Step it up and go

[Fred Keller]

I'm working on licensing some cover songs for a CD my band is putting out. I can't tell whether Step It Up And Go by Blind Boy Fuller needs to be licensed. I've checked Harry Fox Agency and BMI and I've found arrangements that have been copyrighted but our arrangement is unique. Can anyone help shed light on this?

MMC: I play a couple breaks on our recording of it.

[Ken Sager]

I'm no legal expert, but after working on a CD of covers with another band here's my understanding:

If somebody else wrote it and it was copyrighted you'll need to license it to put it on your CD, regardless of whether you're doing an "original" arrangement.

You can copyright your recording, but the author still gets credit.

[Ken Sager]

But...

HFA doesn't show that BB Fuller wrote it, so if it's considered Trad, you don't need to license it.

WTH do I know, though. Free advice is worth what you pay for it.

Good luck,
Ken

[HogTime]

If it was published before 1923, it's public domain and no licensing required. However, I didn't find it in the list of public domain songs here:
http://www.pdinfo.com/list.htm

I doubt the list covers all public domain songs, though.

[Fred Keller]

Thanks guys and nice link HogTime. I hadn't seen that before.

It was definitely recorded AFTER 1923 and pretty much everyone attributes authorship to Blind Boy Fuller (with the exception of one apocryphal Gary Davis story where he claimed to have given it to Fuller). As you say, Ken, my confusion stems from Harry Fox not having Fuller as an author.

Ah well--maybe something will turn up. I'll keep on digging

[Tom Smart]

Bob Dylan listed it as public domain on his album "Good As I Been to You." Although he caught some flack for a few of the other "public domain" cuts on that album (mostly for taking arrangement credit, not for violating original author copyrights), no one seems to have objected to that particular cut.