[ARSCLIST] reg email

[Eugene DeAnna <edea@xxxxxxx>]

Dear Mr. Kelly,

thanks for your email regarding the CBS Evening News story on the National Recording Registry.  As you point out, the criteria for the Registry are clearly met by the 'Stones recording so I won't repeat that here.  Whether it also belongs on a British Library registry would be for the British to decide though.  

As for the inclusion of "Satisfaction" being a form of "plagiarism," I would have to disagree with you.  In addition to their cultural and aesthetic significance in the U.S., I can't think of any rock musicians who have had more success interpreting and re-styling American roots music and early rock and roll than the Rolling Stones, so arguments about nationality fall particularly flat in this context.  And where would you draw the line?  Should we only preserve Amercan composers and leave recordings of say, Mozart and Beethoven, to the Austrians?  The registry also includes a Cuban recording of a song that would later become a seminal American dance song, and a tune by a Ukranian fiddler who was very influential on Ukaranian-American players.  Not to mention a Beatles record.  

This is consistant with our mission. The criterial for the Recording Registry puposefully allow for non-US recordings.  The scope of the Library of Congress' collections represent the scope of Congress' interests and the national and international interests of the United States.  So unlike many National Libraries, LC maintains a collection that is truly global.  

Thanks again for your email. Glad you enjoyed the piece.

Sincerely,

Gene DeAnna
Head, Recorded Sound Section
Library of Congress 

Gene DeAnna
Head, Recorded Sound Section
MBRS Division
Library of Congress
(202) 707-3108