R N E S1GN4LZ CUMZ0R1NG THRU?!?!?!

(an email I just wrote)

Hi Garrett ...

Right now with the help of a small quantity of rum, I'm transporting myself through time back to the Episodes era. Actually the fact that I'm listening to the GFI version of Are Any Signals Coming Through probably has more to do with it, but the booze doesn't hurt.

What I'm doing, as always, is working on my humongous hard drive full of digital remixes of pretty much everything and anything that I've ever done, and the time has finally come around when some of them are actually DONE. It's like all these seeds I've planted are finally starting to grow into ripe fruits or grains or whatever the fuck would make a good analogy. For the most part, it's not new material (although there is some). Anyway, I'm going to be putting up mp3s on my personal website (keithhandy.com) under a Creative Commons license.

My question to you is this: I have my own version of Are Any Signals Coming Through, the one I put together for Leave of Absence. You've heard this version, and what I'm working on right this minute is just a tweaking of that version. I would like to include it on my mp3 page (not up yet, don't bother looking for it) under the same Creative Commons license. I don't know if you've heard of Creative Commons yet, but it's really starting to pick up and become a viable thing ... you can go to creativecommons.org and read up on it.

What it boils down to is a legal way of releasing stuff as "some rights reserved", and you can choose the license most appropriate to what kind of limitations you want. There's one that's specifically for music sharing; it means, yes, I'm giving the OK for people to distribute my mp3s to their friends. What they can't legally do is alter the music, distribute it without my name on it (or both of our names in the case of this song), or use it commercially without my permission.

Obviously, since you own half of that song, I would need your OK to include it (my version) on the website with that license. We would still own it, all we'd be saying is, "yes, pass this around to your friends without feeling guilty and give us a shitload of exposure".

Anyway, I was just listening to the GFI version for the hell of it. It's weird. No matter how far you go to make improvements on something and bring it up to date, there will always be little nuances from the original version that can't be replicated; certain inflections, the way lyrics are phrased while they're still new lyrics. Songs mutate over time. It's not that the old version was best, it's just that certain bits and pieces of it ... how do I say this without being corny. I'm just really moved by this old version. But I really like my version too. It's a whole different animal.

How are you doing?

-Keith