Re: [ARSCLIST] reg email

["Steven C. Barr(x)" <stevenc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

see end...
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "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
>
I have NO idea from whence the original emanated (If I Knock the "L" Out
Of Kelly, eh...?!) but I tend to agree therewith. The Rolling Stones'
"Satisfaction" was not a direct copy of anything, since it was NOT in
a standard 12-bar-blues format...although, given the vast number of
songs written using the same standard I/IV/V7 chords during both the
"heyday" of blues music and the succeeding rock'n'roll era, it is
possible that one or more earlier tunes used the same chord progression.

In any case, "Satisfaction," as a major AM-radio hit, certainly was
influential in US music...even though recorded in the UK. In fact,
if British recordings are disallowed, we are forced to officially
exclude the Beatles...who effectively defined "rock music" during
their brief existence...!

Steven C. Barr