The term "cover" does not accurately describe the history behind or motivations for an artist recording a previously recorded song. In the 1950s, listeners did not make the same associations between song and singer that they make today; therefore re-recording a song was not understood as a reference in any way to the earlier artist. "The music itself" existed independently of its realization; therefore multiple versions of a song could circulate and not be considered to be referential. Re-recording a song that was circulating at the time was known as "hijacking a hit." It was not until Elvis re-recorded older R&B records that were no longer circulating that the cover song in the modern sense of the word came into existence.

Works: Chuck Willis (songwriter), Derek and the Dominos (performers): It's Too Late (151-52); Otis Redding (performer): It's Too Late (151-52).

Sources: Chuck Willis (songwriter and performer): It's Too Late (150-52); Otis Redding (performer): It's Too Late (151-52).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Paul Killinger

Recording labels in Nashville demand that recording artists be singer-songwriters: that is, that musicians write and perform their own songs. Critics and fans believe that writing and performing one's own songs is the best measure of the legitimacy of a musician's abilities. This expectation ignores the potential value of cover songs and the interpretive skill of covering artists. Not only can a cover song provide a new interpretation of a song, but it may introduce music to new listeners who are unfamiliar with the original because of separation by time or genre. For covering artists, cover songs are important for three reasons: (1) the song has a proven track record of commercial success, (2) the song can act as a nod or tribute to an important influence on the artist, and (3) it can provide audiences with familiar music as they hear a new artist.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Paul Killinger

This book examines the development of bebop from artistic, social, and commercial perspectives, beginning in the Swing Era and progressing through the 1940s. The repertory at jam sessions in the early 1940s was based primarily on a few familiar chord progressions, notably the blues, Gershwin's I Got Rhythm, and a handful of other pop song "standards" of which How High the Moon and Whispering were among the most frequently used. The economics of the recording industry promoted the composition of new melodies over existing chord progressions; having a new, colorful title would attract buyers, and by calling it a new work the record company could avoid paying royalties to the copyright owners of the song from which the chord progression was taken. In addition to using existing chord progressions in new songs, bebop musicians often borrowed material from each other and incorporated it into new compositions and arrangements. Moreover, musical borrowing in the form of quotation within improvised solos was both a ubiquitous and a controversial presence in bebop. Charlie Parker frequently inserted clearly recognizable quotations from jazz or popular sources into solos in live performance, but some performers criticized Parker for diluting his music. In other instances, European art music directly influenced jazz: stride pianists used materials from opera or "light classics" in a new idiom. For some bebop musicians, borrowing (or at least recognizing borrowings) was less important. Struggles over the definition of "the work" pervade any discussion of quotation in jazz, and such discussion must recognize the multiple "composers" at work in a jazz performance: the nominal composer who notates a song, and the improviser who re-composes the score in live performance.

Works: Thelonious Monk: The Theme (224), Rhythm-a-Ning (224), 52nd Street Theme (292), Hackensack (403): Dizzy Gillespie: Salt Peanuts (292, 421), Things to Come (433): Coleman Hawkins: Mop Mop (292, 306-7), Rainbow Mist (309), Father Co-operates (326), Bean at the Met (326), On the Bean (330), Stumpy (330), Rifftide (390), Bean Stalking (394), Too Much of a Good Thing (401), Bean Soup (403-5), Hollywood Stampede (404-5); Charlie Parker: Red Cross (307, 374); Benny Harris: Ornithology (323, 382); Howard McGhee: New Orleans Jump (362), Sportsman?s Hop (391, 393); Billy Eckstine: Good Jelly Blues (341-3, 424); Jerome Kern: All the Things You Are (342-43, 424).

Sources: George Gershwin: I Got Rhythm (203, 224, 292, 305, 306-7, 326, 374, 421), Lady Be Good (390, 403); Nancy Hamilton and Morgan Lewis: How High the Moon (305, 323, 326, 382); John Schonberger, Malvin Schonberger, and Richard Coburn: Whispering (305, 330); Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, Frank Eyton, and Johnny Green: Body and Soul (309); Dizzy Gillespie: Salt Peanuts (326-28), Be-Bop (362, 404-5, 433), Groovin' High (403-5); Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C-Sharp Minor (342-43, 424); Igor Stravinsky: Petrouchka (360n); Benny Goodman, Edgar Sampson, Clarence Profit, and Walter Hirsch: Lullaby in Rhythm (391, 393); Jesse A. Stone: Idaho (394); Kay Swift and Paul James: Fine and Dandy (401); Ben Bernie, Ken Casey, and Maceo Pinkard: Sweet Georgia Brown (404-5); Benny Harris: Ornithology (404-5); Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar: Tea for Two (405); Billy Eckstine: Good Jelly Blues (424).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Paul Killinger, Amy Weller

The field of modern competitive barbershop singing is in a state of crisis over falling membership and popularity, and repertoire is one variable being considered as a means of increasing the appeal of barbershop music. This particular genre tends to blur the distinctions between composer, arranger, and performer. As a result, the product of that network, the musical work, acquires an equally fluid identity. A question of ownership arises: what is "the work" and to whom does it belong? Arrangements vary in their fidelity to an original published tune, and a certain amount of improvisation or rearranging is expected in barbershop, at the very least in the form of tags or codas at the end of a chart.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Paul Killinger

Jazz pianist Uri Caine quotes extensively from symphonic and vocal works by composers in the classical or art music tradition. On his albums Dark Flame (2003) and Urlicht/Primal Light (1997), Caine's borrowing from Mahler takes a variety of forms, ranging from quotation of a full piece to selective quotation of important and sequential melodic fragments in order to mimic the structure of Mahler's original in a more condensed form. Mahler is a particularly appropriate source for the jazz artist's borrowing, as the earlier composer's use of "folk" materials provides a model for Caine's own appropriation of musical material to explore Jewish identity. Caine's use of Mahler's music is not simply a matter of performance, or of arrangement for different voices; rather, Caine's borrowing is a reflection upon Mahler, history, and subjectivity. Even so, Caine's borrowing within a jazz context raises valuable questions about the validity of the frequently assumed dichotomy between composition and improvisation.

Works: Uri Caine: Dark Flame (230-31, 237-38, 241, 248, 250-52), Urlicht/Primal Light (230-31, 233, 237-39, 241-42, 248-52).

Sources: Mahler: Symphony No. 5 (237, 238), Symphony No. 1 (237, 242, 247), Symphony No. 2 (238, 250), Des Knaben Wunderhorn (238, 241), Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (238, 250), Das Lied von der Erde (239, 241, 248), Fünf Rückertlieder (241); Anonymous, Frère Jacques (237).

Index Classifications: 1900s, 2000s, Popular

Contributed by: Paul Killinger

Reactions to Art Tatum have been divided between admiration of his technical proficiency and criticism of his perceived lack of creativity. Both of these stances, however, ignore the complex intertextual nature of Tatum's music. Tatum's music from throughout his career contains a significant number of quotations of tunes recorded by others during the 1920s and 1930s, recordings which Tatum would have heard and which might have had a greater impact on him than on many other musicians because of his partial blindness and his resulting difficulty in reading sheet music. Two consistent features in the majority of Tatum's quotations are the retention of the original melody, and the ornamentation of that melody in a manner which embellishes without comment or critique. The result is a relationship--frequently dialogic--between the original and the quotation.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Paul Killinger

Textual and musical ambiguity in Charles Ives's four war songs, In Flanders Fields, Tom Sails Away, He Is There!, and They Are There!, may reflect Ives's own ambiguous attitude towards war. In the first three songs, written in 1917, Ives quotes several patriotic, martial, and popular tunes, but these quotations do not always retain their original meaning. Ives uses patchwork technique or other means of quotation to include melodic fragments from unambiguously patriotic songs; however, he often combines these fragments with a morose character, complex harmonies, and inconclusive cadences. Collectively, these three songs reflect Ives's ambivalence towards World War I. Twenty-five years later, They Are There!, a World War II revision of the earlier He Is There!, moves from ambivalence to a direct expression of Ives's anti-war sentiments. In conjunction with contemporary biographical evidence and Ives's own biting recording of the song, They Are There! demonstrates a shift in Ives's personal stance towards war and brings into question the possibility of parody in his three earlier war songs.

Works: Charles Ives: In Flanders Fields (72-80), Tom Sails Away (80-84), He Is There! (84-87), They Are There! (91-97).

Sources: Taps (75, 77-78, 81-82); David T. Shaw: The Red, White, and Blue (Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean) (75-76, 78-79, 82, 86); George F. Root: The Battle Cry of Freedom (76-77, 86); Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle: La Marseillaise (76, 78, 86); America (God Save the King) (77-79); Reveille (78, 86); Henry S. Cutler: All Saints New (78); Samuel Woodworth and George Kiallmark: Araby's Daughter (The Old Oaken Bucket) (81); George M. Cohan: Over There (82, 86); Ives: Country Band March (86), He Is There! (91-97); Walter Kittredge: Tenting on the Old Camp Ground (86-87).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Mark Chilla, Laura B. Dallman, Paul Killinger

In the early 1920s, when public familiarity and associations with jazz were amorphous and inconsistent, Irving Berlin cultivated a sense that his theatrical music defined jazz. In addition to textual and musical references to ragtime or blues characteristics, Berlin used quotations of his own music, which had already gained ragtime associations, to reinforce this idea. One notable example is Berlin's quotation of his earlier songs Alexander's Ragtime Band, Everybody's Doing It Now, and The Syncopated Walk in his 1921 Everybody Step. Berlin's self-borrowing ranged from nearly exact quotation of a full phrase of both music and lyrics to more subtle use of one- or two-measure units of rhythms, fills, or pick-ups that were nevertheless recognizable as being drawn from his earlier pieces. The earlier songs' associations with jazz implied that Berlin's newer music also fit into the genre. To further build upon this personal jazz lineage, Berlin borrowed from Everybody Step in later works.

Works: Irving Berlin: Everybody Step (698-10), The Syncopated Vamp (706, 708), Pack Up Your Sins and Go to The Devil (710-12).

Sources: Irving Berlin: Alexander's Ragtime Band (706-07, 709-10), Everybody's Doing It Now (706, 708-09), The Syncopated Walk (706-09), Everybody Step (710-13).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz, Popular

Contributed by: Paul Killinger

The enormous variety of borrowing (citation) in free jazz cannot be adequately described by our current rigid and limited terminology. The rhetoric and ideology present in outmoded descriptions of borrowing that use language and assumptions advanced by Philippe Carles and Jean-Louis Comolli obligate us to intervene and create a new system for writing about borrowing. We must do away with mythical and mystical language of inspiration and creation, as well as the inflexible idea that jazz emerged solely from the condition of Black Americans. Furthermore, distinctions between types of borrowing are useless if divorced from the texts--"text" in this case being a flexible term that refers not just to our traditional ideas of notated music, but to any heard performance. If we separate term and text, we slide back towards old unconstructive accusations of copying and plagiarism. The new terminology should incorporate the many types of borrowing that occur, including collage, mélange, collision, juxtaposition, reminiscence, and self-borrowing, as well as the performance conditions and the reason for the use of a particular source.

Index Classifications: General, 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Paul Killinger

Jazz musicians--particularly African-American musicians--draw upon many sources of knowledge from multiple traditions, and their borrowings are characterized by a sophisticated familiarity with practices from traditions to which they may not traditionally have been thought to belong, as well as a virtuosic and playful tendency to transform the materials they borrow to ironic effect. John Coltrane's position within the world of improvised African-American music did not prevent him from appreciating certain elements of European-American musical theater song in My Favorite Things as sung by Mary Martin. Furthermore, his transformed version of Martin's simple delivery of the Rodgers and Hammerstein tune demonstrates a confidence that African-American musical aesthetics could improve European-American music. Roland Kirk's Rip, Rig, and Panic countered assumptions that he would be unfamiliar with Western art music by citing multiple influences from Edgard Varèse, but did so in an irreverent way that implies multiple meanings and motivations. Not all borrowings must be intercultural or even inter-generic: Jaki Byard's Bass-ment Blues makes ironic references to other styles within the jazz tradition. Intermusical relationships can be ambiguous and still communicate: intention does not necessarily need to line up perfectly with perception. A listener has some liberty to interpret a communicative gesture, although each side should be working with a certain amount of shared knowledge and experience.

Works: Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (songwriters), John Coltrane (performer): My Favorite Things (292-99); Roland Kirk: Rip, Rig, and Panic (300-302); Jaki Byard: Bass-ment Blues (302-5); Ralph Peterson, Jr.: Princess (306-8).

Sources: Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II (songwriters), Mary Martin (performer): My Favorite Things (292-99); Edgard Varèse: Poème électronique (300), Ionisation (300).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Jazz

Contributed by: Paul Killinger

Trombonist Charlie Green's bluesy solo over a rhythmic vamp in a 1924 recording of W. C. Handy's The Gouge of Armour Avenue has been quoted dozens of times in subsequent recordings, although not usually acknowledged. A few months after this recording session, trombonist Jake Frazier quoted Green's solo in Get Yourself a Monkey and Make Him Strut His Stuff with the Kansas City Five. Kid Ory quoted it again in a 1926 recording with Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five of The King of the Zulu's, and Dicky Wells copied the solo almost exactly in Symphonic Scronch with Lloyd Scott and his orchestra in 1927. Over time, Green's solo has undergone a process of transformation through multiple performers, so that the melody has become a standard term in the jazz vocabulary rather than a specific reference to a particular nameable musical source. The extensive history of quotation of Green's solo fits into larger patterns of borrowing in early jazz recordings; a cornet solo by Joe Oliver on 1923 recordings of Dipper Mouth Blues was also quoted by other musicians. A partial list of later recordings that either quote Green's melody or feature "extended solo cadenzas" or vamps is included.

Sources: Charlie Green: Trombone solo in 1924 Vocalion recording of W. C. Handy's The Gouge of Armour Avenue (136-39).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Paul Killinger

The nature of the music industry makes it difficult to positively isolate the author of a given musical recording. Whom do we include from the list of composers, arrangers, performers, producers, sound engineers, and other figures associated with a recording? The group production systems involved in music and cinema are frequently set against the presumably individual efforts involved in writing or painting, but the latter types engage with a complex system of intertexts and conventions. Similarly, musical performances form connections with prior performances, and in so doing, raise questions about what is original in any given performance. Historically, the relationship between songwriter and song has been a source of anxiety. Since the mid-twentieth century, popular music has addressed this anxiety through increased expectations that singer-songwriters will produce their own music, and that they will build up a body of their own music that represents some sort of coherent identity for that artist (allowing of course for the natural evolution and development of an artist over the span of his or her career). Due to the recognized connections between singer-songwriter and song, cover songs and other forms of borrowing are now understood as deliberate "gestures of affinity" (203) that point to a specific artist.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Paul Killinger

Jazz styles and trends tend to radiate outwards from a set of innovative musicians. The emergence of bebop and its distinctions from swing can be demonstrated by a set of Comet recordings created in 1945 by Red Norvo, Teddy Wilson, Slam Stewart, J. C. Heard, Flip Phillips, and, most importantly, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. Quotation in jazz is a long-standing tradition with no stigma attached to it as is the case in Western art music. The relationship between the quoting and quoted musicians is important: quotation often acts as a form of tribute or a sign of respect. Sometimes this tribute moves in surprising directions. In the case of these albums, older, more established musicians such as Norvo and Wilson offer such gestures of respect to the creativity of the relatively young Gillespie and Parker. Furthermore, the improvised nature of jazz allows quotation to operate not just between songs or works, but within them: Norvo and Wilson quote motives from solos by Gillespie and Parker within the same set.

Works: Red Norvo: Solo on Slam Slam Blues (541-42); Teddy Wilson: Solo on Slam Slam Blues (541-42).

Sources: Dizzy Gillespie: Solo on Slam Slam Blues (541-42); Charlie Parker: Solo on Slam Slam Blues (541-42).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Paul Killinger

Despite its claims of existing in and focusing on the present, rock music has always engaged deep connections with its past. The rock cover song offers us a useful means by which to explore that history, particularly in the way that covers refer not just to "the song itself" (i.e., melody, chords, and lyrics), but to a particular recorded performance of that song. At various stages in rock's history, cover songs have referenced a past which existed at a varying chronological distance. In the early years of the genre in 1950s, it was a very recent past. That past grew increasingly distant over the following decades, with constantly changing meanings for artists and listeners. The motivation behind cover songs in different rock eras included claims to authenticity and displays of virtuosity, as well as the desire to offer parody of or tribute to one's rock forebears.

Works: Georgia Gibbs: Dance with Me Henry (The Wallflower) (139).

Sources: Etta James: The Wallflower (139).

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Paul Killinger

Jimi Hendrix's recording of Bob Dylan's All along the Watchtower transforms Dylan's reserved and detached delivery into a dramatic and spectacular performance driven by intensification of Dylan's melodies and by a greater focus on unified structure that emphasizes the character of the ballad's narrator. Hendrix's version is the product of the peak of studio technology in its time, while Dylan's focuses on a simple capture of the singer's delivery. Both versions, and indeed both singers, are united by blues influences, although Hendrix intensifies Dylan's harmonic content and structure. Hendrix's remake is one sign of the more general affinities that he felt with Dylan over the course of their careers. Together, the two albums demonstrate much of the range of expression covered by rock artists in the late 1960s.

Works: Bob Dylan (songwriter), Jimi Hendrix (performer): All along the Watchtower.

Sources: Bob Dylan (songwriter and performer): All along the Watchtower.

Index Classifications: 1900s, Popular

Contributed by: Paul Killinger