WES BRYAN TAKES A QUESTION : COPYRIGHT ? NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR MUSIC EDUCATION

Adam : "I'm an aspiring song writer. I was wondering where I might find information on using famous quotes in song lyrics."

Wes : We're linking to the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR MUSIC EDUCATION here which has some good information and links about music copyright. You may want to contact them and see if they can guide you to the correct answer.

I think the question may be who owns the copyright to a quote and if they are policing the use of their words. Fair Use of a quote for this blog includes attributing it to the person who said (or wrote) those words. There are many ways to express the same thought though, and we notice that some quotes are repeated (and published in books and on the net) with slight changes, attributed to different people. This question also falls into the same category of "song sampling" by rap artists and Fair Use of music on the net.

Our favorite, RCS Discography, carefully follows the 4 bar sampling policy. While, as we all know, YouTube established new ground in the (temporary) use of listening tomusic, including songs I wrote and recorded. So how much use anyone can get out of anything that someone else originated gets to be a complicated question at times.

(357) WES BRYAN TAKES A QUESTION : DID YOU COVER OTHER SONGWRITER'S SONGS ?

Yes, I did cover other songwriter's songs. I did so live while on tour in addition to the songs I recorded. I also did so in the studios for presentation but also for fun.

First of all, part of the singer-songwriter scene was sharing songs. We sometimes did demo records of other people's songs in the studios because we decided that my voice was a better fit for the song. I actually recorded a few songs that Elvis also performed in the studio for fun.

When I was on tour with Buddy Knox I covered a lot of the rock and roll hits of those days, also playing my own guitar. I covered a song Gene Vincent wrote and made famous, Be Bop A Lula, and the song Buddy Knox wrote for Jimmy Bowen, "I'm Sitckin With You." (Which Jimmy recorded on Roulette and got a Gold Record for.)

Wes

COMMENT ON (73) SYLVESTER CROSS - CREST RECORDS and AMERICAN Q and A

Question left on comments :

Hey Wes,
Do you know what happened to Crest's catalogue? I'm trying to track the master license for the song "Primitive Love" by Tom Reeves.

Thanks,

Jullianne

Our Reply:

I have no idea where the whole Crest Catalogue is at this point. Sylvester Cross died about 1965 and his widow sold the catalogue to, I believe, Hill and Range in New York City. Crest was an in house label of American Music where I worked. Some things were, I believe, sold to Lawrence Welk's Vogue Music.

Jullianne, I think the thing to do is look for the copyright including Publishing Rights in the online BMI and ASCAP databases. These databases are not perfect and there is misinformation at times because Rights can be sold (people who were never songwriters but inherited songwriters rights are listed as songwriters). Also since song titles are not copyrightable, be aware that the song you want must be proven to have been performed by Tom Reeves.

Let us know what happens!

Wes Bryan and Christine Trzyna

ME AND THE MOVIES - IN RESPONSE TO COMMENTS SENT

Friends, Thank You for sending comments and questions to me and Christine about my acting career. Let's try and let this blog answer some of those.

If you read from the beginning of this blog, you know that I was given a tremendous opportunity to be an actor early on. Then, well... The details of what happened with my acting career are in my unpublished memoir and might even shock you, but my focus became my music career.

This blog is focusing on my life in music because ultimately that is where I went when I followed my own North Star. Still, I feel that I learned so much about life being in New York young, studying acting and James Dean, and being part of a generation who emerged into the 1960's at a time when technology was advancing rapidly, allowing us to perform live on radio and television, moving from black and white to color, and, more than anything, living through changes in social attitudes and conditions that were reflected in music.

We posted a comment someone sent in that said this:

"The United States of America, that you grew up in, is rapidly falling apart. God bless you and your generation that lived and thrived in a country unique in human history. I am so sorry to see the rapid demise of a democracy that stood alone for such a brief moment in world history. Never again, in our brief life time, will we see a time when a young man from North Carolina could rise from the masses to follow a dream that all humankind shares. God bless you, Wes Bryan."

Now I appreciated the God Bless, but actually both Christine and I have more hope than this person. We still think that common people have a chance to rise up from their beginnings and become famous or at least have a great career. We know it happens all the time even if it is a rare thing and it happens more in this great United States of America than anywhere else in the world because here you don't necessarily live the life you were born into.

How much is anyone's fate we don't know. We know that hard work alone won't do it, though hard work is necessary. It is always fascinating, if not downright mystifying, to see how some idea takes hold and spreads, how trends come and go. So we want to encourage you all to know what it is you want out of life and then try your damnedest to make that happen! You never know if you don't try...

Wes and Christine