John Prine - I's a Big Old Goofy Copyright Question

Factual Questions
1

I had a question about a John Prine song, but that begat yet another question, this time in the realm of legalities … hmmm. I’d better try to explain here.

On the John Prine album “The Missing Years”[sup]1[/sup] there is a song called “It’s a Big Old Goofy World”. It features a rather distinctive sounding instrument that I would like to identify - sort of bell like, but the dynamics make it sound like it is, in fact, a plucked string. Sort of like a set of chimes had an illicit mating with a guitar. I was wondering if it was:[ul][li]double speed guitar.[sup]2[/sup] Sounds a lot like some of the effects Mike Oldfield used in “Tubular Bells”, and he was fond of this trick.[/li][li]some synth thing. The album credits a LOT of extra musicians, but only see players of “standard” keyboards like piano and organ, no synth. They don’t credit the musicians on individual songs.[/li][li]somebody getting creative with effects boxes. Like maybe a flanger.[/ul]Now, the copyright part. I was wondering if, in endeavoring to answer this question, I snipped a few bars out of the middle of the song to illustrate the instrument[sup]3[/sup] and posted them, would that constitute “fair use” like excerpting a paragraph or two from a copyrighted text work for critical purposes?[/li]
Anybody? Concerning anything?

[sup]1[/sup] - A good album. Nice demonstration of how a singer/songwriter type like Prine should do a studio album with a lot of polish and extra musicians if so minded - the extra stuff is used to COMPLEMENT his material, not overpower it.

[sup]2[/sup] - You would play a desired guitar part at half tempo and record it at half tape speed, then overdub it at full speed. Not neccesarily to make the playing real fast, but to attain an interesting effect from the speeded up notes. In fact, it makes sustained notes sound unusual, so it might be used for something that doesn’t have a lot of real fast playing in it. These days, digital recording probably makes it easy to do through simple editing.

[sup]3[/sup] - I’m not sure I have the proper software to do this available anyway. I have the CD, and it’s possible to get an mp3 of the song[sup]3.1[/sup]. But I’m not sure I have any way to capture the CD into an editable form, or work on the mp3.

[sup]3.1[/sup] - Of course, this brings up the question of excerpting, not from a legal copy, but from an illicit one.[sup]3.1.1[/sup]

[sup]3.1.1[/sup] - Nothing to say, actually. I just wanted to footnote a footnote to a footnote.

2

I haven’t heard the song, but your description makes it sound like it could be a hammered dulcimer. Don’t know about your second question (my WAG would be that it’s fair use), but this page has some samples of dulcimer music you can check:

http://www.rtpnet.org/~hdweb/music/samples/samples.html

3

I think it’s a mandolin.

4

DRAT, I hit reply, then saw Cabbage’s post! It probably was a hammered dulcimer!

5

hammered dulcimer is a good thought, but it doesn’t appear in the list of instruments. I was going to add that it could possibly be some sort of prepared piano, then I ran across this review in http://www.furious.com/perfect/prine.html:

Come to think of it, child’s toy piano has been used for unusual effects by other performers, too. I think they’re tweaking it a good bit, too.