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Soundcheck

Friday, January 04, 2008
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  • "Beatles For Sale"
    "Beatles For Sale"

    Beatles for Sale

    The company that owns Beatles copyrights is now licensing their most famous tunes. Today, find out why the most valuable (and fiercely protected) back catalogue in music history will be turning up in more movies, TV ads, and Hip Hop Tracks. And later: we speak with a professor whose ultra-rare folk music field recordings have just been released as a boxed set.

All You Need is.. Luvs?

The company that owns Beatles copyrights is now allowing rappers to interpret their most famous hooks. Billboard legal analyst Susan Butler, and Rob Kaplan, director of music production at ad agency Mcgarrybowen, join us to discuss why Beatles music might soon be turning up in everything from movies to Luvs diaper commercials. Plus: your calls.

Weigh in: Does licensing Beatles' songs for advertisements tarnish the band's legacy?

The Art of Field Recording

During his career as a painter and University of Georgia art professor, Art Rosenbaum spent his off hours making field recordings of folk music. He joins us to share stories and songs from a new box set, The Art of Field Recording: Vol. 1, which compiles recordings from the Eisenhower administration through the present.

Art Rosenbaum's web site

audience

Soundcheck Smackdown: When Contemporary Met Classical

Soundcheck

Like vegetables stuck into a delicious meal, contemporary classical music is forced on concert audiences before they are allowed to enjoy their Brahms. So says humorist, critic and author Joe Queenan. Today, Queenan and John Berry, Artistic Director with English National Opera, join us for a Soundcheck Smackdown debate on the merits of contemporary music.

musical clouds

You Are What You Hear

Soundcheck

Washington Post reporter Paul Farhi takes us through some of the most famously botched song lyrics in rock history. We’ll explore why the words we make up are usually more interesting than the real version. Then, listeners confess their favorite and most embarrassing reinvented lyrics.

Leave a comment: Give us your favorite set of misheard lyrics! Were you disappointed when you learned the actual words?

Rosanne Cash and Mark O'Connor

Soundcheck

For her, he was a father. For him, he was a boyhood hero. For the nation, he was an icon. Singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash and composer and violinist Mark O'Connor join us to talk about how Johnny Cash has inspired their musical collaboration. And they will play live.

Katy

Soundcheck's Summer Song Poll

Soundcheck

Every year, popular and critical opinion somehow converge to settle on a "summer song." In 2007, it was Rihanna's "Umbrella." The year before, it was "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. The practice stretches back to the very dawn of pop radio. Yet defining the essence of a "summer song" is a bit elusive. We enlist the help of Blender editor at large Lizzy Goodman -- and of our Soundcheck listeners, in an online poll.

Cast your vote: Soundcheck's Summer Song Poll 2008

Can't decide? Check out audio and video clips of the contestants here.

Our blog: John Schaefer asks what makes a good summer song,

  1. The Brian Lehrer Show: Live from the Democratic National Convention (08/25/2008)
  2. The Brian Lehrer Show: Live from the Democratic National Convention: Day 4 (08/28/2008)
  3. The Brian Lehrer Show: Live from the Democratic National Convention: Day 3 (08/27/2008)
  4. The Brian Lehrer Show: Live from the Democratic National Convention: Day 2 (08/26/2008)
  5. The Brian Lehrer Show: Business Connections (08/22/2008)
  6. The Brian Lehrer Show: Live from Denver (08/29/2008)
  7. The Leonard Lopate Show: 1-2-3 (08/26/2008)