Library of Congress Launches Latest Attempt to Preserve its Music

JEFFREY BROWN:

They are recordings that span the last century of American history and popular culture, Nora Bayes; 1917 rendition of the World War I standard "Over There." NORA BAYES, singer (singing): Over there, over there. Send the word, send the word over there that the Yanks are coming, the Yanks are coming.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Calvin Coolidge giving his 1925 inaugural address, the first one ever recorded.

CALVIN COOLIDGE, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES:

My countrymen, no one can contemplate current conditions without finding much that is satisfying and still more that is encouraging.

JEFFREY BROWN:

And the 1964 Motown classic "Dancing in the Street" by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.

MARTHA REEVES, singer (singing):

… be dancing…

VANDELLAS (singing):

Dancing in the street.

MARTHA REEVES (singing):

They're dancing in the street.

VANDELLAS (singing):

Dancing in the street.

MARTHA REEVES (singing):

This is an invitation across the nation, a chance for folks to meet. There will be…

JEFFREY BROWN:

These are just some of the 50 recordings now added to a national registry started by the Library of Congress in 2002, intended to preserve sound recordings considered culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

With me to tell us about it is James Billington, the librarian of Congress.

Welcome to you.

JAMES BILLINGTON, Librarian of Congress: Thank you.

JEFFREY BROWN:

What's the overall goal here?

JAMES BILLINGTON:

Well, the overall goal is to preserve the cultural history of America. And Congress has created these boards — we had a film board — now we have a sound recording board — to find what's culturally, historically, and aesthetically important in this medium. And it's very fragile. We have to preserve it in order that future generations will know the songs we sang, the words we heard on radio, all of the recorded sounds, which is, in a way, the most perishable of all our art media and expressions.

JEFFREY BROWN:

And when you say preserve, what — what is the process? What are you actually doing to these recordings?

JAMES BILLINGTON:

Well, you have to either strengthen the material it's on — we're a kind of throwaway society.

And it's — it's the fact of having a democratic society, where there can be mass production of things, but they are often very fragile, impermanent materials. You can do one of two things. You can either firm up the original material on which it's recorded, or you can re-record it in — in a more permanent form. And that's a very complex process, and — because there are all manner of recorded tapes and records, and so forth.

So, it's a — it's a very demanding process, but it's something that the Library of Congress does more than anybody else. And there are also other institutions that work on it. But it's a — we're better at producing and creating things than we are at preserving them.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Now, you have — you have got — you have got a great range of things here. One classic that a lot of people might be familiar with is the 1938 broadcast of the Joe Louis-Max Schmeling heavyweight fight.

Let's listen to a little bit of that.

CLEM MCCARTHY, Announcer:

Louis measured him right to the body, a left hook to the jaw. And Schmeling is down. The count is five. Five, six, seven, eight. The men are in the ring. The fight is over on a technical knockout. Max Schmeling is beaten in one round.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Now, how are these recordings selected? Why that one, for example?

JAMES BILLINGTON:

Well, the one, that was heard by more than any other sporting event in history. Seventy million people heard it. Schmeling had won the first bout. And, of course, it was a battle between somebody who was a representative of Nazi Germany, in fact, later fought with them, and an American, African-American, who was a great champion. He had been defeated before. He won this one.

You hear the excitement of Clem McCarthy's announcement, to the excitement of hearing it on radio, when you didn't see it right away on television, the way you later did. It was the most exciting film — I mean, the most exciting radio broadcast you — you — of the era.

But it also represented kind of the victory of American inclusiveness against Nazi exclusiveness. It sort of had a broader suggestion and significance. So, it reached a huge audience. There was much expectation, and it all ended in act one, just a very few seconds, in the first — first round.

JEFFREY BROWN:

Now, you're also touting this year a new discovery, you call it. It's a recording of the jazz saxophone great Lester Young.

Tell us — tell us a little bit about that. Then, we will hear him.

JAMES BILLINGTON:

Well, it's very exciting when you find something. In the act of preserving other things, you suddenly find that there's a sort of inadequately labeled something or other in the mix. So, we already had it. But, in the process of…

(CROSSTALK)

JEFFREY BROWN:

You mean you had it, but you didn't know it.

JAMES BILLINGTON:

It was part of the big collection, you see, But it was an unlabeled part, or it was very inadequately labeled.

So, we played it. And, suddenly, they recognized the sound of this absolutely iconic tenor saxophone player, the man who took the saxophone from jazz to bebop, at a period where we have almost no records of his sound, the sounds he produced in that historic development of that instrument, and of the whole medium of jazz exploding into a variety of other forms, 1940 recording, thrilling music. It affected saxophone players from then on out.

And it was a period between when he left Count Basie and when he went in the Army, for which we have no other record. So, it's — it's — for people who collect this stuff — and the number of aficionados and lovers of this music is immense all over the world — this is an exciting moment.

JEFFREY BROWN:

All right. Let's listen to that.

(MUSIC)

JEFFREY BROWN:

I know that, last year, a recording that you released by John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk became something of a critical and commercial hit.

JAMES BILLINGTON:

Well, it was. And that was a discovery.

That was a smooth, finished production. This was a jam session in a very noisy and raucous New York nightclub. We don't even know which one. But this — this is a constant process of discovering the sounds that we have made, that our great performers have made, and our important political and other figures have made on radio, sounds that were made once, but have been — risk of being lost forever.

So, we're constantly discovering them. And there's a lot out there, and we hope that our — our listeners and viewers will — will inform us and the other institutions that preserve this material, so that the record of American creativity, which has transformed the soundscape of the 20th century, but which we haven't fully appreciated its importance, its reach, and its power.

JEFFREY BROWN:

And the — the public does get to play a role here, right, by submitting suggestions to you?

JAMES BILLINGTON:

Absolutely.

The first stage in deciding what goes on the National Registry of Recorded Sound is public suggestions, what sounds ought to be preserved, made a permanent part of the national treasury that is preserved and made available for future generations.

So, our Web site, LOC.gov.

JEFFREY BROWN:

LOC — Library of Congress — .gov.

JAMES BILLINGTON:

Dot-gov.

Send us your suggestions. We — they will be passed on to the board, which is an expert group that advises me for the final selection. But it's your registry. It's the things you want, make sure the sounds that your children and your grandchildren will be able to hear in the future. This preservation is terribly important. But it depends on your suggestions. So, we hope we will get them all for next year's registry.

JEFFREY BROWN:

All right, James Billington, librarian of Congress, thanks very much.

JAMES BILLINGTON:

Thank you.