[NewMusic] Library of Congress: National Recording Registry Announced

[Robair, Gino]

Some of you on the list will find this interesting (even if you've already
heard about it or heard the NPR piece on it a few months ago):

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
101 Independence Avenue SE
Washington DC 20540
Phone: (202) 707-2905
Fax: (202) 707-9199

RECORDINGS BY HISTORICAL FIGURES AND MUSICAL LEGENDS
ADDED TO THE 2006 NATIONAL RECORDING REGISTRY

Library of Congress Accepting Nominations for the 2007 Registry

What do President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, legendary performer and
songwriter Eubie Blake, Gershwin Prize-winning musician Paul Simon and The
Rolling Stones have in common?  Today, Librarian of Congress James H.
Billington named sound recordings made by them and 21 others to the National
Recording Registry to be preserved for all time.

Under the terms of the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, the
Librarian is responsible for annually selecting recordings that are
³culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant² to be placed in the
National Recording Registry. Recordings must be at least 10 years old.
This brings the number of recordings named to the registry to 225.

³Selecting 25 recordings from our extraordinary rich and varied sonic
history is a difficult task, but we take this charge seriously because it
showcases the diverse beauty, humanity and artistry found in the nation¹s
sound heritage,² said the Librarian in announcing the registry selections.
³Our challenge and duty to history remain, however, finding collaborative
and creative ways to preserve and make available this unmatched legacy for
modern and future generations.²

Nominations for the registry were gathered from members of the public, who
submitted suggestions online and from the National Recording Preservation
Board, which comprises leaders in the fields of music, recorded sound and
preservation. The board also assisted the Librarian with the review of
nominations.  The Library is currently accepting nominations for the 2007
National Recording Registry at the National Recording Preservation Board Web
site (www.loc.gov/nrpb/).

The new additions to the registry, which span the years 1904-1986, honor a
wide variety of outstanding spoken and musical recordings.  Among the
selections are Franklin D. Roosevelt¹s legendary address to Congress after
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; civil rights milestones, including Pete
Seeger¹s 1963 Carnegie Hall concert and Sam Cooke¹s beautifully haunting
song lamenting  the lack of racial progress; Paul Simon¹s album ³Graceland,²
which introduced the South African musical group Ladysmith Black Mambazo to
the nation; the quintessential rock Œn Œroll classic by The Rolling Stones,
³(I Can¹t Get No) Satisfaction²; and notable performances by a pantheon of
significant artists, including Jelly Roll Morton, The Carter Family, Bob
Marley, Artur Rubinstein, Cole Porter, Eubie Blake and Sarah Vaughan.

On behalf of Congress and the National Recording Preservation Board, the
Library of Congress is conducting a study on the state of audio preservation
and will develop a comprehensive national recording preservation program,
the first of its kind. The study, being done by Rob Bamberger, encompasses
the current state of sound-recording archiving, preservation, restoration
activities and access to those recordings by scholars and the public.  It
will be published later this year.

The Library is identifying and preserving the best existing versions of the
recordings on the registry. These efforts have received support from
archives and record companies such as Sony BMG.

The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution
and the world's largest library with more than 134 million items, which
includes more than 2.8 million sound recordings. The Library's Recorded
Sound Section holds the largest number of radio broadcasts in the United
States ­ more than 500,000.

# # #

NATIONAL RECORDING REGISTRY ANNOUNCED
PR 07-39
3/6/07
ISSN 0731-352


2006 National Recording Registry (in chronological order)

1. ³Uncle Josh and the Insurance Agent,² Cal Stewart (1904)
2.  ³Il mio tesoro,² John McCormack, orchestra conducted by Walter Rogers
(1916) 
3.  National Defense Test, September 12, 1924 (1924)
4. ³Black Bottom Stomp,² Jelly Roll Morton¹s Red Hot Peppers (1926)
5.  ³Wildwood Flower,² The Carter Family  (1928)
6.  ³Pony Blues,² Charley Patton  (1929)
7.  ³You¹re the Top,² Cole Porter (1934)
8.  ³The Osage Bank Robbery,² episode of ³The Lone Ranger² (December 17,
1937) 
9. Address to Congress, December 8, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)
10. Native Brazilian Music, recorded under the supervision of Leopold
Stokowski (1942) 
11.  ³Peace in the Valley,² Red Foley and the Sunshine Boys (1951)
12.  Chopin Polonaise, op. 40, no. 1 (³Polonaise militaire²), Artur
Rubinstein (1952)  
13.  ³Blue Suede Shoes,² Carl Perkins (1955)
14. Interviews with William ŒBilly¹ Bell, recorded by Edward D. Ives (1956),
representing the Edward D. Ives Collection held at the Maine Folklife
Center, University of Maine, Orono, Maine and the Archives of Traditional
Music at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
15.  ³Howl,² Allen Ginsberg (1959)
16.  ³The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,² Bob Newhart (1960)
17.  ³Be My Baby,² The Ronettes (1963)
18. ³We Shall Overcome,² Pete Seeger (1963) recording of Pete Seeger's June
8, 1963, Carnegie Hall concert
19.  ³(I Can¹t Get No) Satisfaction,² Rolling Stones.  (1965)
20.  ³A Change is Gonna Come,² Sam Cooke (1965)
21.  ³Velvet Underground and Nico,² Velvet Underground  (1967)
22. ³The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake,² Eubie Blake (1969)
23.  ³The Wailers Burnin¹,² The Wailers (1973)
24. ³Live in Japan,² Sarah Vaughan  (1973)
25. ³Graceland,² Paul Simon (1986)


2006 National Recording Registry (in chronological order)

1. ³Uncle Josh and the Insurance Agent,² Cal Stewart (1904)

Cal Stewart was among the most prolific and popular recording artists of the
first 20 years of commercial recording. His ³Uncle Josh² monologues offer
humorous commentary on American life at the turn of the 20th century,
reflecting major themes and fashions of the time. His ³rural comedy²
describes life in the imaginary New England village of Pumpkin Center,
painting humorous pictures of Uncle Josh¹s encounters with new technologies,
and comic contrasts between agrarian and urban life in America.  Stewart¹s
influence can be heard in the comedy of Will Rogers, in Fred Allen¹s
character, Titus Moody, and in Garrison Keillor¹s stories about Lake
Wobegon.  ³Uncle Josh and the Insurance Company² is especially notable as
the first recording of the humorous folk tale and urban legend ³Barrel of
Bricks.² 

2.  ³Il mio tesoro,² John McCormack; orchestra conducted by Walter Rogers
(1916)  

Tenor John McCormack¹s recording of ³Il mio tesoro² from ³Don Giovanni² is
considered a model of Mozart performance. His rich voice, seamless phrasing
and superb technical skill contribute to making this reading the standard by
which other performances of this aria have been measured.

3.  National Defense Test, September 12, 1924 (1924)

Before national radio networks existed, a group of stations cooperated to
test how radio stations might respond to a national emergency and help the
nation during a crisis. This recording is notable as one of only a handful
of extant recorded radio broadcasts from early radio in the United States.
It is technologically significant as an experiment of real-time switching
between stations in 14 cities. It features conversations between General
John J. Pershing and other Army generals stationed in different cities.

4. ³Black Bottom Stomp,² Jelly Roll Morton¹s Red Hot Peppers (1926)

³Black Bottom Stomp² is a masterly example of Ferdinand ³Jelly Roll²
Morton¹s creative talents as a composer, arranger and pianist.  Moreover, it
is an authentic representation of the New Orleans jazz tradition, which
relied strongly on an ensemble polyphony where the frontline instruments of
trumpet, clarinet and trombone played simultaneous but complementary themes.
³Black Bottom Stomp² has more than one theme or ³strain,² a carryover from
ragtime. Arranged with harmonized passages, breaks and solos, and a changing
balance between the instrumentalists, Morton fashioned a unique, continuous
whole.

5.  ³Wildwood Flower,² The Carter Family (1928)

 ³Wildwood Flower² showcases Maybelle Carter¹s trademark guitar technique,
in which she plays melody on the bass strings with her thumb and strums
rhythm on the treble strings. The Carter Family¹s close harmony singing,
picking style and popularization of folk tunes, as well as other song
genres, formed the foundation of modern country music and continues to
significantly influence musicians today.

6.  ³Pony Blues,² Charley Patton (1929)

This is the signature recording of Charley Patton, one of the first and
finest blues musicians to come out of the Mississippi Delta region. ³Pony
Blues² showcases Patton¹s characteristic trademarks: powerful vocals,
heavily accented guitar rhythms and unusual vocal phrasing.  Patton was an
enormous influence on his contemporaries and future blues performers,
notably Howlin¹ Wolf, Bukka White and Big Joe Williams.

7. ³You¹re the Top,² Cole Porter (1934)

 ³You¹re the Top² is a work of composer/lyricist Cole Porter at the top of
his form. Seamlessly, the words and music of this quintessential ³list song²
convey wit, exuberance, and charming high and low culture references. This
solo performance invites the listener to become part of Porter¹s universe
and imagine the composer performing much as he might have for his friends on
a luxury cruise ship or in his Waldorf Astoria suite.

8.  ³The Osage Bank Robbery,² episode of ³The Lone Ranger² (December 17,
1937) 

This broadcast, titled "The Osage Bank Robbery," is the earliest known
recording of this popular series to surface.  It features a pair of brothers
who rob a bank, hide out in an abandoned mine, and are eventually discovered
and brought to justice by the Lone Ranger. The series had been on the air
since early 1933 and its popularity was already enormous. In fact, the show
reversed the failing finances of Detroit station WXYZ, and, when WXYZ banded
with several other stations to form the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1934,
the show proved central to the success of the network as a whole.

9. Address to Congress, December 8, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)

"Yesterday, December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy, the United
States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air
forces of the Empire of Japan." The day after the assault on Pearl Harbor,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress asking
for a Declaration of War against Japan, marking the entry of the United
States into World War II. The president¹s voice, strong and confident, yet
familiar and reassuring, rallied the American public and helped to prepare
them for the sacrifices that lay ahead.

10. Native Brazilian Music, recorded under the supervision of Leopold
Stokowski (1942) 

Leopold Stokowski and his All-American Youth Orchestra performed in Rio de
Janeiro as part of a goodwill tour to South America in the summer of 1940.
Prior to his visit to Brazil, Stokowkski asked composer Heitor Villa-Lobos
to help him collect and record popular Brazilian music, of which the
conductor was a great admirer. Villa-Lobos assembled an elite group of
musicians, including Pixinguinha, Donga, Cartola, Jararaca, Ratinho and José
Espinguela. Forty recordings were made onboard the ship carrying Stokowski
and the orchestra.  Seventeen of the recordings, embracing musical styles
such as sambas, batucadas, macumba and emboladas, were released in 1942 by
Columbia Records on a 78-rpm album, ³Native Brazilian Music.²

11.  ³Peace in the Valley,² Red Foley and the Sunshine Boys (1951)

³Peace in the Valley² was originally written in 1939 by Thomas A. Dorsey for
Mahalia Jackson, but as performed by Red Foley and the Sunshine Boys, it
becomes an affecting expression of devotion in the southern gospel music
style. At the time of this recording, Clyde Julian ³Red² Foley was a
recording star for Decca Records and host of the half-hour NBC network
segment of the ³Grand Ole Opry.²  This blending of Foley's calm baritone
with the close harmony of the vocal quartet resulted in the first gospel
recording to sell one million copies.

12. Chopin Polonaise, op. 40, no. 1 (³Polonaise militaire²), Artur
Rubinstein (1952) 

The names of Artur Rubinstein and Frederic Chopin are inextricably linked in
the minds of at least two generations of 20th-century music lovers.  At the
heart of the bond between pianist and composer is their shared Polish
heritage, and nowhere is the connection so great as in Rubinstein¹s
interpretation of the Polonaise in A Major, Op. 40, No. 1, known as the
³Military Polonaise.²  Rubinstein supplied the iconic reading of this
revered, often-recorded work.  The combination of strength and heart-felt
poetry is a hallmark of Rubinstein¹s playing in this piece, and it stirred
the souls of patriots‹of all nationalities‹during the German occupation of
Poland.

13.  ³Blue Suede Shoes,² Carl Perkins (1955)

Carl Perkins was one of the pioneers of rockabilly, the up-tempo fusion of
country-western music and rhythm and blues. His aggressive vocal
stylizations, backed by electric lead guitar, slapping string bass and
drums, were of immediate appeal to the burgeoning teenage population of the
mid-1950s. Due to an extended recovery from a serious car crash, Perkins
never gained the popularity of his contemporary Elvis Presley, yet this
first-generation rocker¹s driving style maintains its rebellious allure more
than 50 years after its creation.

14. Interviews with William ŒBilly¹ Bell, recorded by Edward D. Ives (1956),
representing the Edward D. Ives Collection held at the Maine Folklife
Center, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, and the Archives of Traditional
Music at Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind.

Folklorist Edward D. ³Sandy² Ives, author of ³The Tape-Recorded Interview²
and many other influential publications, met with 75-year-old Billy Bell in
1956 and discovered the northwoods singing style.  These occupational songs
of lumbering, driving and woods traditions, based on British broadside
ballads, were sung by second-generation Canadian-Irish workers who
originally came from New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island or Nova Scotia
farms and were part of the Maine lumbering workforce.  Ives¹ initial
interview with Bell was his first encounter with these narrative songs and
singing styles that illuminated a tradition extending from Maine to
Minnesota and Newfoundland to northern Ontario.

15.  ³Howl,² Allen Ginsberg (1959)

³Howl,² Ginsberg¹s most famous poem, was an experiment in the invention of a
new style of poetry, one based not on ³little short-line patterns,² but one
using ³the formal organization of the long line² and employing vivid visual
impressions and chaotic phrasing to be delivered in one long breath.
Particularly effective were Ginsberg¹s relatively unemotional delivery of
the passionate language and the frequent anger of a literary work that
describes the history of the Beat Generation as well as his personal
history, filled with anti-establishment rage.  When ³Howl² was first
published in 1956, it was banned for obscenity and became a celebrated legal
case among defenders of the First Amendment. Ginsberg appears on this
recording at a 1959 Chicago ³Big Table² reading presented by the Shaw
Society in Chicago, Ill.

16.  ³The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,² Bob Newhart (1960)

Bob Newhart introduced his fresh, new style of deceptively satiric comedy to
audiences with this recording in 1960. ³The Button-Down Mind² is the first
collection of Newhart¹s subtle, archly understated, humorous monologues that
often represent a one-sided dialog with an unheard partner delivered in his
characteristically deadpan style.  His humor focuses on an average guy
trying to hold on to his composure under some of the most unusual
predicaments imaginable.  Like Jack Benny, Newhart uses significant pauses
to achieve heightened humorous effects.  This recording contains his comedy
classic, ³The Driving Instructor,² where he shines in a one-sided monologue
as the instructor of the most dangerous and inept driving student ever to
get behind the wheel of a car.

17.  ³Be My Baby,² The Ronettes (1963)

This single is often cited as the quintessence of the ³girl group² aesthetic
of the early 1960s and is also one of the best examples of producer Phil
Spector¹s ³wall of sound² style. Opening with Hal Blaine¹s infectious and
much imitated drumbeat, distinctive features of the song, all carefully
organized by Spector, include castanets, a horn section, strings and the
able vocals of Veronica (Ronnie) Bennett.  Enhancing the already symphonic
quality of the recording is Spector¹s signature use of reverb.

18. ³We Shall Overcome,² Pete Seeger (1963)

Pete Seeger's Carnegie Hall concert on June 8, 1963, was the culmination of
his recent tour on behalf of civil rights. A hallmark of these concerts was
his performance of "We Shall Overcome." First sung as a gospel song, "I
Shall Overcome," and later used on labor picket lines, Seeger changed the
opening word from "I" to "We," enlisting the song in support of the Civil
Rights Movement. Seeger and many other musicians of the 1960s hoped that
music would be a strong force in the struggle to eliminate injustice and
heal divisions in our country. This live recording of his concert captures
not only Seeger's masterful performance, but also the communal spirit of the
folk revival movement.
  
19.  ³(I Can¹t Get No) Satisfaction,² Rolling Stones (1965)

Initially released as a single in the United States, ³Satisfaction² also
appeared on the Rolling Stones¹ 1965 album, ³Out of Our Heads.²  Guitarist
Keith Richards claims to have woken up in the middle of the night with the
famous fuzz-laden guitar riff in his head and immediately committed it to
tape. Although he was ambivalent about the riff, he nonetheless presented it
to vocalist Mick Jagger, who penned the song¹s anti-commercial lyrics.
Despite both Richards¹ and Jagger¹s feelings that the song should not be
released, the other members of the Rolling Stones voted to release the song,
which became a classic of rock ¹n¹ roll.

20.  ³A Change is Gonna Come,² Sam Cooke (1965)

Sam Cooke, a central figure in the creation of soul music in the 1950s and
1960s, composed ³A Change is Gonna Come² to express his impatience with the
progress of civil equality in the United States.  He wrote the song on a bus
after speaking to sit-in protestors in Durham, N.C.  Released after his
untimely death, the song became an anthem of the civil rights movement in
the United States.

21.  ³Velvet Underground and Nico,² Velvet Underground  (1967)

For decades this album has cast a huge shadow over nearly every sub-variety
of avant-garde rock, from 1970s art-rock to No Wave, New Wave and Punk.
Referring to their sway over the rock music of the Œ70s and Œ80s, critic
Lester Bangs stated, ³Modern music starts with the Velvets, and the
implications and influence of what they did seem to go on forever.²
Otherworldly vocals by the international model and actress Nico appear on
three of the songs. John Cale¹s hard-edged electric viola playing adds an
eerie quality to singer and guitarist Lou Reed¹s frank lyrical depictions of
sex and addiction. Percussionist Maureen Tucker and guitarist Sterling
Morrison make additional noteworthy contributions.

22. ³The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake,² Eubie Blake (1969)
This two-LP set introduced ragtime composer, performer and songwriter Eubie
Blake to a new generation of listeners. The recorded musical autobiography
featured his ragtime compositions from the early years of the 20th century
and his musical theater pieces of the 1920s. In the recording, Blake is
reunited with his partner of the 1920s, Noble Sissle. The recording captures
the full range of Blake¹s genius, his ebullient music and his infectious
personality, and documents his enduring contributions to jazz and musical
theater.

23.  ³Burnin¹,² The Wailers (1973)

This 1973 release was the last album Reggae master Bob Marley released under
the name ³The Wailers² and featured the final performances of Peter Tosh and
Bunny Wailer with the group.  While the group was rhythmically tight,
Marley's role on this album is predominant. The album covers a variety of
topics and moods from the militancy of ³Get Up Stand Up² and ³I Shot the
Sheriff" to the heartfelt rage and poverty-induced despair of ³Burnin¹ and
Lootin.²  The final track, the traditional ³Rastaman Chant² sounds a more
redemptive note. These themes continued in Marley's work after he left the
earlier Wailers lineup and became an internationally acclaimed artist.

24. ³Live in Japan,² Sarah Vaughan (1973)

Captivating performances by singer-composer-writer Sarah Vaughan, who
Gunther Schuller once called ³the greatest vocal artist of our century,² are
preserved in this two-LP set. The 1973 recording is an excellent example of
Sarah Vaughan¹s range of talents: her stunning virtuosity, glorious
instrument, heartfelt interpretations, and ease of performing before a live
audience.  It features several signature tunes that are associated with
Vaughan, including ³Summertime² and ³Poor Butterfly.²  ³Live in Japan² was
produced relatively late in Vaughan¹s career and illustrates that, unlike
most singers, Vaughan¹s voice seemed to grow richer, stronger and more
versatile as she aged.

25. ³Graceland,² Paul Simon (1986)

In ³Graceland,² Paul Simon not only incorporated a great number of musical
styles, including Zydeco, Tex-Mex and African vocal music, but he also
showcased the talents of many accomplished musicians. The recording features
Linda Ronstadt, Adrian Belew, Los Lobos, the Everly Brothers and Youssou
N¹dour.  It is probably best known for Simon¹s collaboration with the South
African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.  ³Graceland² fueled that
group¹s rise to international fame.   Paul Simon was recently awarded the
first annual Gershwin Prize for Popular Song by the Library of Congress.