Preserving America's voice, from Roosevelt to Dylan
By Aparna Kumar
LOS ANGELES TIMES
Tuesday, January 28, 2003
WASHINGTON -- Leave it to the Library of Congress to come up with one of the most eclectic playlists ever.
Library officials on Monday unveiled the debut collection of the National Recording Registry, and it proved an evocative cultural snapshot of America over the past century, saluting equally the words of presidents and generals, the artistry of jazz and classical masters, and the raw energy of rock 'n' roll and hip-hop rebels.
The nascent catalog of 50 important recorded moments in American cultural history contains such items as Herbert Morrison's description of the Hindenburg crash and Bob Dylan's album "Freewheelin', " with his anti-war anthem "Blowin' in the Wind."
Also in the mix are the "Fireside Chats," President Franklin D. Roosevelt's series of radio broadcasts to the nation from the 1930s and 1940s; the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s landmark "I Have a Dream" speech from 1963; and "The Message," an inner-city anthem by rap pioneers Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
"The registry was not intended by Congress to be another Grammy Awards or `best of' list," said Librarian of Congress James Billington in announcing the congressionally mandated archive. Instead, he said, the songs, speeches and historic radio broadcasts, deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by a broad panel of experts, inaugurate what the government and archivists hope will become a rich and diverse repository of American sound recordings preserved for posterity, with new items added annually.
Preserving America's aural history is imperative, Billington said, because "best sellers today are tomorrow's throwaways."
The registry, which is similar to an existing national registry aimed at preserving American film, was established by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, which requires that recordings must be at least 10 years old to qualify. In making this year's selections, Billington was advised by 20 composers, musicians, musicologists, librarians, archivists and representatives of the recording industry, who together make up the National Preservation Board.
While some items on the list could be called obscure -- including the songs "Arkansas Traveler" and "Sallie Gooden" by the fiddler Eck Robertson, the first artist to make country music recordings -- many are easily recognizable. Among them: "Who's on First," Abbott and Costello's signature shtick about baseball, recorded for the first time in 1938, and Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds," a radio drama so realistic that it triggered nationwide panic of a Martian invasion.
Some songs made the list because of their commercial popularity, while others were recognized for the importance of their underlying social message.
The registry includes many recording "firsts," including the first jazz band recording, the first radio broadcast and the first stereo recording.
The 50 recordings also represent a broad spectrum of recording media and templates, including turn-of-the-century wax cylinders, piano rolls, gramophone discs, wires, Dictabelts and the first high-fidelity stereo recordings.
The preservationists will work with the library to restore and preserve the recordings in their original formats, many of which are incompatible with today's technologies, and in creating digital files of the recordings.
Elizabeth Cohen, a member of the preservation board representing the Audio Engineering Society, an association of professional sound engineers, said simply digitizing the recordings is not a solution. She said efforts must be made to preserve the tone and fidelity of the original recordings, including the crackles and pops that gave them character.
But further challenges lie ahead for the preservationists. Chief among them will be balancing the Library's mission of making the nation's cultural riches accessible to the public against its obligation to protect the intellectual property rights of copyright holders. Several items included in the registry are copyrighted including King's "I Have a Dream Speech."
In maintaining the registry, Billington said, the library has a "dual responsibility both to preserve and to provide access" in the public's interest. That dual responsibility may be further complicated by the Supreme Court's decision earlier this month to uphold a law that extends existing copyrights by 20 years. |
