About right, rights and lack of Elvis
I went to a concert some time ago an saw Eric Whitacre's "Sleep" which was beautiful enough to bring me to tears.
As I read up on the piece it turns out it was originally set to be sung to Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by woods on a snowy evening". This was stopped because it was still not in public domain (Frost died in 1963) and Frost's literary estate refused to grant Whitacre permission to use it. Instead Whitacre (with help) had to come up with ersatz lyrics which resulted in "Sleep". I you wish you could still sing "Sleep" to the lyrics of "Stopping by woods on a snowy evening".
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
I like the poem and it's hortatory, foreboding end. Probably better than what we got but then I thought about a similar case. In 1997 the band Spiritualized released the album "Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space". The title track is very druggy, floaty and also painfully beautiful.
Originally it included parts of Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love" which I get, it's heavily influenced by it. The Elvis estate didn't agree to it so the album was released without the more obvious parts. As Spiritualized played the song live they included the Elvis part and in 2009 they were allowed to use it to much acclaim. Now, the Elvis version is nice and a bit more ecstatic but it is not really my version. I liked the lush, melancholy and perhaps imperfect piece with its lack of Elvis. These are not knock-offs but a framework built on something lost or unobtainable. Like when Athens built parts of the Acropolis museum round what was stolen by the British. Beauty with loss as a signifier.
