It’s open love week in SheVegas, open as in source, love as in the word is, and Google joins us with “The Word”.
Wikipedia gives us the following,
| “The Word” | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by The Beatlesfrom the album Rubber Soul | ||||
| Released | 3 December 1965 | |||
| Recorded | 10 November 1965 Abbey Road Studios |
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| Genre | Rock | |||
| Length | 2:41 2:43 (USA stereo version) |
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| Label | Parlophone | |||
| Writer | Lennon/McCartney | |||
| Producer | George Martin | |||
| Rubber Soul track listing | ||||
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“The Word” is a song by The Beatles first released on their 1965 album Rubber Soul. It has been cited as the first instance in which The Beatles began writing about love in more abstract terms, versus concrete girl/boy terms, a la “She Loves You.” In the lyric, “the word is love,” and the singer preaches, “Say the word and you’ll be free.” It was also important to later psychedelic rock as they voiced the drug-influenced peace-and-love sentiments that would color many psychedelic lyrics. [1]
Musically, the song is based upon a driving rhythm with few chord changes and a simple melody in the key of D major.[2][3] Paul McCartney said of this song, “John and I would like to do songs with just one note like ‘Long Tall Sally‘. We get near it in ‘The Word’”.[4]
George Martin plays the harmonium solo in the track. McCartney, Lennon, and George Harrison sing the song in three-part harmony, with Lennon singing the middle eights.
Samples from this song are also included on Love released in November 2006, in the track “Drive My Car/The Word/What You’re Doing“.
Youtube (Google) brings us this video capture from the game Rock Band by publisher EA, lots of licensed material here, yet it passes the it’s ok to share world of youtube.
If you would use this song as a soundtrack of one of your videos and post it online you would be summoning the ghost of Sonny Bono in the form of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. You would be a criminal, guilty of nothing less than stealing from the Beatles, yet Google, who is just another guy legally, owes it’s existence to presenting other peoples work.
This song will be copyright protect until the end of time, at least my time. I understand the right to gain from one’s work, yet, every artist and scholar recognizes they are standing on the shoulders of giants, sampling if you may.
Copyright has gone so wrong, and is getting wronger. Do your part in opening up the world, share when you can, take what you need, and give us something in return.
Sign the PublicACTA Wellington Declaration! (thanks Boing Boing)
Learn about ACTA, it’s pure evil from Big Brother and will change the way you consume media, medicine, and life, in a bad, bad, way.
Remember, The Word is Love.