Negativland - Only a Sample lyrics

Not that I have anything against shoe salesmen, but let me tell you something See, I was born with a song in my heart, not a shoe. Hello, Dead-Dog records. If it ain't a Dead-Dog, it ain't barking. How can I help ya? There are fifty-million blank ca**ettes a year sold in this country, and believe me, they're not being used for dictation. They're being used to copy records. There is no expemption of copyright for home taping, period, without the consent of the owner. What's going on anyways? What comes out of the machine is different than what goes in. The new tech, the new tech, the new technology. The most important things about the invention of tape is that it changed music from being an event in time, into being an event in space. The relationship between a copy and an original ...into being an event in space. I think it challanges notions we have about the relationship between a copy and an original You can edit it, strech the songs. And of course then when it's played back, transamible You're dealing in the same sense In the same sense you're dealing with any plastic material And ofcourse, then when it's played back, it once again becomes an event in time. But during that intrum (I suppose) But during that intrum period, where it's a spacial thing, you can do lots of things with it. Lots of things that you never had available Prior to -, Prior to -, Prior to -, The invention of tape. It took while (seeing) before anybody started seeing the possibilities of this seeing the possibilities of this What's the power of reproducing information back into our own heads? That the old boundaries between what was my information And what was yours Have become confused. Only a sample And instead of making their own sounds (Anything you can do I can do better I can do anything than you) Only a sample Old technologies get confused with new ones I find this confusing between original and copy, and all the new technology use digital information A sound... Allow you to record something, You hear And put it into your own music So when you press a certain key, You hear A sound from somebody else's recording (No you can't Yes we can No you can't Yes we can No you can't Yes we can! Yes we can!) And put it in Or pick it up A song... A song... A song... from somebody else's recording (Ownership...) You hear a song And put it into your own music. Somebody else's recording. A sound from somebody else. Ownership is redefined Destabilizes the older system of distribution. By the way, I don't know how many times I've made the obligatory refrence to the U.S. Copyright Law ?'s copyright law was written in 1924. It was partially ammended in 1988. But the roots of the law back 18th century Just to put it in context, it's pre-radio, really, it's pre-commercial-radio, it's pre-television, it's certainly pre-computer, it's geared, ah... It's pre-modern records, it's pre-compact-disk. It's pre-almost everything we've come to look at in modern life as communicating information. One of the major criticizems of a legal system stuctured in this way is that it does bring copyright law into disrespect, and it bring law generally into disrespect. If one has a system which makes common activities wrong in the eyes of the law, and yet everybody is doing it - then you begin to wonder - is law worthy of respect? (You know something?) Everything about it is appealing (You know something?) Everything the traffic will allow (The people who were listening) No-way can you get that happy feeling (You and your daughter) When you are stealing (You don't need any of this. Just look around. Just ask around. Just see what they're using tapes for. When you are stealing... No, I'm not a fan of that type of thing. (The country knows what's happening. Look, oh) I still feel stolen I still feel stolen I still feel stolen goods are stolen goods, Let's go on with the stealing... But I can't really comment on it, 'cause I keep feeling like, but... but... but... As long as you accept stolem goods As long as you accept an art form like stolen goods I suppose, As long as you accept an art form like Collage, Where you take photographs and newspaper clippings and draw them up on a board. I say. I say that the people out there, When they know that there's another side to this issue, When they know that people like myself, Incidentally let me interrupt myself. How am I going to make a living? I hope you find what you are looking for. On the other hand, In fact, the importance of this case is wether or not artists can feel free to use work done by artists of their own generation, or preceeding generations as the basis for the creation of new work It's again something that has taken place in art, from time and memorial, and will continue to happen. And if the courts say that a work of art can have no basis in a prior work of art, that would be a very damaging and destructive statement in relationship to the future of art. Oh, please don't sue us!