[audioplay title="Last Train into Dushanbe"]http://www.jasontudor.com/wp-content/uploads/Jason-Tudor-Last-Train-into-Dushanbe.mp3[/audioplay]

I tend to write in a lot of different directions. Writing lyrics (and music) are two of those directions. I don’t do that often, but I got an idea in my head and had to run with it. You can listen to it on the player above.

These are the first song lyrics I’ve written and the first time I’ve written in some time. I also wrote the tune to accompany the lyrics. This tune reflects the idea that I had the words “Last train into Dushanbe with fifteen bucks and hell to pay” in my head. It grew from there. The vocals are not where I’d like them to be, but the rest sounds good.

You can download the MP3 for the song, the lyrics and a nifty piece of album art I did here as a ZIP file.

Comments welcome.

The Nov. 7 session of #writechat led by the fantastic @writingspirit took a interesting turn when it delved into the notion of using a published song’s lyrics to help move a written story along. It’s a fascinating topic that delves into all sorts of areas, including Digital Millennium Copyright Act, artists’ rights, and whether not using song lyrics in a story is a good idea in the first place.

The discussion took a tangent around the age old question (for writers) of “Do I have to pay to use a song lyric, or lyrics, in my book?” Of course, the answer is yes and it’s been proven again and again. This article from Writing-World.com cites a number of examples (solid references toward the bottom). As someone writing a story with copious references to 1980s music (not necessarily lyrics), needless to say, the topic held my interest.

Some of the answers were standard ones. “Why are you even using song lyrics? Write your own songs.” My take: young and old writers have been and are inspired by music. Many of us associate moments of our own lives with whole songs (“Best of Both Worlds” by Van Halen is the latter-half of my teenage life) or excerpted lyrics (My own with cancer and some specific Ray LaMontagne lyrics). That effect has a carryover in to our creative works. And certainly, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.”  However, it could be argued that the rule of law and the want of control of intellectual property is drying up inspiration through fear. “Oh, it seems your best-selling story was inspired by two lyrics from my rock ballad? That’ll be $250,000 plus a 2 percent of gross. And a credit.”

However, in keeping up with these things, this is a no-brainer. If you want to use the lyrics, you pay. Someone or something, like a Recording Industry Association of America-invested record company, owns those lyrics. Like any commodity, and because what’s been created has the rule of law on its side, the lyrics cost money to use. In the above cited example, that use could come to the tune of THOUSANDS of dollars. Plus, if you read reddit enough, you’ll know that RIAA is litigious to both behemoth and housewife.

Easy access to content and the capability to store and manipulate that content bolsters this problem. How many of you have looked for lyrics to that favorite song, found a website that hosted those lyrics and then pasted them into a Tweet or status update? And if so inspired, how many would copy and paste the same inspiring lyric into a work-in-progress? Many based on the tone of the #writechat. What if the song lyric or lyrics inspired the entire story? And sequels? The problem is this: if one bases a work or seeds a work with someone else’s content, and it’s one of the main components of driving that content along, then the entity that created the original content should get a cut.

Now, it’s up to courts to decide how “inspired” a particular work is and how to award damages. But, similarly, if I shot a photograph of the Bavarian landscape, and it ended up in a German tourism brochure without my permission, I’d seek damages. Why shouldn’t the same apply for lyrics to “Jumping Jack Flash,” “The Battle of Evermore,” or “Pac-Man Fever”? Three to five years ago, for-profit/fame/power bloggers/website owners could probably get away with excerpting content under “Fair Use” guise for their blogs, too, and still can. But mostly it’s about making money. There’s a reason I can’t see so many YouTube music videos in Germany: no one makes any money by allowing them to be seen here.

Companies have been formed to stifle people that use content without permission. Moreover, there is a groundswell of movement to change copyright laws. That will mean it will take longer for items to enter the public domain, if ever at all, as the rights will belong to generations of families or corporations who seek to bolster their profit bases. The notion of a work no longer making money after 50 or 75 years and then being given to the public for good is fading fast. At what point do you believe Beatles music will enter the public domain? My guess will be at about the same time that Paul Atreides becomes emperor of the known universe.

“Don’t make money on the backs of our work.” That’s the theme here, regardless of how much you may dislike the RIAA, record companies, or anyone else perceived to big a compassionless cog in the big profit machine. As an artist, I can’t necessarily disagree with the notion. I want control to choose how I donate my works; not have them ‘Saved As’ and repurposed. Creative commons is great (and I’ve done plenty of free and CC  illustration and writing work), but in the end, established, working writers and artists will tell you that it won’t pay a mortgage or put food in mouths.

What’s your opinion?

PS. Be sure to catch #writechat on Twitter Sundays from noon-3 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

(Image credit: soupgreens.com under Creative Commons and public domain)

… On my iPod, are:

1. Sweet About Me, Gabriella Cilimi
2. House of Cards, Radiohead
3. Bad Romance, Gaga
4. Never Going Back Again, Rumours
5. I’m One, The Who
6. Telephone, Gaga
7. Love is Like Oxygen, Sweet
8. Sunrise, Simply Red
9. The Only Living Boy in New York, Simon and Garfunkel
10. Do the Bus Stop, Fatback Band
11. Boy Inside the Man, Tom Cochrane and Red Rider
12. When Love Takes Over, Kelly Rowland and David Guetta
13. Trouble, Lindsey Buckingham
14. Call to the Heart, Giuffria
15. Slick Black Cadillac, Quiet Riot
16. Time Out of Mind, Steely Dan
17. Carry Out, Justin Timberlake w/Timbaland
18. Low, Flo-Rida
19. Walkin’ on Fire, Loverboy
20. Hunters of the Night, Mr. Mister
21. Shut Your Eyes, Snow Patrol
22. Love is in Control, Donna Summer
23. Cuts You Up, Peter Murphy
24. The Big Money, Rush
25. Say It Isn’t So, Hall and Oates

Alrighty. Discuss and/or post your own.

And this is strictly a personal, anecdotal example.

I sat at my desk today and I wanted to hear a tune. I typed “funk” into YouTube. I got a link to Jeffrey Osborne’s old band, LTD, and “Back in Love Again.” I listen to that song (one I love) and then click another LTD song. Great stuff.

Other linked songs on the side of the YouTube page included tunes by a band called The Fatback Band (later, known as simply Fatback). Now, I’ve never heard one single Fatback song in my life (but should have). I clicked the first song I saw, “Do the Bus Stop.” I’m hooked. I clicked another, “Backstroke.” I’m now ready to own Fatback’s “Best Of …” But, does Fatback have a “Best Of …”?

A few hours later, I clicked open the iTunes store and, sure enough, there’s “21 Karat Fatback – The Best of the Fatback Band” for $9.99. I clicked ‘purchase.’ I’m listening to “Bus Stop” as I write this post.

This one example of how social media can move one from bystander to behavioral change (and ultimately make the transaction at the checkout counter) and in a fairly quick amount of time. In my work with the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies, it’s clear to me how this same impetus can be carried once we get the correct instruments and people into place. What we’re “selling” isn’t necessarily a ‘one-click purchase.’ It’s difficult, complex, delicate stuff. So the strategy is slightly different, but the methodology is the same if the technology, philosophy and execution are done right. And though much of what the US Defense Department is doing with social media right now doesn’t necessarily have a viable metric (other than followers, views, fans and friends), perhaps the best metric in the amount of can be prevented through education and diplomacy.

On behalf of a grateful nation in service to your country and its allies, thanks Fatback.

Galleons of Mauritania is the 6-song EP written and produced by Jason Tudor. The CD is one continuous piece of music with six distinct tracks.  You can get it at Lulu.com You can also hear the music free on Acid Planet.