 Rapper’s Delight, The Sugarhill Gang
0:40 Good Times, Chic
0:48 The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash, Grandmaster Flash
0:54 Everything’s Gonna be Alright, Father MC
0:59 It’s All Good, Will Smith
1:05 2345Meia78, Gabriel O Pensador
1:10 Around the World, Daft Punk
1:16 No Pause, Girl Talk
1:36 Your Time is Gonna Come, Led Zeppelin
2:06 T&T, Ornette Coleman
2:27 The Ocean (Live), Led Zeppelon
2:37 Bring it on Home, Led Zeppelin
2:47 Bring it on Home, Sonny Boy Williamson
2:53 The Lemon Song, Led Zeppelin
3:00 Killing Floor, Howlin' Wolf
3:08 Black Mountain Side, Led Zeppelin
3:15 Blackwaterside, Bert Jansch
3:21 Dazed and Confused, Led Zeppelin
3:34 Dazed and Confused, Jake Holmes
3:40 Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin
3:57 Taurus, Spirit
4:11 Black Country Woman, Led Zeppelin
4:37 The Rain Song, Led Zeppelin
5:53 When the Levee Breaks, Led Zeppelin
5:56 Rhymin’ and Stealin’, The Beastie Boys
6:01 Return to Innocence, Enigma
6:06 Lyrical Gangbang, Dr. Dre
6:12 Kim, Eminem
Welcome!
Hi everybody and thanks for visiting. I haven't completed all the information here yet, but everything should be in order by the 20th. In the meantime, you can find links to all the songs used in the video here. The References section is more or less done. And the Sources page is well underway but still a bit of a mess.
If you have any feedback on this series, please feel free to email me at fergie at gmail dot com.
Best, Kirby