Hey y’all,
Here’s the situation. I’m re-doing the soundtrack to a play for it’s revival at a major Australian arts festival next year. The orignal soundtrack was made up of several different sources, film soundtracks primarily, most of it came from Nino Rota, Morricone and Einstruzende Neubauten. However on sourcing the rights to the compositions, it turns out the Tom Waits material we’d used in the original amateur production was unavailable. (Apparently none of Waits work is allowed to be used in theatre productions.)
What we’d used were a couple of march-style pieces from the Night On Earth soundtrack, and now we need something similar but legal.
The Allmusic guide recommendations where not helpful, to say the least. (Danzig's "How The Gods Kill?" WTF?)
And so I turn to you, fellow dopers, can anyone think of anything? It needs to be something with a march style beat, but shambolic, like Waits or Rota’s work with Fellini.
Check out Tin Hat Trio’s “Helium”. Waits does vocals on the last track – there are a couple songs on the album that should work for you.
There’s an Album by Chuck E. Weiss, long time waits collacrator, called Extremely Cool. That might be forth checking out.
I seem to recall a Track called “Do you know what I idi Amin” which could be useful. Not sure if it’s a march exactly but worth looking at.
Um, what about the music from Waits’s stage play, Frank’s Wild Years? WHATTYA MEAN not allowed to be used in theater productions?
From the email I got from APRA -
“Unfortunately works by Tom Waits are not available for use in theatrical productions”
Given that Frank’s Wild Years features music written for the play, which was then performed by him, he was able to clear the publishing rights with himself beforehand…
He also writes thing for theatre director Robert Wilson, which is where Alice, Blood Money and The Black Rider all have their genesis. The problem is using recordings or performing his songs in a theatrical production that he has not given prior consent to.
Thankfully I found this out after using a bunch of his songs in a production of Hamlet. (The Gravedigger sang “Dirt in the ground”, and the Hamlet “with his doublet all unbraced” scene was set to Blue Valentines.)
BTW thanks to mouthbreather for the Tin Hat Trio, some of it comes very close to other music we’re using.
Check out Jim Bianco (also here)
Even if you can’t use it, you’ll LOVE it and want to listen to it in your own!
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