Previewing the Public Song Project

Summary

Podcast Summary: ALL OF IT — Previewing the Public Song Project

Host: Koosha Navadar (filling in for Alison Stewart)
Guest: Simon Close, Producer of the Public Song Project
Date: May 30, 2024
Podcast: ALL OF IT by WNYC

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Overview of the Episode

This episode offers a lively update on WNYC’s Public Song Project, a community-driven music initiative inviting participants to create songs based on works in the public domain. Host Koosha Navadar checks in with producer Simon Close about the close of the song submission period, highlights from the incoming entries, what happens next, and the wide-ranging creativity sparked by the project. The conversation is a celebration of musical diversity, artistic discovery, and shared culture, all culminating in upcoming air features and a live summer concert.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Public Song Project Submission Recap

• Submission Window Closed: As of May 12, public submissions for new songs based on public domain material are in; the team is reviewing the entries.
• Number and Range of Entries: Around 80 songs were received, contributed by a mix of amateur musicians and professional artists.
  • “There were some familiar names, which was cool to see, but also a lot of new names... amateur singing groups, ukulele players... to some artists who were more professional recording artists. So a broad span of people submitted.” — Simon Close (02:39)

2. Themes and Patterns in Submissions

• Year 1928 Dominates: Many submissions drew from works entering the public domain in 2024, especially those from 1928.
  • Popular songs included "I Want to Be Loved by You" (from Good Boy, 1928), Cole Porter's "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love" (1928), and especially “Mack the Knife” from The Threepenny Opera — receiving four very distinct interpretations.
    • “We got four versions... The highest number of versions we got of any one particular song of Mack the Knife by Kurt Weill and Berthold Brecht.” — Simon Close (03:32)
• Different Takes: Submissions were notable for their diverse approaches — one “Mack the Knife” even reimagined as an ‘80s synth version.
• Other Favorites: “Blue Skies” by Irving Berlin was the second most popular (both instrumental and vocal versions).
• Beyond Song Covers: Entrants also set poetry by Langston Hughes, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Robert Frost, Dorothy Parker, T.S. Eliot, and others to music.
  • “The second most popular category was poetry, I think... three Langston Hughes poems turned into songs. We got two Edna St. Vincent Millais poems. And that’s a name that came up a lot last year too.” — Simon Close (04:42)
• Creative Hybrids: Some submissions merged literature or film sources—like a song inspired by Steamboat Willie (Mickey Mouse), or a piece based on a 1922 photography book.

3. The Power of Inspiration and Community

• The project not only encouraged artistic output but forged connections with source material and historical artists.
• Simon shares heartfelt feedback from participants:
  • "Thank you so much for doing this project. It’s provided me with the renewed inspiration to write and a treasure trove of great material.”
  • "It not only inspired me creatively, but my research also exposed me to other poets of the early 20th century who I plan to read in the future.”
    — Simon Close reading emails from submitters (06:46–07:29)

4. Judging and Next Steps

• Judging Panel: Notable in-house WNYC talent, musicians, public domain experts, and partners from Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub, and NYU Law are reviewing songs.
  • “John Schaefer and Karen Havelik and Irene Trudell of the New Sounds Team. Paul Cavalcante is a part of it again this year... Shanta Thake from Lincoln Center... public domain experts, including Jennifer Jenkins... and Michael Weinberg from NYU’s law school.” — Simon Close (07:37)
• Timeline: The review process continues through June, with winners and features announced and aired in July.
• Recognition for All: All qualifying submissions will be featured on the WNYC website playlist and included in a digital album, alongside special guests like Rhiannon Giddens, They Might Be Giants, The Lemon Twigs, Bela Fleck, and Roseanne Cash.

5. Upcoming Live Event and July Celebrations

• Public Song Project: The People’s Concert

  • Date: July 20, 2024
  • Location: Lincoln Center, as part of Summer for the City Outdoor series (Jaffee Drive)
  • Admission: Free, with several public song contributors and special guests performing
  • “They turn it into this kind of cool speakeasy thing... a free event that features a couple of special guests to be announced and a roundup of members of the public who have been part of the Public Song Project. And it should be a really fun evening.” — Simon Close (09:46)

• Timing: July is also WNYC’s 100th birthday month (July 8), with all project features clustered around the centennial.

6. Where to Follow Updates

• Listeners should check:
  • WNYC’s Instagram and Twitter: @allofitwnyc
  • The project webpage: wnyc.org/publicsongproject

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On diversity of submissions:
  “You can kind of see what fascinates people who are just discovering the public domain.” — Simon Close (04:36)

• On participant feedback:
  "Thank you for this project. It not only inspired me creatively, but my research also exposed me to other poets of the early 20th century who I plan to read in the future." — Submitter message, read by Simon (06:56)

• On inclusivity:
  “If you're part of the project, everybody's a winner. And that is true in the sense that everyone who submitted a song that qualified... will get their song featured on WNYC's website.” — Simon Close (08:28)

• Koosha’s parting words:
  “Thanks for hanging out and all your work you're doing on it.” — Koosha Navadar (10:54)

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Notable Timestamps

• 01:34 — Episode content begins; Koosha introduces the Public Song Project segment.
• 02:37 — Simon discusses the song submission period and judging process.
• 03:05 — Discussion on submission volume and diversity of participants.
• 03:32 — Highlights of most popular songs and unique reinterpretations.
• 06:22 — Unusual entries and creative expansions on the public domain brief.
• 06:46–07:29 — Simon shares inspiring feedback from participants.
• 07:37 — Introduction of the judging panel and discussion of selection process.
• 09:46 — Announcement of The People’s Concert at Lincoln Center.
• 10:22 — Details on July roll-out and WNYC’s centennial.
• 10:54 — Final information on updates and project website.

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Episode Takeaways

• The Public Song Project is sparking invigorating creativity by inviting the public to interpret and reimagine public domain works.
• There is a vibrant mix of talent, genre, and artistic approach among nearly 80 submissions.
• The project is as much about participation and discovery as it is about professional recognition.
• Listeners can look forward to new music features, a digital album, and a special free live concert at Lincoln Center in July, as part of WNYC’s 100th birthday celebrations.

For more details and to keep up with project news:
Follow @allofitwnyc on social media and visit wnyc.org/publicsongproject.

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Transcript

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[Koosha Navadar]

This is all of it. I'm Koosha Navadar filling in for Alison Stewart. It's been a few weeks since we last talked about the public song project on the air. That's our music project where we invite anyone to send in a song based on work in the public domain. The window for listener submitted Songs closed on May 12, but the team has been hard at work listening through them and preparing to pick some favorites to feature on the air. So for a quick check in to talk about what's next, I am lucky to be joined by producer Simon Close. Simon, welcome.

[Simon Close]

Hey Kusha, long time no see.

[Koosha Navadar]

That is a very kind and false thing to say because we were just talking outside before the show. But you know, the window for members of the public to submit songs closed on May 12th. What's been going on in your life since then?

[Simon Close]

Where do I start personally or professionally? So, yeah, so the window to submit songs closed on May 12, and now we've been in the judging period. So we've got a cool list of judges helping us sort through all these songs and give some ratings, some reviews to figure out which are our favorites that we can feature on the air in July.

[Koosha Navadar]

How many songs came through?

[Simon Close]

We got around 80 songs, I think, which was a pretty exciting number. And the way it broke down there Were some familiar names, which was cool to see, but also a lot of new names in there that range from some sort of just like amateur singing groups, ukulele players, just people who had a little extra time, to some artists who were more professional recording artists. So a broad span of people submitted.

[Koosha Navadar]

Out of those 80ish songs, was there anything that stood out to you? Either a theme or something in particular?

[Simon Close]

There are a few things. I was crunching the numbers before coming down here. So some of the stuff that jumped out to me was. Well, one of the things is that there were quite a few submissions from the batch of. From 1928. So that's the batch of public domain work that entered the public domain this year. And those included, we got a couple versions of let's see I Want to Be Loved by you, which is from a musical called Good boy. That's from 1928. Let's do it, let's Fall in Love. That's the Cole Porter song, also from 1928. We got four versions. I think this was the. The highest number of versions we got of any one particular song of Mack the Knife by Kurt Weill and Berthold Brecht. And that's from 1928. And I think we. In case anyone needs a reminder of what that sounds like, we've got the clip. Look, there goes Mack the Knife. And so that's Mac the Knife. And we got four versions of that. And what's really cool about that also is that they were all very different takes on it. I think one was sort of like 80s synth stuff. So I'm excited when we put these out for people to hear all of the different ways that the submitters interpreted these songs. And besides that, let's see, another song that we got. The second most popular one was Blue Skies by Irving Berlin, which I wanted to shout out because that's a favorite of mine. And again, I think we have that clip if we want to remind people what that sounds like. So that's Blue Skies. Again, we got different interpretations of that. I think one was instrumental. Some others had lyrics beyond that. The song cover is probably the most popular by far type of song that we got. But people were also welcome to take other types of artwork from the public domain and make new songs out of it. So the second most popular category was poetry, I think. And some of the themes that came out of that were we got three Langston Hughes poems turned into songs. We got two Edna St. Vincent Millais poems. And that's a name that came up a lot last year too, which has been interesting to see. We've got a lot of Edna St. Vincent Millais fans out there besides that. Robert Frost showed up, Dorothy Parker, T.S. eliot, Paul Laurence Dunbar and some other poets. And then beyond that, lots of other kinds of submissions. Some people combined two different sources of work, so maybe like a book that they took characters from and then took a song and replaced the lyrics with those characters or something. So there were. Yeah, there were literally literature inspirations, film inspirations. Someone wrote a song about Mickey Mouse, Steamboat Willie, I think the song was called. And that's another one that entered the public domain.

[Koosha Navadar]

Which just entered the public domain just this year.

[Simon Close]

Exactly. And yeah, beyond that, there was one really cool one that was inspired by a book of photography from 1922. So they took inspiration from the photos in that, but also some of the text that was included in that and made a song out of it. And yeah, those are some of the themes that emerged this year.

[Koosha Navadar]

That's a wonderful. Like, what's that unifying theme? It was of creativity, I guess.

[Simon Close]

Absolutely, yeah. Creativity, freedom of expression, freedom of using these source materials. I took a couple touching quotes from some of the emails that we got from submitters here. I'll just read some of the messages we got. One submitter said, thank you so much for doing this project. It's provided me with the renewed inspiration to write and a treasure trove of great material. Another one said, thank you for this project. It not only inspired me creatively, but my research also exposed me to other poets of the early 20th century who I plan to read in the future. So it was really cool to hear from people about how this allowed them to discover new stuff and also engage a creative part of themselves that they maybe didn't have a reason to before.

[Koosha Navadar]

So you've got all these songs, you've got these wonderful messages. You're going through what happens next.

[Simon Close]

So next, yeah, we're going through them. And shout out to our judging panel, which I won't name everybody, but it includes some in house names that also helped us out last year. So John Schaefer and Karen Havelik and Irene Trudell of the New Sounds Team. Paul Cavalcante is a part of it again this year. Some other arts institution friends. So Shanta Thake from Lincoln center is a part of it again this year. Isabel Kim, who's with Joe's Pub, is helping us out again. Some musicians, Laura Downs, Nicole Zoraidis, who we've heard on the air already, and some public domain experts, including Jennifer Jenkins, who's been on to talk about the public domain, and Michael Weinberg, who comes from NYU's law school. And they also focus on public domain issues. So they're all sorting through them, giving us their reviews. And then we'll sort of aggregate all of their reviews of these songs. And we'll be getting in touch with our favorite submitters over sometime in the next month. And the plan is to feature them on air in July. Beyond that, so we'll be interviewing them on the air. Those are the sort of quote unquote winners. But if you're part of the project, everybody's a winner. And that is true in the sense that everyone who submitted a song that qualified, you know, is based on something in the public domain, will get their song featured on WNYC's website. Just like last year, we'll put a big playlist together and so anyone can go on there and listen to any of the songs we got. If you submitted a song yourself, you can share it with family and friends and say, like, hey, I'm part of this big project, same as everybody else. And what else? We're also going to be putting it all together in an album that we plan to put up on streaming. And so we'll combine that with some of the special guests whose songs, some of whom you've already heard on the air. So, like Rhiannon Giddens, they Might Be Giants are part of that. And then songs that you haven't heard yet that are also still part of this big album. So the Lemon Twigs are part of it. Who else? Bela Fleck is part of it, Roseanne Cash. And yeah, the list goes on. And to hear those songs, you'll just have to stay tuned. And. Yeah, what else beyond that? There's also the final thing, if I may.

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[Simon Close]

Is that we're going to be at Lincoln center on July 20th. It's a free event. We're calling it the Public Song Project, the People's Concert. It's part of their Summer for the City Outdoor series. It'll be in Jaffee Drive, which is just most other parts of the year is a driveway out front of the main campus of Lincoln Center. But they turn it into this kind of cool speakeasy thing. And so that'll be a free event that features a couple of special guests to be announced and also a roundup of members of the public who have been part of the Public Song Project. And it should be a really fun evening.

[Koosha Navadar]

And it sounds like July is when a lot of this is going to July.

[Simon Close]

Yeah. So that's also WNYC's 100th birthday, as I have probably said many times on the air already is July 8th. So the month of July is when all this stuff is going to be concentrated and coming out and where can people go? To find out more info, I would say pay attention to our social media accounts, all of it. WNYC on Instagram and Twitter. Also wnyc.org publicsongproject I'll try to keep that updated with new announcements and I guess keep listening to the radio. If you'll have me back, I'll give updates on air.

[Koosha Navadar]

It's always a pleasure to have you here and it sounds so cool. We've been talking to Simon Close, who's a producer on the Public Song Project, and listeners, thank you so much for submitting those 80s songs inspired by so many things. And Simon, thanks for hanging out and all your work you're doing on it.

[Simon Close]

Thank you for having me. Kusha.

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