Just look at how many Hank Williams compilations there are on Spotify. There's one called Legends; another called Country Legend. Add to that Country Music Legend over at Last.fm and the Legends of Country Music boxed set
Williams died in 1953, which means that the copyright on all his recordings had expired, under UK law, by 2003. As I understand it that means that anyone, even me, could issue a new download compilation of Hank Williams featuring whichever of those recordings I fancied. No royalties would be due to the original record labels or performers. Royalties would however still be due to the estate of Mr Williams (and/or the other writers of the songs), since publishing royalties last for the life of the writer plus 75 years. I think I've got that right — correct me if you know better. But if I have that means that, in 2028, when the Boy is but 20 years old, everything about the songs will be in the public domain, and open to reuse in any way. Quite a legacy. Since Paul McCartney still has about half his life ahead of him, The Beatles catalogue won't be fully in the public domain until these islands are submerged under a few feet of briny water. But that's OK, Hank's stuff will do us just fine.
Anyway, the royalties can't be too steep, as I've just noticed that this CD was actually released in 2000, apparently before the copyright lapsed in the recordings as it has an MCPS logo on it. And the CD was still only £3 from Fopp.
That was obviously a major factor in me picking it up, along with the relatively minimal overlap of tracks with my other Hank Williams compilation. Where the other one has lots of great sad songs, this collection has a more catholic mixture. I didn't know he'd done 'joke' songs like Fly Trouble. In a remarkable coincidence, I listened to that track the night before last while the Boy was having his bedtime bottle, and then half an hour letter I was catching up with last Friday's Mark Lamarr show (the most enlightening radio show on UK airwaves at the moment, along with Charlie Gillett's slots on World on 3) and Fly Trouble came on again. It may not seem so exciting now, but at the time, I can tell you…
Nevertheless, to own two Hank Williams compilations and still not to have a copy of Ramblin' Man seems kind of careless. This 30-year-old compilation still looks the best to me.
One more thing. I couldn't help noticing that every one of the 18 tracks on this CD is between 2'30" and 2'59" long — testament, surely, to both the rigidity of radio formats and very disciplined writing. So I started to wonder whether this was a universal property of Hank's songs. It turns out that it applies to 39 of the 40 greatest hits. The exception? Yep, Ramblin' Man, which rambles on for a whole 3'04".
| Wikipedia entry for Hank William discography |
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