A short guide to the netherworld of out of copyright recordings

There is a semi-twilight world of the record industry where it is forever 50 years ago (or to be pedantic – 51 years ago). These are the labels who take advantage of European Union copyright law which states that copyrights on recordings expire half a century on from the date they were made. It is a netherworld inhabited by both shoddy opportunists and music fans on a mission. Infuriatingly, it can be hard to spot one from the other. Quality ranges from thrown together cheapies that have little regard for sound quality or information, to lovingly researched and remastered items that are as good, if not better than anything put out by the major labels’ own legacy departments. The very law that enables this to happen is also a hot political potato that really emerged as a major issue when Elvis’s early recordings went out of copyright and is not going to go away as this decade progresses and the real catalogue treasures by the likes of the Beatles, the Stones etc are made available.

At the turn of the century there were few serious players in the field. Pre-1950 music had a limited audience. The foremost label at the time was the French Chronological Classics imprint who specialized in jazz and rhythm and blues. As the name suggests, these were releases squarely aimed at the specialist. Over a series of CDs, the remit was to compile every recording that could be traced in chronological order by a particular artist. These were intended as historical documents rather than casual introductions. The series has an impeccable reputation, but the company has always struggled with distribution, and tracking the releases down has never been a straightforward task. There have been periods where it seems to have been inactive – indeed, I’m not sure what the label’s current status is.

Proper Music appeared in around 2000 with its flagship product, the legendary Proper Boxes. These were four CD boxes – sometimes themed, sometimes dedicated to a particular artist. Presentation was always first class with chunky booklets stuffed full with just about every detail about the music you could wish for. Some have become classics, such as Be Bop Spoken Here – a brilliantly compiled overview of forties bop. Others aren’t so great, padded out with some ropey live recordings or simply released too early (the Hank Williams box cut off his final two years). But you always know what you’re getting with a Proper release. The company has prospered and is now one of the leading distributors in the UK, as well as a contemporary music label who can boast the likes of Richard Thompson on their roster.

Some companies shone briefly. Indigo was an imprint of Sanctuary Records who put together excellent boxes of R&B hits on a year by year basis, but disappeared when the Sanctuary Group crashed and burned. Boulevard Vintage took up the reins, but their series seems to have stopped at 1956, and there’s little sign of activity. Acrobat is another label who have had difficulties, primarily with distribution companies. I’ve found their catalogue a bit messy, with some packages looking decidedly cheap and cheerful, but others well put together with excellent sound. They’ve always been a bit light in the sleevenotes department though. Currently, the website promises a 2010 relaunch of the label.

Fantastic Voyage are relatively new players. Their R&B Breakout and Soul Breakout series are well put together, with volumes of each covering 1958 and ’59. Revola is a longer established imprint. It was first set up as a sister label to Creation Records, but Cherry Red took it over when McGee’s label went kaput. Much of Revola’s line has more in common with Soul Jazz or the Ace group in that they put together compilations of rare specialist material from the sixties, seventies and eighties by bands that the majors have ignored as being too esoteric. This is a whole different ballgame, of course, because it involves copyrights, licensing and the rest. But they’ve also put out some excellent pre-1960 titles, such as what I would consider as the definitive collection of Elvis Presley’s Sun recordings.

One of the most recent companies to pop up is Not Now Music. They’ve moved the whole business into a completely different and more controversial field. Whereas all the previous labels I’ve mentioned specialise in compiling and presenting out of copyright material in new forms, Not Now Music simply reissue classic albums from the fifties. A typical release will take a marquee classic and pair it with one or two other LPs by the same artist as a 2CD set at a budget price. For example, Charles Mingus’s Ah Um comes with The Clown and Pithecanthropus Erectus and there are several examples of iconic acts such as Miles Davis and Frank Sinatra being treated in the same way. With their policy of designing sleeves that are often similar enough to the originals to fool a casual glance, they seem to delight in poking the majors with a sharp stick. That said, the sound is usually pretty good. Personally, I would go with the originals most times, but you can’t escape the attraction of getting a couple of bonus albums that you may not otherwise have considered.

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (Columbia)

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue (Not Now Music)

For how long this free for all will last is anybody’s guess. The US laws are stricter, and so none of these titles can be sold there legally – effectively they would be seen as pirates. In the EU, too, there is strong lobbying to stiffen copyright. I think its likely that the combined clout of major companies and artists like Bono (yes, he’s involved), and the fact that over the next decade we’ll be talking serious money will lead inevitably to a change in the law. But for now, for anyone who has an interest in recordings from the first 60 years of the twentieth century, there are serious bargains to be had! But tread warily.

Album: The R&B Years 1956 Volume 1 (Boulevard Vintage 2007)

The latest in the excellent Boulevard Vintage series contains 50 tracks over two CDs – all from the first six months of 1956. A companion volume devoted to the rest of the year is due later in 2007. 1956 was a pivotal year – not just for R&B, but for popular music as a whole. The phenomenal success of Elvis Presley helped drag black artists like Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino and the Coasters squarely into the pop mainstream. The ‘rock & roll’ moniker, legendarily attributed to DJ Alan Freed, became an umbrella term that covered artists as diverse as white country boys like Elvis and Johnny Cash, James Dean inspired rebels like Gene Vincent, R&B veterans like Joe Turner, New Orleans rockers like Fats Domino and Smiley Lewis, vocal groups like the Coasters and the Cadillacs, and young bucks with attitude like Chuck Berry. It was probably the only time that popular music wasn’t divided along racial lines, but all-encompassing. The moment was brief – probably lasting little more than 18 months to two years. By 1958, white teens were listening to a new generation of more wholesome entertainers like the Everly Brothers and Ricky Nelson, whilst most of the black R&B stars were left with their original audience. There were acts who crossed over, like Chuck Berry, the Coasters and others, but in effect the old demarcation lines had been redrawn.

The R&B Years 1956 Volume 1 concentrates purely on the black rock & roll, R&B and blues artists. It’s a surprisingly eclectic set, reflecting the huge changes taking place in pop. There are traditional R&B stompers by the likes of Billy Gayles and Ann Cole which could date from any time in the early fifties, or even the forties. There is a healthy dose of material from some of the giants of electric blues such as Howlin’ Wolf, BB King, Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson and Jimmy Reed. There are crossover pop tunes like “Why Do Fools Fall In Love”, “Down In Mexico” and “Eddie My Love”, some genuine classic rock & roll from Little Richard and Chuck Berry, and some proto-soul from James Brown and Ray Charles. There is virtually no generic filler, and the tracks are well-sequenced. If I had any argument with the song selection, it would be that doowop is a little under-represented.

As ever with this series, the sound quality is very good. Session notes are absent, but there is the usual informative short essay by Roy Bainton. I wonder how long they’ll continue to use the same cover art, though. Was anybody still wearing zoot suits in 1956?

Album: The R&B Years 1955 Volumes 1 and 2 (Boulevard Vintage 2007)

There is mounting pressure in some quarters to amend the current European Union copyright law covering recordings. Currently, a recording becomes part of the public domain after fifty years. This means that all music recorded prior to 1957 is openly available to anyone for free. Songwriting royalties still have to be paid, but the recordings themselves are no longer owned by anyone. There was little debate over the issue until a couple of years ago when the first Elvis Presley records had their copyright lapse. Then suddenly the record companies started whining big time as they could see some of their cash cows being snatched away from them. As the law stands, the first Beatles records will pass into the public domain in 2013. By 2027, even the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy In The UK” will have seen its copyright lapse!

The arguments are typically couched in the language of sympathy for the poor, down-trodden artists. This, of course, is pure baloney. For example, how many of the artists featured on these two double CDs, who are still with us, were ever paid a royalty in the first place? Very few – most received a flat fee. So it matters little to them whether anyone owns the recordings, because they sure as hell don’t. The people who do are the major record companies – the world’s most self-pitying corporations. They’ve been foretelling their own apocalyptic demise since the invention of radio!

There are problems, of course. Walk into any garage or high street ‘pound shop’, and you’ll find a whole host of thrown together compilations of public domain material released on labels you’ve never heard of and consisting of poorly mastered copies of songs usually sourced from scratchy vinyl or shellac. These CDs may be cheap, but you definitely get what you pay for. On the other hand, there are companies run by enthusiasts who actually care about what they are putting out. The main advantage for the fans of the music, of course, is that material long buried in dusty vaults is suddenly available again, and often sounding better than it ever did. Few of the major record companies would bother with a lot of this material, since it’s not likely to sell more than a few thousand copies at most. So without the fifty year rule, this stuff would simply not be available except on difficult to track down shellac 78s and early vinyl records. There are companies like France’s Classics label which have truly ambitious programmes to reissue all recordings by many artists in chronological order. No major label would attempt something like that except for the most stellar acts. One side effect that nobody seems to have mentioned is that, with more stuff issued, there are more royalties being paid to the writers. Song publishers must be raking it in. Ironically, a lot of them (like Chappell) are owned by the very major companies (Warner Music) that are whingeing the loudest.

Anyway, one such laudable reissue campaign of public domain material has been carried out by Secret Records on their Boulevard Vintage imprint over the past few years. The period between 1947 and 1954 have already been covered by a series of four-CD boxes, each containing 100 rhythm and blues tracks from the year, ranging from big hits by the likes of Louis Jordan, Joe Turner and Ruth Brown to the more obscure waxings of near-forgotten artists. These sets were well-mastered, thoughtfully compiled and reasonably priced. The only fault I could pick was the paucity of documentation that accompanied them. Each had an interesting illustrated essay, but no details of sessions, band line-ups etc, which was a pity.

Two years since the last box hit the stores, the volumes for 1955 have appeared – this time as two separate 50 track double CDs. Another pair covering 1956 are scheduled to be issued soon. The new format must have been adopted for purely financial reasons because I can’t think that there would be many punters who’d want one and not the other. Disappointingly, the CDs again lack session details, although each has an informative essay by Roy Bainton and some nice photos. The discs are ordered chronologically, so the first volume covers roughly the first six months of 1955 and the second the remainder.

1955 was the year that rock & roll went big time. It’s intriguing to note how great the contrast between the two sets is, when it comes to material. Volume one has Bo Diddley, but is dominated by the established R&B stars like Ruth Brown, Lavern Baker and Wynonie Harris as well as a number of more popular blues performers like Elmore James, Jimmy Reed and Little Walter. The latter half of the year saw the emergence of new stars like Chuck Berry and Little Richard who were firmly rock & roll artists. Vocal groups also underwent a massive change in a relatively short period. The days of the standard were rapidly being superceded by a new, cool, teen oriented type of group. “Speedo” by the Cadillacs is a fine example. The Robins, represented here by “Smokey Joe’s Cafe”, would metamorphose in the greatest of this type of group during 1956 – the Coasters.

These are great compilations, with familiar tunes like “Mannish Boy” and “Maybelline” rubbing shoulders with much more obscure stuff. There is very little generic filler – most songs are included on merit. I would recommend the entire series to anyone who’s into American R&B, but the 1955 volumes in particular ought to appeal to a much wider audience than that. Can’t wait for 1956!