2024 Note on Registrations

Coydog · 2020-09-28 05:42:10

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Hi,
So, I was playing through Manamon the other day, and I found myself lamenting that we cannot put our own Mp3s to stand in for the game's original score. Granted, there is nothing wrong with the music in either of the Manamon games, but I found myself going through a directory of old Wax Cylinder and early disc based recordings, in addition to looking up some older songs on YouTube.

Then, I began to think of just how fitting some of these older songs would be at certain points in the game. For example, there is a song called "Don't Go Down in the Mine, Dad", which is about a little child begging their father not to go work in the mine because of a dream. Even just the Chorus is pretty telling...

Chorus:
"Don't go down in the mine, Dad,
Dreams very often come true;
Daddy, you know it would break my heart
If anything happened to you;
Just go and tell my dream to your mates,
And true as the stars that shine,
Something is going to happen today,
Dear Daddy, don't go down the mine!"

Yeah, I'd recommend looking up the song for the complete lyrics, but I think you get the idea. Now just imagine that chorus replacing the track for Mineruff Tunnel...

You're welcome.

Another song that fits quite well in Manamon's aesthetic is a song called "Do They Miss Me At Home", which was written sometime around the Civil War and which if you look it up on YouTube or wherever, you can certainly see how well that song fits based on its lyrics.

So, I'm wondering how many other people are now curious to go looking for songs that are in the Public Domain to add to your own Head-Canons for Audiogames or anything else you can think of. Plus, since the songs you find are public domain, you can use them in things like fanfics with impunity.

By something being in the Public Domain, I am referring to Public Domain in the U.S., so that would generally mean anything from before 1925, as things are now, in 2020. I'm interested and curious to see what everyone comes up with.

Have fun.

As always,
I am Quietly Yours,
Coydog

moaddye · 2020-09-28 14:49:39

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so like would we post recommendations for music that fits an area or storyline in this topic?

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Coydog · 2020-09-28 20:00:09

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That's exactly what I'm saying.
And it doesn't have to be just songs, but you can use anything, as long as it's in the Public Domain.
For example, I was thinking about what happens to Dustin, the fourth Stadium leader, and a line from The Prophet came to mind.

For Life and death are one, just as the river and the sea are one.

If you've not read The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran, I'd highly recommend you take a look at it.

My reasoning for doing this is because everyone knows Harry Potter, but how many people know about the Oz series by L. Frank Baum? Or, everyone knows about our modern music because that's all you hear, but how many have gone and listened to some of the recordings from the turn of the 20th century or even before that? Think of it as a challenge to both broaden your horizons and discover things along the way. Plus, it might even be fun just to see what's out there.

A few places to start are:

Project Gutenberg
http://gutenberg.org
Librivox,
http://librivox.org
which is a very nice place for free public domain audiobooks.
And then there's,
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/
the Cylinder Audio Archive, where you can find tons of old cylinder recordings.
Oh, and I almost forgot about
http://www.tinfoil.com
a quite interesting website regarding Wax Cylinders and the technology behind them.

There's also the Internet Archive,
http://archive.org
which has loads of stuff to look at and play around with.

Does that answer your question?

Feel free to post any of your thoughts and ideas for fun public domain references and how they connect to whatever games you're playing at the moment, or maybe you are working on a fanfic or other project and want to use something in that. Have fun with it.

As always,
I am Quietly Yours,
Coydog

khomus · 2020-09-29 19:28:23

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The first song you mention is usually called "Dream of the Miner's Child" BTW. It was recorded most famously by Vernon Dalhart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX6xWtxHPdk

Another version, "Explosion in the Fairmount Mines", was recorded by Blind Alfred Reed. It has a slightly different chorus, I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9GCRO3cQE0

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moaddye · 2020-09-29 21:06:47

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hmm. Haven't really played manamon in a while. I'll replay it and see

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Coydog · 2020-09-30 08:22:51

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@4, thanks for that. I first found the song on the Cylinder Audio Archive as recorded by Frank Miller. That recording is from 1905-1910 or something like that, though it's always nice to hear different versions of things.

You do have to admit that songs back then were a lot more melodically focused in terms of that they were either sung or played on Player Pianos or what have you. Speaking of songs, another one that fits Manamon, at least partially, is a song called "As I Sat Upon My Dear Old Mother's Knee".

Chorus:
"She was gentle and so kind,
and I'll ever bear in mind,
The many golden lessons she taught me.
I have wealth and earthly power,
Yet I'd give all for one hour,
That I sat upon my dear old Mother's Knee."

Granted, that song may be a bit of a stretch, but there is another that comes to mind. It's called "My mother's old red shawl". Both of these songs are performed by Will Oakland, and they both can be found on the Cylinder Audio Archive.

As for something more comically slanted, there's a song performed by Will F. Denny called "You'll have to get off and walk". I will warn you that it is incredibly catchy. This can also be found on the Cylinder Audio Archive. I have about 800 megabytes of cylinder recordings that I've scrounged from around the net, including all of the recordings I've mentioned so far. If you want a link to a zip or rar file of them, please let me know.

One final song to leave you with, which is also very fitting for Manamon, more-so the third verse, though I think the entire song could be made to fit with some head canon meddling, is "Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still". The version I have is performed by Charles W. Harrison and is from around 1913.

The following is transcribed from the cylinder recording. Verse 2 was not included, so I have not looked it up, other than to confirm that there are 3 verses to this song, though there may be more, depending on the version of the lyrics you find.

Verse 1:
"'Tis years since last we met,
And we may not meet again.
I have struggled to forget,
But the struggle was in vain.
Chorus 1:
For her voice lives on the breeze,
And her spirit comes at will.
In the midnight on the seas,
Her bright smile haunts me still.
For her voice lives on the breeze,
And her spirit comes at will.
In the midnight on the seas,
Her bright smile haunts me still.
Verse 3:
I have sailed 'neath alien skies.
I have trod the desert path.
I have seen the storm arise,
Like a Giant in his wrath.
Chorus 2:
Every danger I have known,
That a reckless life can fill.
Yet her presence is not flown,
Her bright smile haunts me still.
Every danger I have known,
That a reckless life can fill.
Yet her presence is not flown,
Her bright smile haunts me still."

I could see this song as applying either to the protagonist's mother or possibly to Sierra, maybe after he or she has become Champion or what have you. It kinda adds this really interesting reflectiveness onto all of the things that the protagonist in Manamon goes through. Plus, the tune is quite nice and hauntingly beautiful, as well.

What do you think? Do you think this has any merit, or maybe you can find some other songs or poems or what have you?

I'm curious to hear everyone's thoughts on all of this.

As always,
I am Quietly Yours,
Coydog

khomus · 2020-10-03 01:19:48

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Oh yeah, there's some great older stuff, and a lot of it's catchy, even the horribly racist stuff is pretty catchy a lot of the time.

I really dig listening to different versions of stuff too, and since you've only heard two of them, I'll give you the ones I know about, including yours, in chronological order even!

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/detai … &of=17
"Don't Go Down the Mine Dad", by Frank Miller, who was apparently also known as Stanley Kirkby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM07DbuGxsM
Vernon Dalhart, 1925.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vkzEvtjtpY
Blind Alfred Reed, Dec. 19, 1927. For more, including accessible PDF liner notes, see:
https://dusttodigital.bandcamp.com/albu … -visionary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Q3Ef6pSJs
Doc Watson, the first version I ever heard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JFwrhscDbs
Another Doc Watson recording, obviously later because he's older, but he gives a different introduction.

This song, though possibly not the father's not being at work, is based on an actual mine disaster. The liner notes for the Alfred Reed album linked above say: "Explosion
In The Fairmount Mines,” based on the
earlier coal mining song “The Dream Of The
Miner’s Child,” commemorated the December
1907 mining disaster at Monongah, near
Fairmont, West Virginia; in Alfred’s song, a
young girl, by telling her father of her portentious
dream of a mining disaster and thus
detaining him at home, saves him from certain
death when an actual accident happens at his
mine."

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Coydog · 2020-10-03 18:32:54

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@7, Awesome! Thanks for those.
Also, I agree with you on the catchyness of a lot of older songs. Speaking of another fun old song, go look up Nonsense by Will F. Denny.
You're welcome.
Pretty much everything he did was catchy, or poking fun at something, kinda like a very very early Weird Al. Just do yourself a favor and look up all of his stuff you can find. Same goes for Will Oakland, Harry MacDonno and Billy Murry. She Sells Sea Shells is a particularly good song of his.
Chorus:
She sells sea shells on the sea shore.
The shells she sells are sea shells, I'm sure.
For if she sells sea shells on the sea shore,
Then I'm sure she sells sea shore shells.
There's also an article on the Library of Congress' blog that talks about the song. It's quite interesting.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the songs you encounter on your search.

As always,
I am Quietly Yours,
Coydog

khomus · 2020-10-03 21:42:10

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So there's this whole category of songs I've become fascinated with, actually a couple of related categories. One is minstrel songs, and the other, apologies but this is what they're called, are "coon songs". Coon songs were super popular for a good forty years or so, they couldn't write enough of them. The reason I find them so fascinating is that you hear about this stuff, usually minstrel shows, but hearing it is just, man it really brings home just the ubiquity and visceralness of racism back then.

Anyway, I bring that up because the previous song you mentioned by Will Denny probably fits in with this kind of thing, it's just a little harder to spot. There was all kinds of ethnic humor, basically using stereotypes to make fun of people. Some of it's catchy, and some of it's funny. Here's a pretty obscure one.

http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/detai … 2&of=8

Here are lyrics.

If you vill only listen to who I schpeak about,
I ain't a-going to tell you how to make that sauerkraut,
Sauerkraut ain't made of leather (sounds like litter) as everyone suppose,
But of that little flower ve call the cabbage rose.

Sauerkraut is bully,
I told you it was fine,
I think I ought to know for vhy?
I eat him all the time.

Then it's sauerkraut, yes It's sauerkraut,
Vhy it's good you know because we like it so,
Then it's sauerkraut, yes it's sauerkraut,
Only five cents vun pint.

(Yodeling)

Vhen sauerkraut commence to shcmell, that he can schmell no schmeller,
Ve put him in that little barrel what's way down in the cellar,
Ve put him in that barrel, und schtamp him mit our feet,
Ve schtamp him, und schtamp him, to make him nice und schweet.

Sauerkraut is bully
I told you it was fine,
So help me cheese und grackers,
I eat him all the time.

Then it's sauerkraut, yes it's sauerkraut,
Vhy it's good you know because we like it so,
Then it's sauerkraut, yes it's sauerkraut,
Only five cents one pint.

(yodeling)

I don't know if this spread to other Germans, but at the time this was recorded, my people, the Pennsylvania Dutch, were seen as dumb, kind of like stereotypes about Southerners in the US today. But clearly this song is mocking English as spoken by Germans, either new immigrants or the PA Dutch, some of whom still speak a dialect of German at home, or probably both. Also, sauerkraut tends to be found in areas with certain ancestry, mostly German and Polish, both groups stereotyped as dumb, probably for not speaking English well when they arrived in the US. For similar stuff, see here.

https://www.yivo.org/jewface

If you click on the link for the CD, you can download a PDF of the liner notes. I swear I saw a text version somewhere or other, so if you can't get the PDF working and are interested, let me know and I'll try to do some more digging. But speaking of that, here's a really catchy song that fits in with what we're talking about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9JRSHf566k

I don't like that version, but I gotta go eat lunch. I'll try to find the better one and post it.

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khomus · 2020-10-04 00:24:39

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The only place I can find the good version of this is on archive.org. Here you go.

https://archive.org/details/78_rebecca- … ia0095059a

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2024 Note on Registrations

Some Public Domain Fun

Posts: 10

#1 Topic by Coydog 2020-09-28 05:42:10

#2 Reply by moaddye 2020-09-28 14:49:39

#3 Reply by Coydog 2020-09-28 20:00:09

#4 Reply by khomus 2020-09-29 19:28:23

#5 Reply by moaddye 2020-09-29 21:06:47

#6 Reply by Coydog 2020-09-30 08:22:51 (edited by Coydog 2020-09-30 19:53:27)

#7 Reply by khomus 2020-10-03 01:19:48

#8 Reply by Coydog 2020-10-03 18:32:54

#9 Reply by khomus 2020-10-03 21:42:10

#10 Reply by khomus 2020-10-04 00:24:39

Posts: 10