People write songs for many reasons: to entertain, inform, celebrate, protest and sometimes just to make a profit.
Some songs are merely vanity pieces, produced to feature not a message but the messenger. But many composers and performers hope their songs will change the world or at least their listeners' view of it. Regardless of whether the songs become popular, historians, social scientists and other observers know that songs provide a valuable snapshot in time.
The Library's Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (M/B/RS) houses many of these recordings, copies of which are deposited with the Library through copyright registration. A search through the Library's indexes of published musical works offers an interesting sample of songs about historical events and current issues.
"We've received songs about train wrecks, the Titanic and the Challenger disaster," said Richard Handal, a sound recording playback technician.
Many other songs discuss political, and cultural events. M/B/RS and the Music Division have works about the Ku Klux Klan, the Know-Nothing Party and the Columbus quincentenary. The Music Division has more than 50 boxes of sheet music on World War II, some of which was written before the United States entered the war and has a distinctly isolationist bias.
Other works celebrate local historical events, such as the big gathering of steamboats in Cincinnati in 1992.
"The Music Division, which until 1978, included the recorded sound collections, now part of M/B/RS, retains every written piece of American music that comes through copyright deposit and is a published work," said Sam Brylawski, reference librarian in the division. "But much of the material the Library now receives comes not in written form but in other formats, such as LPs, CDs, laser disks or cassettes." This variety of formats reflects changes in deposit procedures legislated in the copyright law of 1976. The new law no longer requires songwriters to submit written scores of their work for copyright registration. The change has made it easier for musicians who do not read or write music to register their works. "This can be a disadvantage to scholars who wish to study the music in detail," Mr. Brylawski pointed out. "One cannot 'browse' a sound recording."
However, the more flexible copyright rule has also led to a huge increase in the number and variety of sound recordings submitted.
"Many of the songs come in on cassettes, which are the easiest and cheapest medium to use," said Mr. Handal, who has processed many of the cassettes. "They don't require use of a sound studio or a lot of high-tech recording equipment. A performer can record an entire tape's worth of songs in his or her basement and submit it for copyright. Many of the tapes are based on current events and 'hot' political and social issues. We've received songs about Dan Quayle, Hillary Clinton, Rodney King, Somalia, pro-abortion and antiabortion stances, and the Columbus quincentenary. We're also receiving a lot more of them than we ever had before; about 1,300 cassettes per month.
"Musicians don't have to produce a musical score or find the means to produce an expensive recording of their work to submit it for registration," Mr. Handal continued. "That means yesterday's news can be the subject of next month's new recording."
One of the most popular musical topics of late has been the Persian Gulf War. M/B/RS has received more than 140 cassettes of songs about the conflict and may soon have more than 200. The collection offers a variety of interesting perspectives on the conflict.
Most of them celebrate the United States' role in Desert Shield/Desert Storm and praise the troops' accomplishments.
"Freedom is our family name/We can conquer anything/It will all stand for right/God will give us power." sang Lovie Anne Grimes in the opening stanzas of "Freedom Is Our Family Name."
"We took the snake in the desert and everyone saw/If you mess with the Eagle you get the claw," boasted Duane Campbell in "Mess with the Eagle You Get the Claw."
"The dirty work is done," announced John L. Rogers in "Price of Freedom." "The desert war is won/We paid the price of freedom once again."
The tributes come in a variety of musical styles, from country, folk and inspirational Christian music, to blues, rap, reggae and heavy metal. But not all reflect pro-war fervor. A few of the songs, which may have been written by Persian Gulf veterans, sound ambivalent, perhaps even troubled, about the war. "Here I am in the land of forgotten soldiers/There's no way for me to be free," sang Ashley Black and Skippi Como in "Forgotten Soldier," while in "War Song," Dave Kraus offers a distinctly antiwar view: "Billions of dollars feed the war machine/Flesh and bone become the gasoline."
Michael Woodridge's "First Class to Saudi" is the tale of a peacetime recruit trapped in an unexpected piece of history: "Stepped off the plane in Saudi/Was like walking into hell/I joined up to pay my tuition." In "The Soldiers Are Still There," Robert Reames utters an enigmatic thought: "And the soldiers are still there/Trying desperately with all their soul/To kill the question that made this hole in our society."
Other songs cast the war as a kind of religious crusade. "Lord, there is trouble in our country and there is trouble across the sea/You know Satan and the radicals want to destroy us/Christians and patriots want to be free," sing Terri and Robert Walliczek in "Yellow Ribbons," while Max verna offers a different assessment in "Holy War": "It's a holy war, it's an oily war."
Several songs are noteworthy because they celebrate the growing contributions of female soldiers. The opening lines of "Momma's Gone to War" by Rick Roz and Lori Brandon read, "I write each night/Hope Mom will be all right," while Carolyn Raye sings of a soldier who endures "Sand in the food/Feeling kind of blue/But when the world is at war there's no complaining/A soldier's gotta do what she's gotta do." The song is dedicated to 1st Lt. Amy Beth Stuart, a MASH unit nurse who was photographed "napping with a Teddy Bear and an M16." The song ends, "Thanks for doing the job you were trained to do/The world knows women can cut it, thanks to you."
Although few would dispute that these songs about the Persian Gulf War are valuable for their historical and, in some cases, musical value, Mr. Brylawski pointed out that, but for the alertness of Richard Handal and fellow playback technician Neil Gladd, M/B/RS might not have added the cassettes to its collection. "I'm also grateful to our former intern, Max Shubert and M/B/RS cataloger Tom Nichols, who did a preliminary analysis of the tapes and compiled a table of titles, composers and first lines of many songs, which is a helpful tool for researchers who wish to survey the collection," Mr. Brylawski said. Mr. Nichols completed the finding aid and entered a collection-level bibliographic record to LC's data base to alert researchers to the collection.
"Although we'd like to keep every tape we receive, space and staff shortages prevent us from storing all of the recordings, each of which must eventually be recopied to preserve the material, which would otherwise deteriorate over several years," Mr. Brylawski said. "We ran across these cassettes in the process of 'deselecting' those that did not appear to be published because of their homemade appearance, lack of major recording labels or professional affiliations. We don't like to make such distinctions, but we simply cannot keep the 25,000 or more music items the Copyright Office receives each year.
"The only exceptions we make to this rule are recordings which, however primitive they may appear, deal with topical subjects, themes and events which may be of interest to historians, social scientists and other collectors in years to come," he added.
"This collection of cassettes is the largest set of topical recordings on any one subject that I've come across at the Library," said Mr. Handal. "I think they offer an interesting glimpse into the way many Americans felt about our country's role in the Persian Gulf war."
Qualified researchers who wish to listen to this collection of recorded music may visit the Recorded Sound Reference Center in the Madison Building, Room LM 113, during the Library's regular operating hours.
