The internet
rules. Sharing ideas is the backbone of our society
and the internet (and computers in general) allows you
to do it so well and so fast that it has turned into
another form of entertainment unto itself.
Mind-boggling what the future will hold because of
it.
So last year Jay-Z
releases his supposedly final album "The Black Album"
35 years after my favorite album of all time, The
Beatles White Album. He also released versions of
every song a capella allowing DJ's to remix their own
beats and whatnot to his vocals. So a certain "DJ -
Danger Mouse" took The White Album, remixed it with
The Black Album...to of course make The Grey Album.
It's some gotta be the most creative (and illegal) use
of The Beatles Music I've ever heard.
He pressed 3,000
copies of it for promotional use only and it got quite
a bit of press. I first heard a clip of it on
MTV News and went searching for it in vain
through various search engines. Apparently Capitol
Records had no problem as they found them and
immediately issued the old cease and desist. As
I talk about cease and desist orders fairly often
in my entries, I thought I'd let you see what they
actually look like. This is what DJ - Danger Mouse
received from EMI a few days ago:
Jeff
Lowenberg
Vice
President Operations/Designated
Agent
Everyone's
Internet
2600
Southwest Freeway, Suite
500
Houston,
TX 77098
Re:
Unauthorized Use of Sound Recordings
Performed by the Beatles
Dear
Mr. Lowenberg:
It has
come to our attention that Andrew Baio is
currently exploiting sound recordings that
are owned and/or controlled by Capitol
Records, Inc. ("Capitol"). In particular,
it appears that Mr. Baio is using, without
authorization, on his website,
http://www.waxy.org/archive/2004/02/11/danger_m.shtml,
(the "Website"), copies of sound
recordings embodying performances of the
Beatles, including but not limited to
recordings of "Long, Long, Long," "While
My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Glass Onion,"
"Savoy Truffle," "Mother Nature's Son,"
"Helter Skelter," "Julia," "Happiness is
Warm Gun," "Piggies," "Dear Prudence,"
"Rocky Raccoon," "Revolution 1,"
"Revolution 9," "I'm So Tired," and "Cry
Baby Cry" (the "Capitol
Recordings").
Andrew
Baio's unauthorized exploitation of the
Capitol Recordings constitutes copyright
infringement, and renders Andrew Baio, and
any other company engaged in the
unauthorized exploitation of the Capitol
Recordings with Andrew Baio, liable for
all of the remedies provided by the
relevant laws occasioned by Andrew Baio's
unfair competition and dilution of our
valuable property.
I am
the agent authorized to act on behalf of
Capitol, the complaining party. It is our
understanding that Everyone's Internet,
Inc. is the Internet Service Provider for
Andrew Baio and the Website, and as such,
you are the authorized agent for service
of this notice in accord with The Digital
Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, 17
U.S.C. ? 512 et seq. (the "DMCA Notice")
for Everyone's Internet, Inc.
We
request that following your investigation
of this matter you provide us full remedy
under the DMCA Notice requirement,
including but not limited to,
expeditiously removing or disabling access
to our copyrighted material. Unless we
receive full and immediate compliance with
this demand within a reasonable amount of
time, we will be forced to consider
pursuing our other remedies at law and in
equity.
This
letter is written without prejudice to any
of our rights or remedies, all of which
are expressly reserved herein.
By
placing my signature herein, I state under
penalty of perjury that the information
contained in this notification is accurate
and that I am authorized to act on behalf
of the owner of an exclusive right of the
Copyright alleged to be
infringed.
Sincerely,
/S/:
Jonathan Campbell
This
electronic signature is made and adopted
with the intent to authenticate this
written agreement.
Jonathan
H. Campbell
Legal
and Business Affairs
EMI
Recorded Music, North America
150
Fifth Avenue
11th
Floor
New
York, NY 10011
Basically saying
if you produce one more of these discs we will summon
the ghosts of John and George and go medievel on your
ass. Because only 3,000 discs were made, that's about
as far as this will go assuming they don't press
anymore copies. You obey this order by all means. Of
course since this is the internet age those 3,000
copies will reach millions...
...and Friday
afternoon, Mr. Darrick Jordan (of Watterson Highschool
Football fame), gave me a link to a site that was
putting the songs up for the weekend and then taking
them down for fear of repercussions. It was was the
fastest connection. In 10 minutes I had
downloaded all 12 songs, burned them to CD and was
playin' em in my living room. It was a
rush.
The result? Hit
and miss. The remixes are almost all pretty creative
but I'm not the biggest fan of Jay-Z's lyrical
stylings. His productions are usually pretty good, but
of course here that doesn't come into play. He just
doesn't seem to have the perfectionist drive in
writing that of course Eminem has. I swear people will
never know how good Eminem is.
The most amazing
thing about the songs is every single musical sound is
from The White Album. It sounds like they put modern
beats over parts of the songs, but in fact Danger
Mouse sampleD actual snares and kicks from The White
Album and put it ALL together. It becomes a totally
different feel YET with familiar emotions attached to
songs we've loved for years. Track #3 is called Encore
and the opening part is to Lennon's "Oh
Yeah" from Glass Onion looped. It creates a feel
you can't imagine. You've never heard Glass Onion the
way this DJ has. What I'd love to hear is true
original lyrics put to these beats, because many of
these songs just don't fit. Meaning had Jay-Z heard
these backgrounds in his cans when he was performing
it he would've attacked it differently.
The
one great exception is Track #4, "Mother
Nature's Son" which is on the second half
of the video
I made. It's a song Jay-Z wrote
for his mom and the background is just
brilliantly matched to it. Tracks 3, 4, 6,
7 & 8 stood out the most for those of
you who have the songs too (and I'm sure
as hell not posting them). The end of the
last track is cool because he mixes Savoy
Truffle and "Can you take me back" (an
uncredited song that Paul started singing
a verse from during the session) together
and it matches perfectly but Jay-Z just
keeps talking over the whole damn thing.
Sucks.
It's wild because
I used the "Can you take me back" melody in a
song that I never released called "Ordinary Day" for
the "Hearing My Thoughts" CD. Crazy
huh?
Lotsa Beatles fans
are spammin' message boards with all this hate for DJ
- Danger Mouse who has defiled the good name of The
Beatles...whatever people. He ain't sellin' NIKE
SHOES. He's just messin' around and being creative. I
would love it if there was a project that remixed
whole Beatles albums in this style without the
rapping. So many people look at the whole
sampling/remixing thing as the talentless stealing
from the talented. In some cases, ahem puffy, that may
be true - but it's also a way of honoring music that
moves you. This guy heard all these rhythms and
movements in the song that The Beatles never dreamed
of and he re-mixed it into an art piece. It's a joy to
express yourself that way as an artist, just as it's a
joy to experience it as a spectator. I wish people
could just pay their royalties, give The Beatles a cut
and release this stuff. Unfortunately that will never,
ever happen with The Beatles. They are an institution
and will be for thousands of years. Those voices,
those chords, those recordings will never be
sanctioned by their estates to be "re-done" in
this way and that's too bad. No one would ever mistake
this as something The Beatles did, so I'm not sure
what it truly tarnishes.
It's amazing now
that I think of it. Re-mixing is illegal. You
can't just pay royalties, you have to get permission
from the artist. That's almost saying the person
creating the "new art" is completely talentless. Now
in the art world, that's not the case. If someone took
apart a Rubik's cube, glued it to a fire hydrant
wrapped in Hershey Bar wrappers and called it Scrotum
you could sell that. You wouldn't get sued by Hershey.
That's art! But remix and re-layer a song, or even
make an artsy cut of a film and try and sell that it's
completely illegal. I wonder why. Maybe because
the Rubik's Cube is being used for something other
than it's intended use? That makes it ok? You're still
re-selling it though. Interesting.
Anyway (man my
tangents are weird), the internet has changed the
world. Someone can make "The Grey Album" and at least
touch a few people. Someone can take Jar-Jar Binks out
of Episode 1 and give everyone a few laughs. It's like
renegade art. You have to sneak around the lawyers
while you basically draw a mustache on a picture of
the president. Ever see that picture of Mona Lisa
where when you hit the spacebar her boobs pop-out? I
mean would Da Vinci REALLY have wanted compensation
for the destruction of his good name? Makes you
wonder. He'd probably just be pissed you knew the big
secret of "the smile"...
Anyway, enjoy the
video. If you really want the 12 songs, they're easily
found on most filesharing programs. Let me know what
you think.
