1. Simpson17866

    Simpson17866 Contributor Contributor

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    Public Domain Songs To Use in Writing

    Discussion in 'Research' started by Simpson17866, Jul 24, 2017.

    I've seen threads here asking about how to use song lyrics in a novel without disrupting the narrative, and a common thought is it's not worth trying to figure out hypothetically how to do this because using song lyrics in the first place would either mean
    1. Using copyrighted lyrics, which would either cost a ton in royalties or get the entire novel cease-and-desisted
    2. Using lyrics old enough to be public domain, which would disrupt the narrative because it would feel ridiculous to have the people reference a song that real people do not reference
    So I thought I'd start a collection of ways that people have thought of for using public domain songs in a way that feels natural to the story instead of like an obvious copyright-law cop-out :) Or even for public domain songs that they would like to try writing scenes around at some future point, or maybe that they would like to see somebody try (be it themself or anybody else)...

    Some that I'm trying myself are

    I'm a Jazz Vampire


    One of my lead villains of my planned series is a vampire who was born in New Orleans in 1900, and I'd been thinking – pretty much ever since I came up with the New Orleans angle – that she felt lonely growing up as the only girl in New Orleans who didn't like Jazz. Then I found this song :)

    I was originally planning on my character being killed and turned into a vampire in 1920, but after finding out about this song and about how it was released in the early 1920s, I decided that my character had been turned into a vampire in 1923. That way she could recount the horror she felt waking up to the necromancer playing that record over and over and over again, and I'm thinking I might be able to use the lyrics as part of a ritual that some other characters use to track down the vampire.

    Early One Morning

    I would be using the original lyrics, not this singer's personal cover-lyrics, but this is still the cover that made me fall in love with the song and that inspired me to find the original lyrics :)


    This one's kind of a cheat: two of the characters in my WIP are huge fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and after finding out that magic is as much about personal touches as it is about technical details, they'll eventually decide in later books to use their love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to homebrew a spell that uses this song to send a united group of their enemies into homicidal rages against each other.

    Though they will still be using the original version, not the version used in the show, because they love the idea that older lyrics would be more powerful than newer ones.

    We are Marching on to Richmond


    My sequel will be more political than my current crime-noir WIP, and I'm thinking that this song will be used in a college students' rally against what they see as Orwellian totalitarianism on the rise.

    Finally, my personal favorite:

    Richmond is a Hard Road (to Travel)

    Same note as Early One Morning

    One of the characters in my WIP (one of the two Buffy-nerds) is also a military history nerd, and she describes this song as a pro-Confederate School House Rock special directed by Michael Bay: she's not a fan of the Confederate cause, but she loves how much historical information was packed into such a catchy tune with such exciting descriptions of the violence.

    I wrote a short-story prequel to my WIP in which my (post-traumatic) character's best friend uses part of a history lecture from the song as a way of helping her calm down during a panic attack, and I'm thinking that in the WIP itself, the military history nerd will be unconscious for most of the book and her friends will use this song in a healing ritual because they know how important it is to her.

    Has anybody else found any public domain songs that they love and that they're planning to use like I'm planning to use these?
     
  2. Catrin Lewis

    Catrin Lewis Contributor Contributor Contest Winner 2023 Community Volunteer

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    A 19th century French operatic aria is key to the novel I'm on the verge of publishing, as is the 19th century English translation of an ancient Irish hymn. I'm doing my own English version of the French for the aria, and I'll check to make sure it's different enough from the standard sing-it-in-English translation. Though I'm pretty sure that's public domain, too. I'll be sure to look before publication.
     
    Simpson17866 likes this.

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