Origins: need copyright information on some songs

Subject: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: mg
Date: 31 Jan 18 - 02:54 AM

i am also running through song licensing company..they are all lumbering types of songs

nelly was a lady..stephen foster
jack haggerty ..dan mcginnis
jam on jerry's rock..unknown
lost jimmy whalen..unknown
river in the pines..unknown
my gal's waiting for me..unknown
volga boatmen

from newfoundland
badger driver.. ??Devine
tickle cove pond..unknown

some of these are just unkinown because i just did not write down known authors when i was googling them.



i also have several songs i know i will have to pay copyright on.

and yes, thank you critics, i could do it myself but i want a paper trail in case anything ever should come up.

Subject: RE: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: Acorn4
Date: 31 Jan 18 - 04:51 AM

The version of Jack Haggerty I'm familiar with has a tune by Mick Hanley - apparently he got the lyrics from "The Penguin Book of Folk Ballads".


There is a great version by Touchstone.

I suppose it complicates things when they lyrics are by one writer the tune by another?

Subject: RE: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 31 Jan 18 - 05:27 AM

River Driving

Text collected by Jeanne Robert Foster, ca. 1916.
Music by Dan Berggren, Berggren Music, BMI)

River driving on the Sacondog,
Floating on the slippery logs,
Sleeping in the frozen bog,
My girl’s waiting for me.

Subject: RE: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 31 Jan 18 - 05:44 AM

From Wikipedia;

The "Song of the Volga Boatmen" (known in Russian as ??, ?????! [Ey, ukhnem!, "yo, heave-ho!"], after the refrain) is a well-known traditional Russian song collected by Mily Balakirev, and published in his book of folk songs in 1866.

It was sung by burlaks, or barge-haulers, on the Volga River. Balakirev published it with only one verse (the first). The other two verses were added at a later date. Ilya Repin's famous painting, Barge Haulers on the Volga, depicts such burlaks in Tsarist Russia toiling along the Volga.

The song was popularised by Feodor Chaliapin, and has been a favourite concert piece of bass singers ever since. Glenn Miller's jazz arrangement took the song to #1 in the US charts in 1941. Russian composer Alexander Glazunov based one of the themes of his symphonic poem "Stenka Razin" on the song.

Spanish composer Manuel De Falla wrote an arrangement of the song, which was published under the name Canto de los remeros del Volga (del cancionero musical ruso) in 1922.

He did so at the behest of diplomat Ricardo Baeza, who was working with the League of Nations to provide financial relief for the more than two million Russian refugees who had been displaced and imprisoned during World War 1. All proceeds from the song's publication were donated to this effort.

Igor Stravinsky made an arrangement for orchestra.

Subject: RE: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: mg
Date: 31 Jan 18 - 06:19 AM

I read before that the song was based on the picture but what you said makes sense. I had read that too. Jack haggerty is a pretty old song so i am not going to worry about the tune right now.

Subject: RE: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: mg
Date: 31 Jan 18 - 04:57 PM

i got my search results back from a song licensing company...all are public domain except for two canadian ones I knew were not and one question, which is my gal's waiting for me..river driving on the sagondoc? I always heard it as Saginaw but different river I presume. Anyone know what names it could go by and of course any copyright info. Thanks.

Subject: RE: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: leeneia
Date: 31 Jan 18 - 09:31 PM

See my thread called "copyright. somebody finally said it."

If the text of River Driving was collected in 1916, then it was published before 1923 and it is clearly in the public domain in the US and in Canada.

If you like the lyrics, just make up a new tune yourself, and you won't have to worry about Dan Berggren and BMI.

Subject: RE: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: GUEST,Kristoffer Ross
Date: 31 Jan 18 - 10:59 PM

Also, you could contact Dan Berggren directly and ask him nicely if you can use his tune. He'd probably be happy to see someone else cover it, as long as he still owns the rights. I believe he produces all his albums, so should. (I don't know him personally, but he's fairly local.) If you're in the US and you have written permission, you don't need a mechanical license to distribute a song.
    Send him an album, at the least :-)
    Hope that's helpful,
Kristoffer

Subject: RE: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: meself
Date: 31 Jan 18 - 11:18 PM

I think mg knows about this stuff ... but my understanding is that you do need a mechanical license if the song is registered with an agency - in which case, permission from the originator is irrelevant.

Subject: RE: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: mg
Date: 31 Jan 18 - 11:38 PM

In this case the tune sounds to me exactly like railroading on the great divide....i dont really know this song but several people called dibs on it. One group had just recorded it. Can not find any liner notes.

Subject: RE: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: GUEST,Kristoffer Ross
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 03:14 PM

Sorry, was just a thought.
~Kristoffer

Subject: RE: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: GUEST,mg
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 04:58 PM

oh no. i will either contact him or just pay the royalties.

Subject: RE: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: GUEST,Robin
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 08:19 PM

Not sure if I’m doing this right! NELLY WAS A LADY published 1849
VOLGA song appeared in print in 1866.
Does this help?

Subject: RE: Origins: need copyright information on some songs
From: mg
Date: 01 Feb 18 - 08:26 PM

Yes ..thanks. I am still worried about possible slipups though, which is why I go through a search with an agency...families can somehow retain copyrights I think....it is prob best to double check.

I am curious about nelly was a lady and should start a new thread..but i won't...if it was published in 1849, was Nelly a slave?
She was on the Mississippi and was from Virginia the song says..that would have been an incredibly dangerous job for her husband, I would believe, whether he was free or a slave..prob more if he were free...or she was..out alone on the Mississippi at night with slave hunters roaming around...I almost think this was written about a true person..does anyone know? There is an old movie about Stephen Foster called Nelly was a lady...i have not watched all of it...anyway, it is a very important song...anyway, it is a very important song.