Only A Sample Lyrics - The Story Of The Letter U & The Numeral 2 - Negativland

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 cassettes 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!